The
history of modern Turkey starts with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
President of the Turkish Republic from 1923 until his death
in 1938.
Dramatic steps were taken by Atatürk, Father of the Turks,
this title was officially given to him during his
presidency.
In his program of modernization, secular government and
education played a major role. Making religious faith a
matter of individual conscience, he created a truly secular
system in Turkey, where the vast Moslem majority and the
small Christian and Jewish minorities are free to practice
their faith. As a result of Atatürk's reforms, Turkey
-unlike scores of other countries- has fully secular
institutions.
These are his main reforms
*the Latin alphabet
*the introduction of the surname
*voting rights for women
and it was he, who made the 23. of April World *Children's
Day
Atatürk still nowadays is highly admired. That's why you
see his picture everywhere
Turkey
is rich in history, especially biblical history. The apostle
Paul lived and traveled around Turkey for many years, He and
the Virgin Mary lived in ephesus, and many of the old
and new testament stories happened throughout Turkey. Noah`s
ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. Santa claus [ St Nicholas
] actually came from patara and is buried in Turkey. One of
the oldest known human cities, catalhoyuk is in Turkey and
is currently under excavation.The Ottoman empire with it`s
magnificent mosques and palaces ruled most of the known
world. Turkey is known as the cradle of civilization. It is
thought that the first civilization on the Bodrum Peninsula
was established by the Argolis Tribe of carians in 11
th century BC. The native inhabitants of the region were the
Carians and the Lelegians. In the Iliad, Homeros ( Homer )
mentions the Carians as the inhabitants of Anatolia and
allies of the the Trojans against the Greeks. Around 10 th
century BC the Dorians migrated from Troezen on the eastern
coast of Peloponessus and were forced to settle on the
coast. According to the ancient geographer Strabo of
Amasya, Bodrum ( Halicarnassus ) was founded by Anthes, son
of Poseidon on the rocky little island where the Castle
stands today.
The
island called Zephyria in those days, Zephyros meaning
'western wind', is joined with the mainland today. In 484 BC
Herodotus "the father of written ancient
history" was born here and much of what is known about
the origins of Halicarnassus [modern day Bodrum] and Asia
Minor in the 5 th century BC is owed to him. In 7th century
BC, Halicarnassus was in the group of six cities which were
set up by the Dorians, called 'The League of Hecsapolis' but
expelled from the League shortly before the Persian invasion
in 546 BC. The Lydian's ruled the area between 550 BC and
546 BC .The Persians ruled the area until the arrival
of Alexander the Great in 344 BC. During the Persian rule,
Satrap Mausollos made Halicarnassus the capital of Caria and
after his death, his wife-sister Artemisia built ' Mausoleum
( one of the Seven Wonders of the World ) in his name. The
area was under Roman - Byzantine rule from 129 BC to
13 th century AD. In 60 BC Caesar's adopted son, Brutus,
took refuge in Myndos ( Gumusluk ) with his partner Cassius
after Caesar's murder. Ottoman Turks ruled the area until
early 15 th century when the rule passed to the Knights of
St.John .Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent captured the area
in early 16 th century. During the First World War Italians
occupied the area for a short time. Today, the area is a
superb holiday region of Turkey.
Carians
Early history - Caria
and the Carians are mentioned for the first time in the cuneiform texts of the
Old Assyrian and Hittite Empires, i.e., between c.1800 and c.1200. The country
was called Karkissa. They are absent from the Egyptian texts of
this period. After a gap of some four centuries in which they are mentioned only
once (below), the first to mention the Carians is the legendary Greek poet
Homer. In the so-called Catalogue of ships, he tells that they lived in Miletus,
on the Mycale peninsula, and along the river
Meander. In the Trojan war, they had, according to the poet, sided with the
Trojans (Homer, Iliad, 2.867ff). This is a remarkable piece of
information, because in Homer's days, Miletus was considered a Greek town; the
fact that it is called Carian indicates that the catalogue of ships contains
some very old information. In the fifth century, the Greeks thought that the
Carians had arrived in Caria from the islands of the Ionian Sea, whereas the
Carians claimed to be indigenous. Homer confirms their story. It is also
confirmed by modern linguistics: the Carian language belongs to the Hittite-Luwian
subfamily of the Indo-European languages. It is related to Lycian and Lydian,
the languages spoken to the southeast and north of Caria.
Had the Carians arrived in their country from the west, their language would
have been closer to Greek. It seems that the Greeks settled on the coast in the
dark ages between c.1200 and c.800, where they and the Carians mixed. The Roman
author Vitruvius mentions fights at Mycale (On architecture 4.1.3-5).
According to the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Bodrum) (fifth
century BC), the inhabitants of Miletus spoke Greek with a Carian accent (Histories
1.142). Herodotus himself is also a good example of the close ties between the
Carians and Greeks: his father is called Lyxes, which is the Greek rendering of
a good Carian name, Lukhsu. Because of his descent and birth place, Herodotus is
one of our most important sources. Caria is, like Greece, a country of mountains
and valleys, poor in agricultural and other resources - in comparison with Egypt
and Babylonia a backward country. Hilltops were fortified and there were several
villages in the valleys, but there were hardly any cities. Because of their
disparate country, the Carians were divided; when they learned to read and
write, every village used its own version of the Phoenician alphabet. What
united the Carians, however, was their religion. One
of their ritual centers was Mylasa, where they venerated a male supreme god,
called 'the Carian Zeus' by Herodotus. Unlike his Greek colleague, this Zeus was
an army god. One of the Carian goddesses was Hecate, who was responsible for
road crossings and became notorious in Greece as the source of witchcraft.
Herodotus calls her Athena and tells that her priestess got a beard when a
disaster was appending (Histories 8.104). On mount Latmos near Miletus,
the Carians venerated Endymion, who had been the lover of the Moon and had
procreated as many children as there are days in the year. Endymion was sleeping
eternally, a story that the Greeks told about Zeus' fatherKronos.
"
I have lying, over me in Halicarnassus, a gigantic monument such as no other
dead person has, adorned in the finest way with statues of horses and men carved
most realistically from the best quality marble. "
King Maussollos
in Lucian's "Dialogues of the Dead"
Mausoleum of
halicarnassus
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the Mausoleum of
Halicarnassus (Bodrum ), built for the king Mausollos of Caria, that died 353
B.C. by his wife and sister Queen Artemisia. The description of the composition
is preserved in Pliny's Natural History, where rough figures of the
Mausoleum are described. When the Persians expanded their ancient kingdom to
include Mesopotamia, Northern India, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor, the king
could not control his vast empire without the help of local governors or rulers
-- the Satraps. Like many other provinces, the kingdom of Caria in the western
part of Asia Minor (Turkey) was so far from the Persian capital that it was
practically autonomous. From 377 to 353 BC, king Mausollos of Caria reigned and
moved his capital to Halicarnassus. Nothing is exciting about Maussollos life
except the construction of his tomb. The project was conceived by his wife and
sister Artemisia, and the construction might have started during the king's
lifetime. The Mausoleum was completed around 350 BC, three years after
Maussollos death, and one year after Artemisia's.
She hired the architect Pythius to design the building. She also hired
the four famous sculptors, Scopas, Bryaxis, Leochares, and Timotheus. Each
sculptor was responsible for one side of the building. The statue on top was
created by Pythius, according to Pliny the Elder. Scholars believe that the
Mausoleum was started before Mausollos' death in 353 BC.
The basic plan for the building was a large temple with a
24-step pyramid on top. The total height of the Mausoleum was 45m (140 ft). This
was composed of the 32m (99 ft) base, 7m (22 ft) 24-step pyramid, and 6m (19 ft)
statue of a chariot on top. Pliny the Elder said that the total periphery of the
building was 440 feet. He also said that the North and South sides were 64 feet
long. He also claimed that the other two sides were shorter, but if that was so
then the sides would not add up to 440 feet. A Danish archaeological dig between
1966 and 1977 found that the Mausoleum was probably 100 feet by 120 feet. Pliny
also wrote that there were 36 columns around the outside of the building.
Each side of the Mausoleum was decorated with friezes of
battle scenes from the Greek war with the Amazons. There were also two other
types of friezes. One showed a chariot race and the other showed a battle
between Lapiths and centaurs. There also were free-standing sculptures around
the outside of the building and on the top. Fragments of the statues and friezes
can be seen in the British Museum !!!.
There have been many excavations done at the site of the
Mausoleum. Charles Guichard wrote about workers discovering the burial
chamber in 1522. He said that the sarcophagus was made out of alabaster, he also
described bits of gold cloth that were left over from the burial. Sir Charles
Newton excavated the site in 1856 - 1858. He discovered an Ionic capital, part
of the chariot, and two larger-than-life-size statues. He speculated that the
statues were of Mausollos and Artemisia. In 1966 - 1977 there was a Danish
excavation that discovered the remains of an offering of food for Mausollos.
They found whole sheep, goats, oxen, some chickens, doves, a goose, and a large
amount of eggs.
The Mausoleum was destroyed between AD 1000 and AD 1400,
probably by an earthquake. In 1494 the Knights of St. John of Malta built an
immense castle during the crusades. This castle was built with blocks from the
Mausoleum and the lime mortar was made out of burnt marble from some of
the statues and columns. Today, that castle still exists and the parts from the
Mausoleum are still visible.
Had the Carians arrived in their country from the west, their language would
have been closer to Greek. It seems that the Greeks settled on the coast in the
dark ages between c.1200 and c.800, where they and the Carians mixed. The Roman
author Vitruvius mentions fights at Mycale (On architecture 4.1.3-5).
According to the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Bodrum) (fifth
century BC), the inhabitants of Miletus spoke Greek with a Carian accent (Histories
1.142). Herodotus himself is also a good example of the close ties between the
Carians and Greeks: his father is called Lyxes, which is the Greek rendering of
a good Carian name, Lukhsu. Because of his descent and birth place, Herodotus is
one of our most important sources. Caria is, like Greece, a country of mountains
and valleys, poor in agricultural and other resources - in comparison with Egypt
and Babylonia a backward country. Hilltops were fortified and there were several
villages in the valleys, but there were hardly any cities. Because of their
disparate country, the Carians were divided; when they learned to read and
write, every village used its own version of the Phoenician alphabet. What
united the Carians, however, was their religion. 
One
of their ritual centers was Mylasa, where they venerated a male supreme god,
called 'the Carian Zeus' by Herodotus. Unlike his Greek colleague, this Zeus was
an army god. One of the Carian goddesses was Hecate, who was responsible for
road crossings and became notorious in Greece as the source of witchcraft.
Herodotus calls her Athena and tells that her priestess got a beard when a
disaster was appending (Histories 8.104). On mount Latmos near Miletus,
the Carians venerated Endymion, who had been the lover of the Moon and had
procreated as many children as there are days in the year. Endymion was sleeping
eternally, a story that the Greeks told about Zeus' father
