Turkish ( Türkçe [ˈtyɾctʃe] , Türk dili ; also known as Türkiye Türkçesi 'Turkish of Turkey' ) is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages , with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus . Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany , Austria , Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Greece , other parts of Europe , the South Caucasus , and some parts of Central Asia , Iraq , and Syria . Turkish is the 18th most spoken language in the world.
214-650: Turkish people or Turks ( Turkish : Türkler ) are the largest Turkic people who speak various dialects of the Turkish language and form a majority in Turkey and Northern Cyprus . In addition, centuries-old ethnic Turkish communities still live across other former territories of the Ottoman Empire . Article 66 of the Constitution of Turkey defines a Turk as anyone who is a citizen of Turkey. While
428-564: A peacekeeping force to keep stability in the region. Venizelos's rhetoric was more directed against the CUP regime than the Turks as a whole, an attitude not always shared in the Greek military: "Greece is not making war against Islam, but against the anachronistic [ Unionist ] Government, and its corrupt, ignominious, and bloody administration, with a view to the expelling it from those territories where
642-861: A regular army paid off when Ankara forces fought the Greeks in the First and Second Battle of İnönü . The Greeks emerged victorious in the Battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir and drove on Ankara. The Turks checked their advance in the Battle of Sakarya and counter-attacked in the Great Offensive , which expelled Greek forces. The war ended with the recapture of İzmir , the Chanak Crisis and another armistice in Mudanya . The Grand National Assembly in Ankara
856-454: A Turkish population in many of these countries because the Turkish government wanted to preserve these communities so that the Turkish character of these neighbouring territories could be maintained. One of the last stages of ethnic Turks immigrating to Turkey was between 1940 and 1990 when about 700,000 Turks arrived from Bulgaria. Today, between a third and a quarter of Turkey's population are
1070-538: A civilian stripped of his command, Mustafa Kemal was at the mercy of the new inspector of Third Army (renamed from Ninth Army) Karabekir Pasha, indeed the War Ministry ordered him to arrest Kemal, an order which Karabekir refused. The Erzurum Congress was a meeting of delegates and governors from the six Eastern Vilayets. They drafted the National Pact ( Misak-ı Millî) , which envisioned new borders for
1284-579: A congress was to take place in Erzurum between delegates of the Six Vilayets to decide on a response, and another congress would take place in Sivas where every Vilayet should send delegates. Sympathy and an lack of coordination from the capital gave Mustafa Kemal freedom of movement and telegraph use despite his implied anti-government tone. On 23 June, High Commissioner Admiral Calthorpe, realising
1498-519: A demonstration against the courts martials trials. With all the chaotic politics in the capital and uncertainty of the severity of the incoming peace treaty, many Ottomans looked to Washington with the hope that the application of Wilsonian principles would mean Constantinople would stay Turkish, as Muslims outnumbered Christians 2:1. The United States never declared war on the Ottoman Empire, so many imperial elite believed Washington could be
1712-710: A fleet consisting of British, French, Italian and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day, totaling 50,000 troops in Constantinople. The Allied Powers stated that the occupation was temporary and its purpose was to protect the monarchy , the caliphate and the minorities . Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe —the British signatory of the Mudros Armistice—stated the Triple Entente 's public position that they had no intention to dismantle
1926-475: A form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as /b d dʒ ɡ/ , is devoiced to [p t tʃ k] at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of /k/ is /g/; in native words, it is /ğ/. This is analogous to languages such as German and Russian , but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling
2140-593: A homegrown anti-Entente movement that overthrew a government and driven it into resistance. In December 1919, an election was held for the Ottoman parliament , with polls only open in unoccupied Anatolia and Thrace. It was boycotted by Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Armenians and the Freedom and Accord Party , resulting in groups associated with the Turkish Nationalist Movement winning, including
2354-415: A negative suffix -me to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): Necla okula gitmedi ('Necla did not go to school'). In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic mi is added after the verb and stands alone, for example Necla okula gitti mi? ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then mi comes after the predicate but before
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#17327660496812568-539: A neutral arbiter that could fix the empire's problems. Halide Edip (Adıvar) and her Wilsonian Principles Society led the movement that advocated for the empire to be governed by an American League of Nations Mandate (see United States during the Turkish War of Independence ). American diplomats attempted to ascertain a role they could play in the area with the Harbord and King–Crane Commissions . However, with
2782-594: A peace settlement. They added to the points passed in Sivas, calling for plebiscites to be held in West Thrace; Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, and Arab lands on whether to stay in the Empire or not. Proposals were also made to elect Kemal president of the Chamber; however, this was deferred in the certain knowledge that the British would prorogue the Chamber. The Chamber of Deputies would be forcefully dissolved for passing
2996-587: A post-war settlement in the Ottoman Empire being leaked to the press as the Sykes–Picot Agreement . Russia's exit from World War I and descent into civil war was driven in part by the Ottoman closure of the Turkish straits to goods bound for Russia . A new imperative was given to the Entente powers to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and restart the Eastern Front . World War I would be
3210-477: A radical revolutionary group seeking to prevent a collapse of the Ottoman Empire, by the eve of World War I it decided that the solution was to implement nationalist and centralizing policies. The CUP reacted to the losses of land and the expulsion of Muslims from the Balkan Wars by turning even more nationalistic. Part of its effort to consolidate power was to proscribe and exile opposition politicians from
3424-607: A report by CIA suggests that 200,000 of the residents of Cyprus are Turkish. Ethnic Turks continue to inhabit certain regions of Greece , North Macedonia , Kosovo , Romania , and Bulgaria since they first settled there during the Ottoman period. As of 2019, the Turkish population in the Balkans is over 1 million. Majority of Balkan Turks were killed or deported in the Muslim Persecution during Ottoman Contraction and arrived to Turkey as Muhacirs . The majority of
3638-683: A successor to the CUP's Special Organization , to be used in case resistance was necessary in Anatolia. Many Ottoman officials participated in efforts to conceal from the occupying authorities details of the burgeoning independence movement spreading throughout Anatolia. Other commanders began refusing orders from the Ottoman government and the Allied powers. After Mustafa Kemal Pasha returned to Constantinople, Ali Fuat Pasha (Cebesoy) brought XX Corps under his command. He marched first to Konya and then to Ankara to organise resistance groups, such as
3852-407: A verb in the form of the copula ol or y (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below: The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word değil . For example, the sentence above would become Necla öğretmen değil ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of
4066-486: A well known, well respected, and well connected army commander, with much prestige coming from his status as the "Hero of Anafartalar "—for his role in the Gallipoli Campaign —and his title of "Honorary Aide-de-camp to His Majesty Sultan" gained in the last months of WWI. This choice would seem curious, as he was a nationalist and a fierce critic of the government's accommodating policy to the Entente powers. He
4280-557: A wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as Iranic , Mongolic , Tocharian , Uralic and Yeniseian peoples. In Central Asia, the earliest surviving Turkic language texts, found on the eighth-century Orkhon inscription monuments , were erected by the Göktürks in the sixth century CE, and include words not common to Turkic but found in unrelated Inner Asian languages. Although
4494-403: Is subject–object–verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has a strong T–V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance , age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect. Turkish is a member of
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#17327660496814708-515: Is a claim that it may be connected to Herodotus 's ( c. 484 – c. 425 BC ) reference to Targitaos , ( Ταργιτάος ), a king of the Scythians ; however, Manfred Mayrhofer (apud Lincoln) assigned Iranian etymology for Targitaos: from Old Iranian * darga-tavah , meaning "he whose strength is long-lasting". During the first century A.D., Pomponius Mela refers to the Turcae in
4922-477: Is based on the dialect of Istanbul . This Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp , Ömer Seyfettin and others. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and in the Turkish education system since the 1930s. Academic researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ağız or şive , leading to an ambiguity with
5136-743: Is generally thought that the native Anatolian languages , themselves earlier newcomers to the area, following the Indo-European migrations , became extinct. According to historians and linguists, the Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in Altai-Sayan region , Mongolia or Tuva . Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic pastoralists . Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited
5350-591: Is mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani . In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire , such as Iraq, Bulgaria, Cyprus , Greece (primarily in Western Thrace ), the Republic of North Macedonia , Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in
5564-635: Is one of the official languages of Cyprus . Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo , including Mamusha, , two in the Republic of North Macedonia and in Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq. Cyprus has requested the European Union to add Turkish as an official language, as it is one of the two official languages of the country. In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is
5778-474: Is possible, it is rather unlikely. As a word in Turkic languages, Turk may mean "strong, strength, ripe" or "flourishing, in full strength". It may also mean ripe as for a fruit or "in the prime of life, young, and vigorous" for a person. In the 19th century, the word Türk referred to Anatolian peasants. The Ottoman ruling class identified themselves as Ottomans , not as Turks. In the late 19th century, as
5992-642: Is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ad 'name' (dative ada ), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. at 'horse', dative ata ). Other exceptions are od 'fire' vs. ot 'herb', sac 'sheet metal', saç 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as kitap above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as hac 'hajj', şad 'happy', and yad 'strange' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms. Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in /k/ in dictionary form are nearly all /ğ/ in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly /k/. The vowels of
6206-431: Is usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), written ⟨ğ⟩ in Turkish orthography , represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens
6420-468: The Aegean coast, from north to south, stretched the beyliks of Karasi , Saruhan , Aydin , Menteşe , and Teke . Inland from Teke was Hamid and east of Karasi was the beylik of Germiyan . To the northwest of Anatolia, around Söğüt , was the small and, at this stage, insignificant, Ottoman beylik. It was hemmed into the east by other more substantial powers like Karaman on Iconium , which ruled from
6634-661: The Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya . The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish . The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in
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6848-750: The Akkar region in Lebanon , as well as minority groups in other post-Ottoman Balkan and Middle Eastern countries. The mass immigration of Turks also led to them forming the largest ethnic minority group in Austria , Denmark , Germany , and the Netherlands . There are also Turkish communities in other parts of Europe as well as in North America , Australia and the Post-Soviet states . Turks are
7062-717: The Alevis and Bektashis emerged. Furthermore, intermarriage between the Turks and local inhabitants, as well as the conversion of many to Islam, also increased the Turkish-speaking Muslim population in Anatolia. By 1243, at the Battle of Köse Dağ , the Mongols defeated the Seljuk Turks and became the new rulers of Anatolia, and in 1256, the second Mongol invasion of Anatolia caused widespread destruction. Particularly after 1277, political stability within
7276-841: The Armenians during the Armenian genocide and the Greeks during various campaigns of ethnic cleansing and expulsion . In 1918, the Ottoman Government agreed to the Mudros Armistice with the Allies . The Treaty of Sèvres —signed in 1920 by the government of Mehmet VI — dismantled the Ottoman Empire. The Turks, under Mustafa Kemal Pasha, rejected the treaty and fought the Turkish War of Independence , resulting in
7490-543: The Balkans , Caucasus , Crimea , and Mediterranean islands, shifting the center of the Ottoman Empire to Anatolia. In addition to a small number of Jews, the refugees were overwhelmingly Muslim; they were both Turkish and non-Turkish people, such as Circassians and Crimean Tatars . Paul Mojzes has called the Balkan Wars an "unrecognized genocide", where multiple sides were both victims and perpetrators. By 1913,
7704-723: The Circassian çetes he assembled with guerilla leader Çerkes Ethem . Meanwhile, Kazım Karabekir Pasha refused to surrender his intact and powerful XV Corps in Erzurum . Evacuating from the Caucusus, puppet republics and Muslim militia groups were established in the army's wake to hamper the consolidation of the new Armenian state. Elsewhere in the country, regional nationalist resistance organizations known as Şuras –meaning "councils", not unlike soviets in revolutionary Russia– were founded, most incorperating themselves into
7918-685: The Constitution , Parliament , and sign the Treaty of Sèvres , a treaty unfavorable to Turkish interests that the " Ankara government " declared illegal. Turkish and Syrian forces defeated the French in the south , and remobilized army units went on to partition Armenia with the Bolsheviks , resulting in the Treaty of Kars (1921). The Western Front is known as the Greco-Turkish War . İsmet Pasha (İnönü) 's organization of militia into
8132-594: The Defence of National Rights movement which protested continued Allied occupation and appeasement by the Sublime Porte . Following the occupation of Constantinople, Mehmed VI Vahdettin dissolved the Chamber of Deputies which was dominated by Unionists elected back in 1914 , promising elections for the next year. Vahdettin just ascended to the throne only months earlier with the death of Mehmed V Reşad . He
8346-601: The Fourth Crusade , established a Latin Empire (1204–1261), divided the former Byzantine territories in the Balkans and the Aegean among themselves, and forced the Byzantine Emperors into exile at Nicaea (present-day Iznik ). From 1261 onwards, the Byzantines were largely preoccupied with regaining their control in the Balkans. Toward the end of the 13th century, as Mongol power began to decline,
8560-468: The Freedom and Accord Party to remote Sinop . The Unionists brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary , during which a genocidal campaign was waged against Ottoman Christians, namely Armenians , Pontic Greeks , and Assyrians . It was based on an alleged conspiracy that the three groups would rebel on the side of the Allies, so collective punishment
8774-683: The Germanic runic alphabets . With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages ( c. 6th –11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia , covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia all the way to Europe and the Mediterranean . The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks , in particular, brought their language, Oghuz —the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during
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8988-599: The Great Seljuq Empire after Sultan Tuğrul Bey 's invasion in 1055. For the next 150 years, the Seljuk Turks placed large Turkmen communities along the most valuable routes of northern Iraq. Yet, the largest wave of Turkish migrations occurred under the four centuries of Ottoman rule (1535–1919). In 1534, Suleiman the Magnificent secured Mosul within the Ottoman Empire and it became the chief province ( eyalet ) responsible for administrative districts in
9202-403: The Göktürks . The earliest mention of Turk ( 𐱅𐰇𐰺𐰜 , türü̲k̲ ; or 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚 , türk/tẄrk ) in Turkic languages comes from the Second Turkic Khaganate . In Orkhon inscriptions , kök türü̲k̲ ( 𐰚𐰇𐰚 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜 ) is also mentioned, potentially referring to " Ashina -led Turks" or "Ashinas and Turks". There are several theories regarding the origin of the ethnonym Turk . There
9416-520: The Karaburun peninsula; to Selçuk , situated a hundred kilometres south of the city at a key location that commands the fertile Küçük Menderes River valley; and to Menemen towards the north. Guerilla warfare commenced in the countryside, as Turks began to organize themselves into irregular guerilla groups known as Kuva-yi Milliye (national forces), which were soon joined by Ottoman soldiers, bandits, and disaffected farmers. Most Kuva-yi Milliye bands were led by rogue military commanders and members of
9630-440: The Kosovo War of 1998–99. Today, approximately 15–20 million Turks living in Turkey are the descendants of refugees from the Balkans; there are also 1.5 million descendants from Meskheti and over 600,000 descendants from Cyprus . The Republic of Turkey continues to be a land of migration for ethnic Turkish people fleeing persecution and wars. For example, there are approximately 1 million Syrian Turkmen living in Turkey due to
9844-421: The Kızılırmak River to the Mediterranean . Although the Ottomans was only a small principality among the numerous Turkish beyliks, and thus posed the smallest threat to the Byzantine authority, their location in north-western Anatolia, in the former Byzantine province of Bithynia , became a fortunate position for their future conquests. The Latins , who had conquered the city of Constantinople in 1204 during
10058-406: The Laz language ). Kastamonu is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. Karamanli Turkish is spoken in Greece, where it is called Kαραμανλήδικα . It is the literary standard for the Karamanlides . At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian, although only syllable-finally. The phoneme that
10272-405: The Levant (e.g. Iraqi Turkmen , Syrian Turkmen , Lebanese Turkmen , etc.). Consequently, the Turks form the largest minority group in Bulgaria , the second largest minority group in Iraq , Libya , North Macedonia , and Syria , and the third largest minority group in Kosovo . They also form substantial communities in the Western Thrace region of Greece , the Dobruja region of Romania ,
10486-596: The Middle East (including Trans-Jordan and Yemen ) North African (such as Algeria and Libya ) and the Soviet Union (especially from Meskheti ). The Turks who remained in the former Ottoman territories continued to face discrimination and persecution thereafter leading many to seek refuge in Turkey, especially Turkish Meskhetians deported by Joseph Stalin in 1944; Turkish minorities in Yugoslavia (i.e., Turkish Bosnians , Turkish Croatians , Turkish Kosovars , Turkish Macedonians , Turkish Montenegrins and Turkish Serbians ) fleeing Josip Broz Tito 's regime in
10700-401: The Muslim conquests , the Turks entered the Muslim world proper as slaves , the booty of Arab raids and conquests. The Turks began converting to Islam after the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana through the efforts of missionaries , Sufis , and merchants. Although initiated by the Arabs , the conversion of the Turks to Islam was filtered through Persian and Central Asian culture. Under
10914-437: The Northern Dobruja region. The only settlement which still has a Turkish majority population is in Dobromir located in the Constanța County . Historically, Turkish Romanians also formed a majority in other regions, such as the island of Ada Kaleh which was destroyed and flooded by the Romanian government for the construction of the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station . The Turkish Serbians have lived in Serbia since
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#173276604968111128-481: The Oghuz group of the Turkic family. Other members include Azerbaijani , spoken in Azerbaijan and north-west Iran , Gagauz of Gagauzia , Qashqai of south Iran and the Turkmen of Turkmenistan . Historically the Turkic family was seen as a branch of the larger Altaic family, including Japanese , Korean , Mongolian and Tungusic , with various other language families proposed for inclusion by linguists. Altaic theory has fallen out of favour since
11342-437: The Ottoman Empire period ( c. 1299 –1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish , which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe or "vulgar Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for
11556-454: The Ottoman conquests in the region . They have traditionally lived in the urban areas of Serbia. In 1830, when the Principality of Serbia was granted autonomy, most Turks emigrated as " muhacirs " (refugees) to Ottoman Turkey , and by 1862 almost all of the remaining Turks left Central Serbia , including 3,000 from Belgrade . Today, the remaining community mostly live in Belgrade and Sandžak . The Turkish Azerbaijanis began to settle in
11770-432: The Russian Civil War would pass through the Turkish straits and Anatolia, with 150,000 White émigrés choosing to settle in Istanbul for short or long term (see Evacuation of the Crimea ). Many provinces were simply depopulated from years of fighting, conscription, and ethnic cleansing (see Ottoman casualties of World War I ). The province of Yozgat lost 50% of its Muslim population from conscription, while according to
11984-412: The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) followed by the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and then after Georgia was incorporated into the Soviet Union . During this period, some members of the community also relocated to other Soviet borders, and those who remained in Georgia were targeted by the Sovietisation campaigns. Thereafter, during World War II , the Soviet administration initiated a mass deportation of
12198-445: The Seljuq Turks , who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans , the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian . Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry , was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during
12412-453: The Special Organization . The Greek troops based in cosmopolitan Smyrna soon found themselves conducting counterinsurgency operations in a hostile, dominantly Muslim hinterland. Groups of Ottoman Greeks also formed contingents that cooperated with the Greek Army to combat Kuva-yi Milliye within the zone of control. A massacre of Turks at Menemen was followed up with a battle for the town of Aydın , which saw intense intercommunal violence and
12626-533: The Sykes–Picot Agreement , and to facilitate the prosecution of former members of the Committee of Union and Progress and those involved in the Armenian genocide . Ottoman commanders therefore refused orders from the Allies and Ottoman government to disband their forces. In an atmosphere of turmoil, Sultan Mehmed VI dispatched well-respected general Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) , to restore order; however, he became an enabler and leader of Turkish Nationalist resistance . In an attempt to establish control over
12840-503: The Sykes–Picot Agreement . Greece justified their territorial claims of Ottoman land not least from Greece's entrance to WWI on the Allied side but also through the Megali Idea as well as international sympathy from the suffering of Ottoman Greeks in 1914 and 1917–1918 . Privately, Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos had British prime minister David Lloyd George 's backing because of his Philhellenism , and from his charisma and charming personality. Greece's participation in
13054-405: The Targovishte Province (35.80%), and the Shumen Province (30.29%). They were ethnically cleansed during the Muslim Persecution during Ottoman Contraction and subsequently targeted during the Revival Process that aimed to assimilate them into a Bulgarian identity. The Turkish Croatians began to settle in the region during the various Croatian–Ottoman wars . Despite being a small minority,
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#173276604968113268-422: The Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of Old Anatolian Turkish , with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony . It is likely that elün meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in elün for "your hand" and kitabun for "your book",
13482-422: The Turkish Constitution defines a Turk as anyone who is "bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship ." Anatolia was first inhabited by hunter-gatherers during the Paleolithic era, and was inhabited by various civilizations such as Hattians and ancient Anatolian peoples . After Alexander the Great 's conquest in 334 BC, the area was culturally Hellenized , and by the first century BC it
13696-441: The Turkish Language Association ( Türk Dil Kurumu or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism : indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with
13910-419: The Umayyads , most were domestic servants, whilst under the Abbasid Caliphate , increasing numbers were trained as soldiers. By the ninth century, Turkish commanders were leading the caliphs ’ Turkish troops into battle. As the Abbasid Caliphate declined, Turkish officers assumed more military and political power by taking over or establishing provincial dynasties with their own corps of Turkish troops. During
14124-420: The collapse of the Ottoman Empire , ending the Ottoman sultanate and the Ottoman caliphate , and establishing the Republic of Turkey . This resulted in the transfer of sovereignty from the sultan-caliph to the nation , setting the stage for nationalist revolutionary reform in Republican Turkey. While World War I ended for the Ottomans with the Armistice of Mudros , the Allies continued occupying land per
14338-470: The province of Adana , including the towns of Antioch , Mersin , Tarsus , Ceyhan , Adana , Osmaniye , and İslâhiye , incorporating the area into the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration North while French forces embarked by gunboats and sent troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli commanding Turkey's coal mining region. These continued seizures of land prompted Ottoman commanders to refuse demobilization and prepare for
14552-432: The 11th century, the Seljuk Turks , who were influenced by Persian civilization in many ways, grew in strength and succeeded in taking the eastern province of the Abbasid Empire . By 1055, the Seljuks captured Baghdad and began to make their first incursions into Anatolia . When they won the Battle of Manzikert against the Byzantine Empire in 1071, it opened the gates of Anatolia to them. Although ethnically Turkish,
14766-410: The 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate , published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk ( ديوان لغات الترك ). Following the adoption of Islam around the year 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and
14980-414: The 13th largest ethnic group in the world. Turks from Central Asia settled in Anatolia in the 11th century, through the conquests of the Seljuk Turks . This began the transformation of the region, which had been a largely Greek-speaking region after previously being Hellenized , into a Turkish Muslim one. The Ottoman Empire expanded into parts of West Asia , Southeast Europe , and North Africa over
15194-484: The 1920s and the 1930s, Turks, as well as other Muslims , from the Balkans , the Black Sea , the Aegean islands , the island of Cyprus , the Sanjak of Alexandretta ( Hatay ), the Middle East , and the Soviet Union continued to arrive in Turkey , most of whom settled in urban north-western Anatolia. The bulk of these immigrants, known as " Muhacirs ", were the Balkan Turks who faced harassment and discrimination in their homelands. However, there were still remnants of
15408-411: The 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used the formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After
15622-581: The 1950s; Turkish Cypriots fleeing the Cypriot intercommunal violence of 1955–74; Turkish Iraqis fleeing discrimination during the rise of Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1970s followed by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–88; Turkish Bulgarians fleeing the Bulgarisation policies of the so-called " Revival Process " under the communist ruler Todor Zivkov in the 1980s; and Turkish Kosovars fleeing
15836-457: The 1960s, and a majority of linguists now consider Turkic languages to be unrelated to any other language family, though the Altaic hypothesis still has a small degree of support from individual linguists. The nineteenth-century Ural-Altaic theory, which grouped Turkish with Finnish , Hungarian and Altaic languages, is considered even less plausible in light of Altaic's rejection. The theory
16050-491: The 19th century, the empire began to decline when ethno-nationalist uprisings occurred across the empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in estimated 5 million deaths, with more than 3 million in Balkans; the casualties included Turks. Five to seven or seven to nine million refugees migrated into modern-day Turkey from
16264-604: The A-RMHC. The Nationalists' obvious links to the CUP made the election especially polarizing and voter intimidation and ballot box stuffing in favor of the Kemalists were regular occurrences in rural provinces. This controversy led to many of the nationalist MPs organizing the National Salvation Group separate from Kemal's movement, which risked the nationalist movement splitting in two. Mustafa Kemal
16478-534: The Allied powers. However, his appointment was problematic for the Unionists, many being members of the liquidated committee that were surely to face trial. Years of corruption, unconstitutional acts, war profiteering, and enrichment from ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Unionists soon became basis of war crimes trials and courts martial trials held in Constantinople . While many leading Unionists were sentenced lengthy prison sentences, many made sure to escape
16692-515: The Allies did not mandate an abdication of the imperial family as a condition for peace, nor did they request the Ottoman Army to dissolve its general staff . Though the army suffered from mass desertion throughout the war which led to banditry , there was no threat of mutiny or revolutions like in Germany , Austria-Hungary , or Russia . This is despite famine and economic collapse that
16906-565: The Allies' Southern Russian intervention also earned it favors in Paris. Venizelos' demands included parts of eastern Thrace, the islands of Imbros ( Gökçeada ), Tenedos ( Bozcaada ), and parts of Western Anatolia around the city of Smyrna ( İzmir ), all of which had large Greek populations. Venizelos also advocated a large Armenian state to check a post-war Ottoman Empire. Greece wanted to incorporate Constantinople, but Entente powers did not give permission. Damat Ferid Pasha went to Paris on behalf of
17120-646: The Amasya Circular, a new congress was held there in September with delegates from all Anatolian and Thracian provinces. The Sivas Congress repeated the points of the National Pact agreed to in Erzurum, and united the various regional Defence of National Rights Associations organizations, into a united political organisation: Anatolia and Rumeli Defence of Rights Association (A-RMHC), with Mustafa Kemal as its chairman. In an effort show his movement
17334-600: The Armenians' especially as warlords hailing from those communities assisted the deportations of the Christians even though as many commanders in the Nationalist movement also had Caucasian and Balkan Muslim ancestry. With Anatolia in practical anarchy and the Ottoman army being questionably loyal in reaction to Allied land seizures, Mehmed VI established the military inspectorate system to reestablish authority over
17548-400: The Balkans. Once Albania came under Ottoman rule , Turkish colonization was scarce there; however, some Anatolian Turkish settlers did arrive in 1415–30 and were given timar estates. According to the 2011 census, the Turkish language was the sixth most spoken language in the country (after Albanian , Greek , Macedonian , Romani , and Aromanian ). The Turkish Bosnians have lived in
17762-507: The British. On 12 January 1920, the last session of the Chamber of Deputies met in the capital. First the sultan's speech was presented, and then a telegram from Mustafa Kemal, manifesting the claim that the rightful government of Turkey was in Ankara in the name of the Committee of Representation. On 28 January the MPs from both sides of the isle secretly met to endorse the National Pact as
17976-518: The CUP government against Armenian Ottomans . For now, the House of Osman escaped the fates of the Hohenzollerns , Habsburgs , and Romanovs to continue ruling their empire, though at the cost of its remaining sovereignty. On 13 November 1918, a French brigade entered Constantinople to begin a de facto occupation of the Ottoman capital and its immediate dependencies. This was followed by
18190-772: The Caucasus, Britain established a presence in Menshevik Georgia and the Lori and Aras valleys as peace-keepers . On 14 November, joint Franco-Greek occupation was established in the town of Uzunköprü in eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis until the train station of Hadımköy on the outskirts of Constantinople. On 1 December, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis , Marash , Urfa and Birecik . Beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of
18404-423: The Chamber of Deputies or to become a British or American mandate. By and large, the assembly was unsuccessful in its goals, and the Ottoman government did not develop a strategy to navigate the crises the empire was engulfed in. Ottoman bureaucrats, military, and bourgeoisie trusted the Allies to bring peace, and thought the terms offered at Mudros were considerably more lenient than they actually were. Pushback
18618-585: The Empire. The Ottoman government was not doing all that it could to suppress the Nationalists. Mustafa Kemal manufactured a crisis to pressure the Istanbul government to pick a side by deploying Kuva-yi Milliye towards İzmit . The British, concerned about the security of the Bosporus Strait , demanded Ali Rıza Pasha to reassert control over the area, to which he responded with his resignation to
18832-465: The First World War. Ethnic conflict restarted in Anatolia; government officials responsible for resettling Christian refugees often assisted Muslim refugees in these disputes, prompting European powers to continue bringing Ottoman territory under their control. Of the 800,000 Ottoman Christian refugees, approximately over half returned to their homes by 1920. Meanwhile 1.4 million refugees from
19046-529: The French loanword parti ). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example betik (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean " script " in computer science . Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are: Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. The Turkish language
19260-636: The Italian delegation walking out of the peace talks. On 30 April, Italy responded to the possible idea of Greek incorporation of Western Anatolia by sending a warship to Smyrna as a show of force against the Greek campaign. A large Italian force also landed in Antalya . Faced with Italian annexation of parts of Asia Minor with a significant ethnic Greek population, Venizelos secured Allied permission for Greek troops to land in Smyrna per Article VII, ostensibly as
19474-527: The Latin alphabet for speakers of eastern dialects. Some immigrants to Turkey from Rumelia speak Rumelian Turkish , which includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie , Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theorized Balkan sprachbund . Kıbrıs Türkçesi is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots . Edirne is the dialect of Edirne . Ege is spoken in
19688-567: The Latin script, encoded for many of the dialectal variations between Turkish dialects, the modern Latin script fails to do this. Examples of this are the presence of the nasal velar sound [ŋ] in certain eastern dialects of Turkish which was represented by the Ottoman letter /ڭ/ but that was merged into /n/ in the Latin script. Additionally are letters such as /خ/, /ق/, /غ/ which make the sounds [ɣ], [q], and [x], respectively in certain eastern dialects but that are merged into [g], [k], and [h] in western dialects and are therefore defectively represented in
19902-400: The Magnificent , further expanded the conquests after capturing Belgrade in 1521 and using its territorial base to conquer Hungary , and other Central European territories, after his victory in the Battle of Mohács as well as also pushing the frontiers of the empire to the east. Following Suleiman's death, Ottoman victories continued, albeit less frequently than before. The island of Cyprus
20116-678: The Mongols occupied more lands in Asia Minor, the Turks moved further into western Anatolia and settled in the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier. By the last decades of the 13th century, the Ilkhans and their Seljuk vassals lost control over much of Anatolia to these Turkoman peoples . A number of Turkish lords managed to establish themselves as rulers of various principalities , known as " Beyliks " or emirates . Amongst these beyliks, along
20330-649: The Mıntıka Palace Hotel. British troops were present in Samsun, and he initially maintained cordial contact. He had assured Damat Ferid about the army's loyalty towards the new government in Constantinople. However, behind the government's back, Kemal made the people of Samsun aware of the Greek and Italian landings, staged discreet mass meetings, made fast connections via telegraph with the army units in Anatolia, and began to form links with various Nationalist groups. He sent telegrams of protest to foreign embassies and
20544-506: The National Pact anyway. The National Pact solidified Nationalist interests, which were in conflict with the Allied plans. From February to April, leaders of Britain, France, and Italy met in London to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the crisis in Anatolia. The British began to sense that the elected Ottoman government was under Kemalist influence and if left unchecked, the Entente could once again find themselves at war with
20758-541: The Ottoman Empire and under Allied occupation, with some "imperialists" still loyal to the Ottoman Sultanate-Caliphate, and others wishing for independence or Allied protection under a League of Nations mandate . Sizable Greek and Armenian minorities remained within its borders, and most of these communities no longer wished to remain under the Empire. On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros
20972-564: The Ottoman Empire by applying principles of national self-determination per Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points and the abolition of the capitulations . The Erzurum Congress concluded with a circular that was effectively a declaration of independence: All regions within Ottoman borders upon the signing of the Mudros Armistice were indivisible from the Ottoman state –Greek and Armenian claims on Thrace and Anatolia were moot– and assistance from any country not coveting Ottoman territory
21186-564: The Ottoman Empire hoping to minimize territorial losses using Fourteen Points rhetoric, wishing for a return to status quo ante bellum , on the basis that every province of the Empire holds Muslim majorities. This plea was met with ridicule. At the Paris Peace Conference, competing claims over Western Anatolia by Greek and Italian delegations led Greece to land the flagship of the Greek Navy at Smyrna, resulting in
21400-547: The Ottoman Empire. As a special body of the Paris Conference, "The Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey", was established to pursue the secret treaties they had signed between 1915 and 1917. Italy sought control over the southern part of Anatolia under the Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne . France expected to exercise control over Hatay , Lebanon , Syria , and a portion of southeastern Anatolia based on
21614-536: The Ottoman capital, that the Ottoman Empire developed considerably. In 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and established a foothold on the Gallipoli Peninsula while at the same time pushing east and taking Ankara . Many Turks from Anatolia began to settle in the region which had been abandoned by the inhabitants who had fled Thrace before the Ottoman invasion. However, the Byzantines were not
21828-473: The Ottoman conquest of Meskheti in Georgia, hundreds of thousands of Turkic invaders had settled in the region from the thirteenth century. At this time, the main town, Akhaltsikhe , was mentioned in sources by the Turkish name "Ak-sika", or "White Fortress". Thus, this accounts for the present day Turkish designation of the region as "Ahıska". Local leaders were given the Turkish title "Atabek" from which came
22042-550: The Ottoman government or place it under military occupation by "occupying Constantinople". However, dismantling the government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of WWI. A wave of seizures took place in the rest of the country in the following months. Citing Article VII, British forces demanded that Turkish troops evacuate Mosul , claiming that Christian civilians in Mosul and Zakho were killed en masse. In
22256-509: The Ottoman upper classes adopted European ideas of nationalism , the term Türk took on a more positive connotation. During Ottoman times, the millet system defined communities on a religious basis. In the early 20th century, the Young Turks abandoned Ottoman nationalism in favor of Turkish nationalism , while adopting the name Turks , which was finally used in the name of the new Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk defined
22470-535: The Rumelian/Balkan Turks are the descendants of Ottoman settlers. However, the first significant wave of Anatolian Turkish settlement to the Balkans dates back to the mass migration of sedentary and nomadic subjects of the Seljuk sultan Kaykaus II (b. 1237 – d. 1279/80) who had fled to the court of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1262. The Turkish Albanians are one of the smallest Turkish communities in
22684-628: The SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes. Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb: Ahmet Ahmet yumurta-yı Turkish War of Independence Turkish Nationalists : [REDACTED] Ankara Government ( 1919–1920 ; 1920–1923) The Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923)
22898-472: The Seljuk Turks appreciated and became carriers of Persian culture rather than Turkish culture . Nonetheless, the Turkish language and Islam were introduced and gradually spread over the region and the slow transition from a predominantly Christian and Greek -speaking Anatolia to a predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking one was underway. In dire straits, the Byzantine Empire turned to
23112-469: The Seljuk territories rapidly disintegrated, leading to the strengthening of Turkoman principalities in the western and southern parts of Anatolia called the " beyliks ". When the Mongols defeated the Seljuk Turks and conquered Anatolia , the Turks became the vassals of the Ilkhans who established their own empire in the vast area which stretched from present-day Afghanistan to present-day Turkey . As
23326-469: The TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries. In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual Ottoman-Turkish /Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform. Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before
23540-685: The Turkish and Greek Cypriots , known as the " Cyprus conflict ", the Greek Cypriot government conducted a census in 1973, albeit without the Turkish Cypriot populace. A year later, in 1974, the Cypriot government's Department of Statistics and Research estimated the Turkish Cypriot population was 118,000 (or 18.4%). A coup d'état in Cyprus on 15 July 1974 by Greeks and Greek Cypriots favoring union with Greece (also known as " Enosis ")
23754-415: The Turkish homeland. The Turkish identity became the unifying force when, in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed and the newly founded Republic of Turkey was formally established. Atatürk's presidency was marked by a series of radical political and social reforms that transformed Turkey into a secular , modern republic with civil and political equality for sectarian minorities and women. Throughout
23968-539: The Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨ı⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ö⟩ , ⟨u⟩ , ⟨ü⟩ . The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back , rounded and unrounded and vowel height . Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high]. The only diphthongs in
24182-657: The Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire —spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script -based Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with the Latin script -based Turkish alphabet . Some distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish
24396-686: The Turkish minority's cultural, religious, educational, social, economic, and political freedoms. The Turks of Bulgaria form the largest Turkish community in the Balkans as well as the largest ethnic minority group in Bulgaria . According to the 2011 census, they form a majority in the Kardzhali Province (66.2%) and the Razgrad Province (50.02%), as well as substantial communities in the Silistra Province (36.09%),
24610-399: The Turkish nation as the "people ( halk ) who established the Turkish republic". Further, "the natural and historical facts which effected the establishment ( teessüs ) of the Turkish nation" were "(a) unity in political existence, (b) unity in language, (c) unity in homeland, (d) unity in race and origin ( menşe ), (e) to be historically related and (f) to be morally related". Article 66 of
24824-590: The Turkoman chiefs assumed greater independence. Under its founder, Osman I , the nomadic Ottoman beylik expanded along the Sakarya River and westward towards the Sea of Marmara . Thus, the population of western Asia Minor had largely become Turkish -speaking and Muslim in religion. It was under his son, Orhan I , who had attacked and conquered the important urban center of Bursa in 1326, proclaiming it as
25038-683: The Turks are among the 22 officially recognized national minorities in Croatia. The Turkish Kosovars are the third largest ethnic minority in Kosovo (after the Serbs and Bosniaks ). They form a majority in the town and municipality of Mamuša . The Turkish Montenegrins form the smallest Turkish minority group in the Balkans. They began to settle in the region following the Ottoman rule of Montenegro . A historical event took place in 1707 which involved
25252-592: The United States, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of the diaspora speak the language with native fluency. In 2005, 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish, about 67 million at the time, with Kurdish languages making up most of
25466-476: The War Ministry about British reinforcements in the area and about British aid to Greek brigand gangs. After a week in Samsun, Kemal and his staff moved to Havza . It was there that he first showed the flag of the resistance. Mustafa Kemal wrote in his memoir that he needed nationwide support to justify armed resistance against the Allied occupation. His credentials and the importance of his position were not enough to inspire everyone. While officially occupied with
25680-763: The West for help, setting in motion the pleas that led to the First Crusade . Once the Crusaders took Iznik , the Seljuk Turks established the Sultanate of Rum from their new capital, Konya , in 1097. By the 12th century, Europeans had begun to call the Anatolian region Turchia or Turkey , the land of the Turks. The Turkish society in Anatolia was divided into urban, rural and nomadic populations; other Turkoman (Turkmen) tribes who had arrived into Anatolia at
25894-680: The abortion of that text, never ratified, and the abolition of the Sultanate . Thus, the 623-year-old Ottoman Empire ended. Once Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish War of Independence against the Allied forces that occupied the former Ottoman Empire , he united the Turkish Muslim majority and successfully led them from 1919 to 1922 in overthrowing the occupying forces out of what the Turkish National Movement considered
26108-493: The adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. The TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982 , following the military coup d'état of 1980 . Modern standard Turkish
26322-406: The aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by
26536-491: The ancient Turks were nomadic , they traded wool, leather, carpets, and horses for grain, silk, wood, and vegetables, and also had large ironworking stations in the south of the Altai Mountains during the 600s CE. Most of the Turkic peoples were followers of Tengrism , sharing the cult of the sky god Tengri , although there were also adherents of Manichaeism , Nestorian Christianity , and Buddhism . However, during
26750-538: The areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with Azerbaijani , the language of Azerbaijan. The Central Anatolia Region speaks Orta Anadolu . Karadeniz , spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax ; it is also known as Laz dialect (not to be confused with
26964-413: The basis that this was against the armistice that he had signed and was assigned to another position on 5 August 1919. The movement of British units alarmed the population of the region and convinced them that Mustafa Kemal was right. By early July, Mustafa Kemal Pasha received telegrams from the sultan and Calthorpe, asking him and Refet to cease his activities in Anatolia and return to the capital. Kemal
27178-676: The capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1365, they opened their way into Bulgaria and Macedonia in 1371 at the Battle of Maritsa . With the conquests of Thrace , Macedonia, and Bulgaria, significant numbers of Turkish emigrants settled in these regions. This form of Ottoman-Turkish colonization became a very effective method to consolidate their position and power in the Balkans . The settlers consisted of soldiers, nomads, farmers, artisans and merchants , dervishes , preachers and other religious functionaries, and administrative personnel. In 1453, Ottoman armies, under Sultan Mehmed II , conquered Constantinople . Mehmed reconstructed and repopulated
27392-566: The city, and made it the new Ottoman capital. After the Fall of Constantinople , the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion with its borders eventually going deep into Europe , the Middle East , and North Africa . Selim I dramatically expanded the empire's eastern and southern frontiers in the Battle of Chaldiran and gained recognition as the guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina . His successor, Suleiman
27606-646: The collapse of Woodrow Wilson 's health, the United States diplomatically withdrew from the Middle East to focus on Europe, leaving the Entente powers to construct a post-Ottoman order . The Entente would have arrived at Constantinople to discover an administration attempting to deal with decades of accumulated refugee crisis. The new government issued a proclamation allowing for deportees to return to their homes , but many Greeks and Armenians found their old homes occupied by desperate Rumelian and Caucasian Muslim refugees which were settled in their properties during
27820-513: The continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka , "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval ( fırka has been replaced by
28034-419: The country before Allied occupation or to regions that the government now had minimal control over; thus most were sentenced in absentia . The Allies encouragement of the proceedings and the use of British Malta as their holding ground made the trials unpopular. The partisan nature of the trials was not lost on observers either. The hanging of the Kaymakam of Boğazlıyan district Mehmed Kemal resulted in
28248-471: The country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the distinctive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov, a leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over
28462-427: The course of several centuries. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in large-scale loss of life and mass migration into modern-day Turkey from the Balkans, Caucasus , and Crimea ; the immigrants were both Turkish and non-Turkish people, and overwhelmingly Muslim. The empire lasted until the end of the First World War, when it
28676-447: The culture of the Anatolian Turks in Asia Minor has underlain and influenced the Turkish nationalist ideology. Other Turkish groups include the Rumelian Turks (also referred to as Balkan Turks) historically located in the Balkans ; Turkish Cypriots on the island of Cyprus, Meskhetian Turks originally based in Meskheti , Georgia ; and ethnic Turkish people across the Middle East , where they are also called Turkmen or Turkoman in
28890-500: The current Syrian civil war . The Turkish Cypriots are the ethnic Turks whose Ottoman Turkish forebears colonized the island of Cyprus in 1571. About 30,000 Turkish soldiers were given land once they settled in Cyprus, which bequeathed a significant Turkish community. In 1960, a census by the new Republic's government revealed that the Turkish Cypriots formed 18.2% of the island's population. However, once inter-communal fighting and ethnic tensions between 1963 and 1974 occurred between
29104-491: The descendants of muhacirs (Turkish refugees) who fled persecution from former Ottoman territories in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and more recent refugees who have continued to flee discrimination and persecution since the mid-1900s. Initially, muhacirs who arrived in Eastern Thrace and Anatolia came fleeing from former Ottoman territories which had been annexed by European colonial powers (such as France in Algeria or Russia in Crimea ); however,
29318-457: The descendants of these immigrants. The ethnic Turks are the largest ethnic group in Turkey and number approximately 60 million to 65 million. Due to differing historical Turkish migrations to the region, dating from the Seljuk conquests in the 11th century to the continuous Turkish migrations which have persisted to the present day (especially Turkish refugees from neighboring countries), there are various accents and customs which can distinguish
29532-419: The disarming of the army, he met with various contacts in order to build his movement's momentum. He met with Rauf Pasha , Karabekir Pasha, Ali Fuat Pasha , and Refet Pasha and issued the Amasya Circular (22 June 1919). Ottoman provincial authorities were notified via telegraph that the unity and independence of the nation was at risk, and that the government in Constantinople was compromised. To remedy this,
29746-403: The discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Old Turkic alphabet , which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to
29960-403: The dominant Shia sect in the country). Since the Second World War , the Turkish Azerbaijani community has increased significantly due to the mass wave of Turkish Meskhetian refugees who arrived during the Soviet rule . The Turkish Abkhazians began to live in Abkhazia during the sixteenth century under Ottoman rule. Today, there are still Turks who continue to live in the region. Prior to
30174-497: The election as per the Amasya Protocol to keep unity between the " Istanbul government " and " Ankara government ", he was wrong to think the election could bring him any legitimacy. The Ottoman parliament was under the de facto control of the British battalion stationed at Constantinople and any decisions by the parliament had to have the signatures of both Ali Rıza Pasha and the battalion's commanding officer. The only laws that passed were those acceptable to, or specifically ordered by
30388-414: The environment not looking conducive for an election, Sultan Mehmed VI called for an Sultanate Council ( Şûrâ-yı Saltanat ), so the government could be consulted by representatives of civil society how the Ottoman Empire should deal with its present predicaments. On 26 May 1919, 131 representatives of Ottoman civil society gathered in the capital as a faux parliament. Discussion focused on a new election for
30602-433: The ethnic Turks by geographic sub-groups. For example, the most significant are the Anatolian Turks in the central core of Asiatic Turkey whose culture was influential in underlining the roots of the Turkish nationalist ideology. There are also nomadic Turkic tribes who descend directly from Central Asia , such as the Yörüks ; the Black Sea Turks in the north whose "speech largely lacks the vowel harmony valued elsewhere";
30816-421: The fifteenth century name of one of the four kingdoms of what had been Georgia, Samtskhe-Saatabago , "the land of the Atabek called Samtskhe [Meskhetia]". In 1555 the Ottomans gained the western part of Meskheti after the Peace of Amasya treaty, whilst the Safavids took the eastern part. Then in 1578 the Ottomans attacked the Safavid controlled area which initiated the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590) . Meskheti
31030-629: The forests north of the Sea of Azov , and Pliny the Elder lists the Tyrcae among the people of the same area; yet English archaeologist Ellis Minns contended that Tyrcae is "a false correction" for Iurcae / Iurkai ( Ἱύρκαι ), a people who dwelt beyond the Thyssagetae , according to Herodotus ( Histories , IV. 22) There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions of Tür(ü)k such as Togarmah , Turukha / Turuška , Turukku and so on; but according to American historian Peter B. Golden , while any connection of some of these ancient peoples to Turks
31244-447: The genocide and other ethnic cleansing during World War I. The Christian presence in Anatolia was largely destroyed; Muslims went from 80% to 98% of the population. Following the chaotic politics of the Second Constitutional Era , the Ottoman Empire came under the control of the Committee of Union and Progress in a coup in 1913, and then further consolidated its control after the assassination of Mahmud Shevket Pasha . Founded as
31458-429: The government in northwestern Anatolia and Kurds in southeastern Anatolia were engaged in blood feuds that intensified during the war and were hesitant to pledge allegiance to the Defence of Rights movement, and only would if officials could facilitate truces. Various Muhacir groups were suspicious of the continued Unionist ideology in the Defence of Rights movement, and the potential for themselves to meet fates 'like
31672-435: The government of the Committee of Union and Progress started a program of forcible Turkification of non-Turkish minorities. By 1914, the World War I broke out, and the Turks scored some success in Gallipoli during the Battle of the Dardanelles in 1915. During World War I, the government of the Committee of Union and Progress continued to implement its Turkification policies, which affected non-Turkish minorities, such as
31886-524: The governor of Van , almost 95% of its prewar residents were dead or internally displaced . Administration in much of the Anatolian and Thracian countryside would soon all but collapse by 1919. Army deserters who turned to banditry essentially controlled fiefdoms with tacit approval from bureaucrats and local elites. An amnesty issued in late 1918 saw these bandits strengthen their positions and fight amongst each other instead of returning to civilian life. Albanian and Circassian muhacirs resettled by
32100-399: The killing of the Turks in Montenegro as well as the murder of all Muslims. This early example of ethnic cleaning features in the epic poem The Mountain Wreath (1846). After the Ottoman withdrawal, the majority of the remaining Turks emigrated to Istanbul and İzmir . Today, the remaining Turkish Montenegrins predominantly live in the coastal town of Bar . The Turkish Macedonians form
32314-418: The lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — elun and kitabun . With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable). Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or
32528-466: The language are found in loanwords and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel. The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort. This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules: The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to
32742-429: The language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive the speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. The past few decades have seen
32956-407: The largest waves of ethnic Turkish migration came from the Balkans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Balkan Wars led to most of the region becoming independent from Ottoman control. The largest waves of muhacirs came from the Balkans (especially Bulgaria , Greece , Romania and Yugoslavia ); however, substantial numbers also came from Cyprus, the Sanjak of Alexandretta ,
33170-450: The legal use of the term Turkish as it pertains to a citizen of Turkey is different from the term's ethnic definition, the majority of the Turkish population (an estimated 70 to 75 percent) are of Turkish ethnicity. The vast majority of Turks are Muslims and follow the Sunni faith. The ethnic Turks can therefore be distinguished by a number of cultural and regional variants, but do not function as separate ethnic groups. In particular,
33384-442: The linguistic concept of accent , which is also covered with these words. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out projects investigating Turkish dialects. As of 2002 work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect- atlas of the Turkish language. Although the Ottoman alphabet, being slightly more phonetically ambiguous than
33598-458: The major fronts crumbling, Unionist Grand Vizier Talât Pasha intended to sign an armistice, and resigned on 8 October 1918 so that a new government would receive less harsh armistice terms. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918, ending World War I for the Ottoman Empire. Three days later, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)—which governed the Ottoman Empire as a one-party state since 1913 —held its last congress, where it
33812-451: The majority of the population consists of Greeks." It was decided by the Triple Entente that Greece would control a zone around Smyrna and Ayvalık in western Asia Minor. Most historians mark the Greek landing at Smyrna on 15 May 1919 as the start date of the Turkish War of Independence as well as the start of the " Kuva-yi Milliye Phase". The occupation ceremony from the outset was tense from nationalist fervor, with Ottoman Greeks greeting
34026-402: The modern Turkish language. While visiting the region between Adıyaman and Adana , Evliya Çelebi recorded the "Turkman language" and compared it with his own Turkish: Reforms Kemalism After the foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform , the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , with
34240-402: The nail in the coffin of Ottomanism , an imperialist and multicultural nationalism. Mistreatment of non-Turk groups after 1913, and the general context of great socio-political upheaval that occurred in the aftermath of World War I , meant many minorities now wished to divorce their future from imperialism to form futures of their own by separating into (often republican ) nation-states . In
34454-410: The national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian. In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel Foreign Languages TV was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and
34668-448: The northwest to the east at the middle of Iraq with Kirkuk placed as their cultural capital. Historically, Turkic migrations to Iraq date back to the 7th century when Turks were recruited in the Umayyad armies of Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad followed by thousands more Turkmen warriors arriving under the Abbasid rule. However, most of these Turks became assimilated into the local Arab population. The next large scale migration occurred under
34882-444: The only ones to suffer from the Ottoman advance for, in the mid-1330s, Orhan annexed the Turkish beylik of Karasi . This advancement was maintained by Murad I who more than tripled the territories under his direct rule, reaching some 100,000 square miles (260,000 km), evenly distributed in Europe and Asia Minor . Gains in Anatolia were matched by those in Europe; once the Ottoman forces took Edirne ( Adrianople ), which became
35096-447: The outbreak of hostilities, all British troops stationed in the Black Sea coast and Kütahya were evacuated. Damat Ferid Pasha resigned, and the sultan replaced him with a general with nationalist credentials: Ali Rıza Pasha . On 16 October 1919, Ali Rıza and the Nationalists held negotiations in Amasya. They agreed in the Amasya Protocol that an election would be called for the Ottoman Parliament to establish national unity by upholding
35310-461: The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and the abolition of the sultanate , the Ottoman era came to an end, and with Atatürk's reforms , the Turks created the secular nation of Turkey. Turkey's demographics were significantly impacted by the Armenian genocide and deportations of Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Rum people . The Turkish Nationalist Movement carried out massacres and deportations to eliminate Christian populations—a continuation of
35524-473: The party came from all parts of Ottoman media . A general amnesty was soon issued, allowing the exiled and imprisoned dissidents persecuted by the CUP to return to Constantinople. Vahdettin invited the pro- Palace politician Damat Ferid Pasha to form a government, whose members quickly set out to purge the Unionists from the Ottoman government . Ferid Pasha hoped that his Anglophilia and an attitude of appeasement would induce less harsh peace terms from
35738-436: The personal ending, so for example Necla, siz öğretmen misiniz ? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?'). Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb , as in Korean and Latin , but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often
35952-435: The phenomenon of labial assimilation: if the lips are rounded (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are unrounded for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently. Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: Practically,
36166-404: The post-armistice War Ministry, a powerful tool that would help him accomplish his secret goal: to lead a nationalist movement to safeguard Turkish interests against the Allied powers and a collaborative Ottoman government. The day before his departure to Samsun on the remote Black Sea coast, Kemal had one last audience with Sultan Vahdettin, where he affirmed his loyalty to the sultan-caliph. It
36380-417: The power vacuum in Anatolia, the Allies agreed to launch a Greek peacekeeping force and occupy Smyrna ( İzmir ), inflaming sectarian tensions and beginning the Turkish War of Independence. A nationalist counter government led by Mustafa Kemal was established in Ankara when it became clear the Ottoman government was appeasing the Allies. The Allies pressured the Ottoman " Istanbul government " to suspend
36594-638: The preceding vowel. In native Turkic words, the sounds [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] are mainly in complementary distribution with [k] , [ɡ] , and [ɫ] ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below. However, there are minimal pairs that distinguish between these sounds, such as kar [kɑɾ] "snow" vs kâr [cɑɾ] "profit". Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing ,
36808-440: The principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: Türkiye' dir ("it is Turkey"), kapı dır ("it is the door"), but gün dür ("it is the day"), palto dur ("it is the coat"). These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony: The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features: The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in
37022-422: The razing of the city. What was supposed to be a peacekeeping mission of Western Anatolia instead inflamed ethnic tensions and became a counterinsurgency . The reaction of Greek landing at Smyrna and continued Allied seizures of land served to destabilize Turkish civil society. Damat Ferid Pasha resigned as Grand Vizier, but the sultan reappointed him anyways. With the Chamber of Deputies of deputies dissolved, and
37236-429: The region during the Ottoman rule, which lasted between 1578 and 1603. By 1615, the Safavid ruler, Shah Abbas I , solidified control of the region and then deported thousands of people from Azerbaijan. In 1998, there was still approximately 19,000 Turks living in Azerbaijan who descended from the original Ottoman settlers; they are distinguishable from the rest of Azeri society because they practice Sunni Islam (rather than
37450-450: The region since the Ottoman rule of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Thus, the Turks form the oldest ethnic minority in the country. The Turkish Bosnian community decreased dramatically due to mass emigration to Turkey when Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian rule. In 2003 the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the "Law on the Protection of Rights of Members of National Minorities" which officially protected
37664-442: The region. The Ottomans encouraged migration from Anatolia and the settlement of Turks along northern Iraq. After 89 years of peace, the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639) saw Murad IV recapturing Baghdad and taking permanent control over Iraq which resulted in the influx of continuous Turkish settlers until Ottoman rule came to an end in 1919. Turkish language To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish —the variety of
37878-401: The remainder. Azerbaijani language , official in Azerbaijan, is mutually intelligible with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with a multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in
38092-523: The remaining 115,000 Turkish Meskhetians in 1944, forcing them to resettle in the Caucasus and the Central Asian Soviet republics. Thus, today hundreds of thousands of Turkish Meskhetians are scattered throughout the Post Soviet states (especially in Kazakhstan , Azerbaijan , Russia , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan and Ukraine ). Moreover, many have settled in Turkey and the United States . Attempts to repatriate them back to Georgia saw Georgian authorities receive applications covering 9,350 individuals within
38306-400: The remaining empire. Encouraged by Karabekir and Edmund Allenby , he assigned Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) as the inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate –based in Erzurum – to restore order to Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on 30 April 1919, with his first assignment to suppress a rebellion by Greek rebels around the city of Samsun . Mustafa Kemal was
38520-426: The resolutions made in the Sivas Congress, including the National Pact. By October 1919, the Ottoman government only held de facto control over Constantinople; the rest of the Ottoman Empire was loyal to Kemal's movement to resist a partition of Anatolia and Thrace. Within a few months Mustafa Kemal went from General Inspector of the Ninth Army to a renegade military commander discharged for insubordination to leading
38734-403: The resumption of war. The British similarly asked Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to turn over the port of Alexandretta ( İskenderun ), which he reluctantly did, following which he was recalled to Constantinople. He made sure to distribute weapons to the population to prevent them from falling into the hands of Allied forces. Some of these weapons were smuggled to the east by members of Karakol ,
38948-514: The rump radical faction which formed the Renewal Party (both parties would be banned in May 1919 for being successors of the CUP). All these reasons allowed him to be the most legitimate nationalist for the sultan to placate. In this new political climate, he sought to capitalize on his war exploits to attain a better job, indeed several times he unsuccessfully lobbied for his inclusion in cabinet as War Minister . His new assignment gave him effective plenipotentiary powers over all of Anatolia which
39162-399: The same time as the Seljuks kept their nomadic ways. These tribes were more numerous than the Seljuks, and rejecting the sedentary lifestyle, adhered to an Islam impregnated with animism and shamanism from their Central Asian steppeland origins, which then mixed with new Christian influences. From this popular and syncretist Islam, with its mystical and revolutionary aspects, sects such as
39376-454: The second largest Turkish community in the Balkans as well as the second largest minority ethnic group in North Macedonia . They form a majority in the Centar Župa Municipality and the Plasnica Municipality as well as substantial communities in the Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality , the Studeničani Municipality , the Dolneni Municipality , the Karbinci Municipality , and the Vasilevo Municipality . The Turkish Romanians are centered in
39590-409: The senior leadership of the Turkish National Movement and former members of the CUP. 150 arrested Turkish politicians accused of war crimes were interned in Malta and became known as the Malta exiles . Mustafa Kemal was ready for this move. He warned all the Nationalist organisations that there would be misleading declarations from the capital. He warned that the only way to counter Allied movements
39804-428: The significance of Mustafa Kemal's discreet activities in Anatolia, sent a report about the Pasha to the Foreign Office . His remarks were downplayed by George Kidson of the Eastern Department. Captain Hurst of the British occupation force in Samsun warned Admiral Calthorpe one more time, but Hurst's units were replaced with the Brigade of Gurkhas . When the British landed in Alexandretta , Admiral Calthorpe resigned on
40018-636: The soldiers with an ecstatic welcome, and Ottoman Muslims protesting the landing. A miscommunication in Greek high command led to an Evzone column marching by the municipal Turkish barracks. The nationalist journalist Hasan Tahsin fired the "first bullet" at the Greek standard bearer at the head of the troops, turning the city into a warzone. Süleyman Fethi Bey was murdered by bayonet for refusing to shout "Zito Venizelos " (meaning "long live Venizelos"), and 300–400 unarmed Turkish soldiers and civilians and 100 Greek soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded. Greek troops moved from Smyrna outwards to towns on
40232-401: The sultan. As they were negotiating the partition of the Ottoman Empire , the Allies were growing increasingly concerned about the Turkish National Movement. To this end, the Allied occupational authorities in Istanbul began to plan a raid to arrest nationalist politicians and journalists along with occupying military and police installations and government buildings. On 16 March 1920, the coup
40446-417: The summer months of 1918, the leaders of the Central Powers realized that the Great War was lost, including the Ottomans'. Almost simultaneously the Palestinian Front and then the Macedonian Front collapsed . The sudden decision by Bulgaria to sign an armistice cut communications from Constantinople ( İstanbul ) to Vienna and Berlin , and opened the undefended Ottoman capital to Entente attack. With
40660-434: The two-year application period (up until 1 January 2010). Commonly referred to as the Iraqi Turkmens , the Turks are the second largest ethnic minority group in Iraq (i.e. after the Kurds ). The majority are the descendants of Ottoman settlers (e.g. soldiers, traders and civil servants) who were brought into Iraq from Anatolia . Today, most Iraqi Turkmen live in a region they refer to as " Turkmeneli " which stretches from
40874-432: The twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The following examples, based on the copula -dir ("[it] is"), illustrate
41088-411: The vague right to occupy "in case of disorder" any territory if there were a threat to security. The clause relating to the occupation of the straits was meant to secure a Southern Russian intervention force , while the rest of the article was used to allow for Allied controlled peace-keeping forces. There was also a hope to follow through punishing local actors that carried out exterminatory orders from
41302-440: Was a series of military campaigns and a revolution waged by the Turkish National Movement , after the Ottoman Empire was occupied and partitioned following its defeat in World War I . The conflict was between the Turkish Nationalists against Allied and separatist forces over the application of Wilsonian principles , especially self-determination , in post-World War I Anatolia and eastern Thrace . The revolution concluded
41516-416: Was also an early member of the CUP. However Kemal Pasha did not associate himself with the fanatical faction of the CUP, many knew that he frequently clashed with the radicals of the Central Committee like Enver. He was therefore sidelined to the periphery of power throughout the Great War; after the CUP's dissolution he vocally aligned himself with moderates that formed the Liberal People's Party instead of
41730-441: Was applied. A similar suspicion and suppression from the Turkish nationalist government was directed towards the Arab and Kurdish populations, leading to localized rebellions. The Entente powers reacted to these developments by charging the CUP leaders, commonly known as the Three Pashas , with " crimes against humanity " and threatened accountability. They also had imperialist ambitions on Ottoman territory, with correspondence over
41944-414: Was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features: agglutination , vowel harmony and lack of grammatical gender. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia . Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan , these date back to the Second Turkic Khaganate (dated 682–744 CE). After
42158-478: Was brought on by the extreme levels of mobilization , destruction from the war, disease , and mass murder since 1914. Due to the Turkish nationalist policies pursued by the CUP against Ottoman Christians by 1918 the Ottoman Empire held control over a mostly homogeneous land of Muslims from eastern Thrace to the Persian border. These included mostly Turks , as well as Kurds , Circassians , and Muhacir groups from Rumeli . Most Muslim Arabs were now outside of
42372-443: Was carried out; several Royal Navy warships were anchored in the Galata Bridge to support British forces, including the Indian Army , while they carried out the arrests and occupied several government buildings in the early hours of the morning. An Indian Army operation, the Şehzadebaşı raid , resulted in 5 Ottoman soldiers from the 10th Infantry Division being killed when troops raided their barracks. Among those arrested were
42586-418: Was conquered, in 1571, bolstering Ottoman dominance over the sea routes of the eastern Mediterranean . However, after its defeat at the Battle of Vienna , in 1683, the Ottoman army was met by ambushes and further defeats; the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz , which granted Austria the provinces of Hungary and Transylvania , marked the first time in history that the Ottoman Empire actually relinquished territory. By
42800-416: Was decided the party would be dissolved. Talât, Enver Pasha , Cemal Pasha , and five other high-ranking members of the CUP escaped the Ottoman Empire on a German torpedo boat later that night, plunging the country into a power vacuum. The armistice was signed because the Ottoman Empire had been defeated in important fronts, but the military was intact and retreated in good order. Unlike other Central Powers,
43014-496: Was defeated by the Allies and partitioned . Following the Turkish War of Independence that ended with the Turkish National Movement retaking much of the territory lost to the Allies, the Movement ended the Ottoman Empire on 1 November 1922 and proclaimed the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. As an ethnonym , the etymology of Turk is still unknown. In Chinese sources, Turk appears as Tujue ( Chinese : 突 厥 ; Wade–Giles : T’u-chüe ), which referred to
43228-406: Was disgusted with the policies of the CUP, and wished to be a more assertive sovereign than his diseased half brother. Greek and Armenian Ottomans declared the termination of their relationship with the Ottoman Empire through their respective patriarchates , and refused to partake in any future election. With the collapse of the CUP and its censorship regime, an outpouring of condemnation against
43442-441: Was elected an MP from Erzurum, but he expected the Allies neither to accept the Harbord report nor to respect his parliamentary immunity if he went to the Ottoman capital, hence he remained in Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal and the Committee of Representation moved from Sivas to Ankara so that he could keep in touch with as many deputies as possible as they traveled to Constantinople to attend the parliament. Though Ali Rıza Pasha called
43656-401: Was followed by military intervention by Turkey whose troops established Turkish Cypriot control over the northern part of the island. Hence, census's conducted by the Republic of Cyprus have excluded the Turkish Cypriot population that had settled in the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . Between 1975 and 1981, Turkey encouraged its own citizens to settle in Northern Cyprus;
43870-401: Was fully secured into the Ottoman Empire in 1639 after a treaty signed with Iran brought an end to Iranian attempts to take the region. With the arrival of more Turkish colonizers, the Turkish Meskhetian community increased significantly. However, once the Ottomans lost control of the region in 1883, many Turkish Meskhetians migrated from Georgia to Turkey. Migrations to Turkey continued after
44084-399: Was in Erzincan and did not want to return to Constantinople, concerned that the foreign authorities might have designs for him beyond the sultan's plans. Before resigning from his position, he dispatched a circular to all nationalist organizations and military commanders to not disband or surrender unless for the latter if they could be replaced by cooperative nationalist commanders. Now only
44298-421: Was in fact a new and unifying movement, the delegates had to swear an oath to discontinue their relations with the CUP and to never revive the party (despite most present in Sivas being previous members). It was also decided there that the Ottoman Empire should not be a League of Nations mandate under the United States, especially after the U.S Senate failed to ratify American membership in the League. Momentum
44512-402: Was in this meeting that they were informed of the botched occupation ceremony of Smyrna (İzmir) by the Greeks. He and his carefully selected staff left Constantinople aboard the old steamer SS Bandırma on the evening of 16 May 1919. On 19 January 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was first held, at which Allied nations set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers , including
44726-524: Was meant to accommodate him and other nationalists to keep them loyal to the government. Mustafa Kemal had earlier declined to become the leader of the Sixth Army headquartered in Nusaybin . But according to Patrick Balfour , through manipulation and the help of friends and sympathizers, he became the inspector of virtually all of the Ottoman forces in Anatolia, tasked with overseeing the disbanding process of remaining Ottoman forces. Kemal had an abundance of connections and personal friends concentrated in
44940-404: Was now on the Nationalists' side. A plot by a loyalist Ottoman governor and a British intelligence officer to arrest Kemal before the Sivas Congress led to the cutting of all ties with the Ottoman government until a new election would be held in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies . In October 1919, the last Ottoman governor loyal to Constantinople fled his province. Fearing
45154-440: Was potent in the capital, with 23 May 1919 being largest of the Sultanahmet Square demonstrations organized by the Turkish Hearths against the Greek occupation of Smyrna, the largest act of civil disobedience in Turkish history at that point. The Ottoman government condemned the landing, but could do little about it. Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his colleagues stepped ashore in Samsun on 19 May and set up their first quarters in
45368-416: Was recognized as the legitimate Turkish government, which signed the Treaty of Lausanne , a treaty more favorable to Turkey than Sèvres. The Allies evacuated Anatolia and eastern Thrace, the Ottoman government was overthrown, the monarchy abolished , and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. With the war, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey ,
45582-414: Was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I , bringing hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I to an end. The Ottoman Army was to demobilize, its navy and air force handed to the Allies, and occupied territory in the Caucasus and Persia to be evacuated. Critically, Article VII granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Turkish Straits and
45796-441: Was welcome. If the government in Constantinople was not able to attain this after electing a new parliament, they insisted a provisional government should be promulgated to defend Turkish sovereignty. The Committee of Representation was established as a provisional executive body based in Anatolia, with Mustafa Kemal Pasha as its chairman. Following the congress, the Committee of Representation relocated to Sivas. As announced in
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