Romans conquer Anatolia. Julius Caesar writes his famous "Veni, vidi, vici" after a quick battle in Central Anatolia. He meets Cleopatra in Antioch south of Anatolia.
After the birth of Jesus Christ, Christian Saints make Anatolia their destination:
St Paul and St. Barnabas visit many cities in Anatolia. Santa Clause (St. Nicholas) is born in the southern provinces. Virgin Mary resides and dies in Ephesus.
The first christians who have fled Romans and Arabs find refuge in the underground cities of Cappadocia, where they carve churchs in the lunar like landscape of the region.
The splitting into two of the Roman Empire will give birth to a new Roman Empire in the East : Byzantine Empire.
Roman Emperor Constantin moved the capital of the Roman Empire
to the ancient city of Byzance, naming it Constantinople. Hence
the empire took the name of Byzantine Empire. Roman
Empire had been divided into two: "West" and "East".
For two centuries the Ceasars of this "East" Roman Empire considered
themselves as the sole possesor of Rome and Italy. Byzantine Empire turned itself towards the Orient for the centuries to follow. Justinianus, the last Ceasar of the Roman Empire, conquers North Africa and Spain making Mediterranean Sea a Roman lake again. The church, St. Sophie, he had it built, stands as the greatest Christian church on earth. The empire hold possesion of Anatolia until, a new generation of migration came from the steppes of Asia: The Turks.
Meanwhile, Mimar Sinan, the great architect, builts mosques which, today, are the
greatest work of art of Islam. Ottoman art included caligraphy, tiles making
in addition to architecture.
The Ottoman fleet in The Meditarranean becomes the stongest navy force and sets up bases in France and North Africa. By the 16th century the Ottoman Empire had become one of biggest empires in human history.
Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Ataturk, the commander who fought the
Gallipoli wars as well as others. He brought Turkey all the laws and the
institutions which made Turkey a parliamentary, secular state. By pointing
at the flaws of Ottoman Empire, he put on the development track a
country which was lagging
centuries behind western technologies. Today as U.S. State
department points out Turkey is a moderately developed country. It has signed
a customs union agreement in 1995 with Europe for free trade of goods and
the government hopes to be a full member of the Europian Union by the year
2000.
Jewels of Anatolian History
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