The ENTIRE History of Turkey | How a Defeated Empire Became a Republic

The history of Turkey is a story written by a crossroads. This history documentary covers Turkish history from Göbekli Tepe and the Hittites to the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk, and today. Twelve thousand years ago, before farming, before cities, before writing, people in southeastern Turkey dragged stones the weight of a truck up a hill and carved foxes, snakes, and vultures into them. Göbekli Tepe is about six thousand years older than Stonehenge. The Hittites, Lydia, Persia, Alexander, Rome, Byzantium, the Seljuks, and the Ottomans all ruled this land, and each believed it would be the last. All of them are gone. The land between two continents is still here. This documentary follows the full story of Turkey, from the Stone Age to the present day: Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük and its town with no streets, the Hittites and the Battle of Kadesh, the oldest peace treaty in the world, the fall of Troy, Lydia and the first coins, Croesus, Alexander the Great, Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Saint Paul and the seven churches of Revelation, Saint Nicholas, Constantine and the founding of Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia, the Battle of Manzikert, the Mongol invasion, Osman and the rise of the Ottomans, Mehmed the Conqueror and the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Suleiman the Magnificent, Hürrem Sultan, the refuge for Spanish Jews in 1492, the sieges of Vienna, the Sick Man of Europe, Gallipoli, the Armenian Genocide, the Treaty of Sèvres, the Turkish War of Independence, the Treaty of Lausanne, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his reforms, the military coups, the invasion of Cyprus, the PKK conflict, Erdoğan, the Gezi Park protests, the 2016 coup attempt, the 2023 earthquakes, and the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu. A place that keeps getting destroyed keeps coming back. Anatolia sits on the road between Europe and Asia, so everyone has wanted it, and everyone who held it has eventually lost it. Today the story is still being written, and Turkey is still arguing with itself about how it should end. This documentary is based on archaeological discoveries, historical scholarship, and primary sources. It covers contested events, including the Armenian Genocide, the Cyprus intervention, and recent political crackdowns, and presents the competing accounts. We help bring history to life while remaining faithful to the historical record. SOURCES Hodder, I. (2006), The Leopard’s Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük, Thames & Hudson Bryce, T. (2005), The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford University Press Cline, E. (2014), 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Princeton University Press Finkel, C. (2005), Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, Basic Books Crowley, R. (2005), 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, Hyperion Kinross, L. (1964), Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Zürcher, E. J. (1993), Turkey: A Modern History, I.B. Tauris Akçam, T. (2006), A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Metropolitan Books #Turkey #TurkishHistory #HistoryOfTurkey #Türkiye #Anatolia #GobekliTepe #Hittites #Troy #Byzantine #Constantinople #HagiaSophia #OttomanEmpire #Suleiman #Ataturk #Erdogan #History #Documentary #HistoryDocumentary #WorldHistory