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Establishment of the Republic
On October 29, 1923, the assembly declared Turkey to be a republic and elected Mustafa Kemal as its first president. -
Women's suffrage
On 17 February 1926, Turkey adopted a new civil code by which the rights of Turkish women and men were declared equal except in suffrage. After a short but intense struggle, Turkish women achieved voting rights in local elections by Act no. 1580 on 3 April 1930.Four years later, through legislation enacted on 5 December 1934, they gained full universal suffrage, earlier than most other countries. -
Wealth tax
Varlık Vergisi ("wealth tax" or "capital tax") was a Turkish tax levied on citizens of Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of an eventual entry into World War II. However, it is accepted that the underlying reason for the tax was to inflict financial ruin on the minority non-Muslim citizens of the country terminate their prominence in the country's economy and move the assets of non-Muslims into the hands of the Muslim bourgeoisie.. -
WW2
Turkey remained neutral until the final stages of World War II and tried to maintain an equal distance between both the Axis and the Allies until February 1945. Turkey declared war on the Axis powers in February, 1945, after the Allies made its invitation to the inaugural meeting of the United Nations (along with the invitations of several other nations) conditional on full belligerency. No Turkish troops ever saw combat. -
First multi-party elections
General elections were held in Turkey on 21 July 1946,[1] the first multi-party elections in the country's history. The multiple non-transferable vote electoral system was used. The result was a victory for the Republican People's Party, which won 395 of the 465 seats. -
Beginning of the multiparty period
In 1945, the National Development Party (Milli Kalkınma Partisi) was founded. The next year, the Democratic Party was established, and was elected in 1950. Very popular at first, the government, led by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, relaxed the restrictions on public Islam and presided over a booming economy thanks to the Marshall Plan. In the later half of the decade, the government introduced censorship laws limiting dissent, while it became plagued by high inflation and a massive debt. -
Events of 6-7 September
Organized mob attacks directed primarily at Istanbul's Greek minority on 6–7 September 1955. The events were triggered by the false news that the day before, Greeks had bombed the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece—the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had been born in 1881.The pogrom greatly accelerated emigration of ethnic Greeks from Turkey, and the Istanbul region in particular. The Greek population of Turkey declined from 119,822 in 1927, to about 7,000 in 1978. -
1960 coup
The army balked at the government's instrumentalization of it, and on May 27, 1960, General Cemal Gürsel led a military coup d'état removing President Celal Bayar and Prime Minister Menderes. Menderes was executed with 2 ministers. In October 1961, the military junta returned the power to civilians. -
Turkish-German labour recruitment agreement
In the 1960s, Turkish workers arrived in Germany to fill the demand for cheap labor in a booming post-war economy. Many of them never left, creating a minority community that changed the demographics of Germany forever. -
Rapid urban migration
As Bugra reports (1998), 'In the first half of the 1960s, 59 percent of the population in Ankara, 45 percent in Istanbul and 33 percent in Izmir lived in irregular settlements." -
1971 coup
A memorandum from the military on March 12, 1971 threatened intervention, forcing the Demirel government to resign. After a period of interim government, Bülent Ecevit became Prime Minister and governed in a coalition with the religious National Salvation Party. -
Turkey in Cyprus
In July 1974, the Turkish Armed Forces intervened against a coup in Cyprus, organized by EOKA-B and led by Nikos Sampson who ousted the democratically elected Cypriot President in order to establish Enosis (Union) between Greece and Cyprus. The coup was backed by the Greek military junta in Athens. On 20 July 1974 the Turkish Army invaded the island from the north. The operations (named Attila I and II) resulted in 37% of Cyprus territory coming under Turkish military control. -
1980 coup
Headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic. During the Cold War era, 1970s Turkey experienced conflicts between Western-supported nationalist far right elements within the military and militant left-wing groups. In total, 50 people were executed, 500,000 were arrested and hundreds died in prison. For the next three years the Turkish Armed Forces ruled the country through the National Security Council. -
Rapid urban migration
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Özal becoming PM
ANAP won a parliamentary majority in the 1983 general election and Özal subsequently became the Prime Minister of Turkey. Özal implemented several economic reforms concerning the exchange rate and deregulation, a rise in inflation, supporting the convertion of small provincial capitals such as Gaziantep to mid-sized economic boomtowns. The period also saw escalating conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdish opposition. He later served as the president from 1983 to 1989. -
PKK in southeast
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launches separatist guerrilla war in southeast. -
1994 Economic crisis
The government's expansionary fiscal policy and the overvaluation of the Turkish Lira after the capital account liberalization in 1989 led to a severe financial crisis in the Turkish economy in 1994. During the first quarter of 1994, the Turkish Lira depreciated by almost 70% against the United States Dollar. -
Military memorandum (28 Feb)
The decisions issued by the Turkish military leadership on a National Security Council meeting on 28 February 1997. This memorandum initiated the process that precipitated the resignation of Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan of the Welfare Party, and the end of his coalition government. As the government was forced out without dissolving the parliament or suspending the constitution, the event has been famously labelled a "postmodern coup". -
Candidacy to the EU
Turkey was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council. -
Arrest of Öcalan
Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) with the support of the CIA in Nairobi and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organisations. -
Gölcük Earthquake
On 17 August 1999, the earthquake took place in northwesternd Turkey with a magnitude of 7.6. A massive international response was mounted to assist in digging for survivors and assisting the wounded and homeless. Rescue teams were dispatched within 24–48 hours of the disaster, and the assistance to the survivors was channeled through NGOs and the Red Crescent and local search and rescue organizations. -
Economic crisis
On February 19, 2001, Prime Minister Ecevit emerged from a meeting with President Sezer saying, "This is a serious crisis."[10] This underscored financial and political instability and led to further panic in the markets. Stocks plummeted and the interest rate reached 3,000%. The crash triggered even more economic turmoil. In the first eight months of 2001, 14,875 jobs were lost, the dollar rose to 1,500,000 liras, and income inequality had risen from its already high level. -
AKP wins the elections
Developed from the conservative tradition of Turkey's Ottoman past and its Islamic identity, the party is the largest in Turkey. Founded in 2001 by members of a number of existing conservative parties, the party has won pluralities in the six most recent legislative elections, those of 2002, 2007, 2011, June 2015, November 2015, and 2018. The party held a majority of seats for 13 years, but lost it in June 2015, only to regain it in the snap election of 2015 but then lose it again in 2018. -
Constitutional referendum
On Sunday September 12th, 2010, Turkey voted "yes" in a referendum to a package of amendments by a wide margin (58 percent yes; 42 percent no). For supporters, amendments were designed to restrict the power of the military and the judicial bureaucracy in Turkey that originated from the 1982 junta-made Turkish constitution. For the opposition, the changes in the constitutional court and supreme board of judges and prosecutors violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers. -
Beginning of Syrian mass influx
Following the civil war in Syria, Turkey started to receive the mass influx of Syrians, as a result of its open-doors policy towards the Syrian refugees. -
Gezi park protests
A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began in May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting the plan. Subsequently, supporting protests and strikes took place across Turkey, protesting a wide range of concerns at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, of expression, assembly, and the government's encroachment on secularism. -
Coup attempt
On 15 July 2016, a coup d'état was attempted in Turkey against state institutions, including the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The attempt was carried out by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organized themselves as the Peace at Home Council. They attempted to seize control of several key places in Ankara, Istanbul, and elsewhere, but failed to do so after forces loyal to the state defeated them. -
Passage to presidential system
The current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was directly elected in the 2018 presidential election. Executive power rests with the president and the Council of Ministers. Most ministers are members of Parliament. The President of Turkey is the leader of the cabinet. The current holder of the position is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
