ABSTRACT
Turkey is considered to be one of the crossroads of civilizations. The Republic of Turkey, founded in 1923, has its roots in history of 4,000 years. The history of Turkey goes back to the neolithic period. The Byzantine Empire is the continuation of the Roman Empire and was surrendered in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Turks were descendants of Turkoman nomads, who entered Anatolia in the eleventh century as mercenary soldiers of the Seljuks, a group of nomadic Turkish warrior leaders from central Asia. The Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of the First World War, when its heartland of Anatolia became the Republic of Turkey. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 as the successor of the Ottoman Empire. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Turks won the war of independence and established the Republic of Turkey under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
