History of Turkey

Early History

Even before medical tourism came along, Turkey enjoyed a fairly unique reputation as a “hotspot.”  In fact, evidence shows that the region was home to humans more than 500,000 years ago. The first signs of permanent civilizations, however, date back to 8000-5000 BC, when groups ranging from the Hittites to the Phrygians to the Lydians covered the area prior to the Roman Empire. 

The Romans

In 395 AD, the Roman emperor, Theodosum I, carved out the empire into eastern and western portions, placing the eastern part under the control of his son, Arcadias. The western part of the region was placed under the rule of his other son, Honorius.  While the Western portion collapsed quickly, the eastern Roman Empire would last for more than a thousand years, its stranglehold only ending with Ottoman incursion.  In these thousand years, the city of Byzantium - present day Istanbul - was chosen to be the capital of the eastern Roman Empire. Byzantium was renamed Constantinople by the Byzantine King Constantine in AD 330 (Christianity’s first Roman Emperor).  The city remained the seat of Catholic rule in the growing Roman Empire’s eastern territories.   

Throughout their reign, the Byzantine kings faced numerous challenges including the growing threat of a relatively new religion known as Islam.  Weakened by these threats, the empire lost steam, slowly fading into a shadow of its former self, and creating conditions that were ripe for the Islamification of Turkey with the arrival of Ottoman rule. 

The Ottomans

The Ottomans began to expand their empire within Turkey itself, and at the height of their glory, their empire touched the Balkans, Hungary, North Africa, Iraq, Syria and Arabia. The last straw for the Roman Empire came when Constantinople fell in 1453.   

The Ottomans continued their reign, although they faced numerous challenges from the Venetians and Russians. When the First World War broke out, the country saw one of the most sordid chapters of its history unfold - the expulsion of a million Armenians into the desert, where they were either killed or starved to death.  This incident still sparks a range of emotions and outrage, although the government’s “official” stance has often been to gloss over the details and refrain from using the word “genocide” to describe what happened.  

When the Ottomans lost WWI, Turkish possessions were handed to the control of the British and French armies.  This humiliation was enough for a revolutionary movement headed by Mustafa Kamal to overthrow the Ottomans in1923.  Kamal himself, better known as Ataturk, is regarded as the founder of the modern Turkish republic.  Sweeping changes occurred including separation of church and state and implementing democratic rule.  

Turkish democracy has evolved over the years, battling charges of poor human rights, especially over the treatment of Kurdish minorities.  Since the eighties, Turkey has ambitiously pursued inclusion into the European Union.  This medical tourism junction between Europe and Asia is one of the most strategically located pieces of real state anywhere in the world, and this has contributed immensely to its economy. Medical tourism once restricted to the country’s renowned hamaams, has now taken the form of more allopathic and surgical treatments, creating an industry that promises to to boost the country’s economy even further.

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