A Brief History of Turkey

Turkey was for 623 years part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1918 shortly after World War one allied forces occupied Turkey. This occupation prompted the Turkish War of Independence. This led to the creation of the Turkish National Movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander. The goal of the Turkish National Movement was to reject the terms of the Treaty of Sevres, which was a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies. Following the end of the war in 1922 the Allied forces were removed from the country. In November 1922 Turkey abolished foreign rule and became an Independent country. The initial government was a form of parliament. However it wasn't until October 1923 that the Republic of Turkey was officially named the successor to the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal officially became the first President of Turkey and introduced many reforms with the aim of a new secular republic. A new writing system was put in place based off the Latin alphabet, full right for women were established and the famous Turkish fez was abolished.

Initially Turkeys government was a parliamentary representative democracy. Turkey has a strong tradition of secularism. The Turkish constitution governs the legal work and sets the main principles of government. The presidents role in the republic is mostly ceremonial. Presidents are elected for one, seven year term by directed elections. The people with the real power is the Prime minister and his council. The Prime minister is elected through parliament via votes. Turkey's initial form of economy was a statist system. It had a strict government planned budget and limitations over private sector participation, foreign trade and currency flow. Also very strictly mo...

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...ary carried out another coup.

Some modern challenges Turkey faces today has to do with Human rights. Some of the many problems turkey has is the ongoing debate over torture, freedom of expression and right to life. Also Turkey faces problems with freedom of religion, assembly and association. However once quickly rising problem in Turkey is racism mainly against Armenians and Jews which leads to hate crimes which are also on the rise in Turkey.

Works Cited

Goff, Richard, Walter Moss, Janice Terry, Jiu-hwa Upshur, and Michael Schroeder. "The Twentieth Century and Beyond: A Global History." The Twentieth Century and Beyond: A Global History. N.p., 2007. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.

"BYU Harold B. Lee Library." History of Turkey: Primary Documents. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. .