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This is West Asia and here's Turkey. Now let's go, shall we?

Primarily situated on the peninsula of Anatolia, the land of Turkey boasts an exceedingly ancient history.

The Neolithic sites discovered in the country reveal that human beings, apparently before they knew how to make pots, could carve and assemble monumental stones and sculpt figures with dexterity. The most famous of these sites is that of Göbekli Tepe which is still being excavated and pondered over. This same region of what's now Turkey was also part of the Fertile Crescent wherein the first civilizations arose.

Cities, farms, writing, a lot was happening. In the Bronze Age we meet the mysterious

Hattians with their unknown language and metalwork skills. The Hurrians who fought Egypt with their

Mitanni Empire. And of course the Hittites who fought both the Mitanni and the

Egyptians. The Hittites grew strong enough to dominate Anatolia and stop the northern expansion of Ramses II but succumbed to the upheaval that was the

Late Bronze Age collapse and collapsed. Another city that fell at this time was Troy, located here on the strait known as the Dardanelles. Maybe there's a link between this and the legend of the Trojan War immortalized by Homer in the Iliad.

The Iron Age saw the extensive arrival of Greek settlers who established many cities including Ephesus, Miletus,

Smyrna and Byzantium. A number of kingdoms reigned in such regions as Lydia, Lycia, Paphlagonia,

Phrygia, Cappadocia, Cilicia and

Caria. The king of Lydia, Croesus, came to rule a large portion of the peninsula and was famed for his immense wealth. Yet while his kingdom was great, another power was burgeoning in the east, the Persians.

King Cyrus conquered not only Lydia but all Anatolia, which became part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. In 499 BC, the Greeks of the west coast revolted against Persian rule, ultimately leading to a much, much larger conflict. Following the surprise Persian defeat after invading Greece, the coastal cities were liberated. Most of Anatolia remained under Persian rule, however, until the conquests of Alexander, after which the

Greek language, religion and culture took firm root. Two of the seven wonders of the world were built in what's now Turkey. The

Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of

Halicarnassus, the same city in which Herodotus, the father of history, was born. Here he is looking as if someone took the last donut.

Celts invaded and settled in central

Anatolia and became known as Galatians after Gaul. And to the east, the Armenians established a prominent kingdom. But everyone ended up conquered by Rome.

The Romans gobbled up all Anatolia and standing to this day is the evidence of their many centuries of rule, including this fine aqueduct. During Roman rule,

Christianity spread through Anatolia and three of the letters of the Apostle Paul were addressed to churches there. Big changes arrived with Constantine, the first emperor to embrace Christianity, who moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium, which he named

Constantinople after himself. When the western half of the Roman Empire fell to

German invaders, the other half survived.

This Greek-speaking eastern Roman Empire is known to us as the Byzantine Empire, which attained its pinnacle of power in the 6th century under Emperor Justinian, whose general Belisarius conquered with proficiency. Legislative innovations were instituted, which greatly influenced subsequent western law. And art, thought and culture flourished. And the glorious

Hagia Sophia was constructed, for centuries the largest cathedral in the world.

But the bigger your empire is, the more you have to defend it. And over its long lifespan,

Byzantium expanded and contracted like a pair of transcontinental lungs.

The 7th century brought devastation at the hands of the Arabs, who, fired up by their new religion of Islam, invaded and conquered Byzantine territories.

Much of the Arab success was due to good timing, as Byzantium was exhausted from perpetual war with Persia. The Arab

Caliphates snatched bits of Anatolia, but they were never able to capture Constantinople.

Aiding the Byzantines was their secret weapon, Greek fire. Its chemical composition remains unknown, but whatever it was, it burned on water, and was utilized against the enemy via grenades and siphons, that is, flamethrowers.

Byzantium began to recover, and enjoyed a resurgence under its Macedonian dynasty. But then came the thunderclap that would prove the harbinger of Byzantine doom.

The Turks! Yes, here they are at last. Originating in East Asia, either in Siberia or Mongolia, Turkic tribes began migrating west, and converted to the Islamic religion that they encountered there. The Seljuk Turks founded a powerful state in the Middle East, which adopted

Persian culture and beat the Byzantines, but lost against the Crusaders. Outlasting the Seljuk Empire was their sultanate named Rum after Rome, which reached its apogee under Khir Khobar I.

The sultanate declined steadily after it was crushed in battle by the Mongols, and ended up splitting into smaller segments.

But now, let's see how Constantinople's going.

What the? What's going on? Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem entangled themselves in Byzantine politics, and after not getting paid, ended up doing the unthinkable, sacking the city. Crusaders plundered the grandest metropolis in the world, causing irreparable damage, and trouncing any Byzantine hopes of ever regaining their lost lands. Alright, well, back to the

Turks. Osman I carved out a chunk of Anatolia for himself, and began a conquering tradition his descendants would emulate.

Murad I more than doubled

Ottoman territory before he died, fighting the Serbs in 1389. His successor, with his cool beard, continued with the campaigning until he was defeated in the

Battle of Ankara against the Uzbek leader

Timur. This led the Ottoman Empire to descend into civil war, in which the sultan's sons fought for the throne. A huge boost to Turkish imperial ambition came with Mehmed II, who in 1453, finally conquered

Constantinople, which was pillaged while its citizens were massacred, enslaved, etc.

and the Hagia Sophia made to serve as a mosque. Mehmed made the city his capital, and oversaw much building and patronized the arts. Here he is, very seriously sniffing a flower. Constantly at war as they were, the Ottomans always needed soldiers, and found a good way of acquiring them. Kidnapping! Yep, the Devshurme system involved the abduction of European children, who were forced to convert to Islam and serve the army. And Ottoman military might certainly proved itself under Selim the Grim, who conquered the

Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, and massively enlarged

Turkish rule. Much of his success was no doubt due to his sensational mustache.

Under Suleyman the Magnificent, the Ottoman

Empire reached its peak of strength and richness. Plush palaces, whirling dervishes, harems, eunuchs, and janissary warriors are just some of the images that spring to mind when the word Ottoman is mentioned.

Though others might just think of the thing you put your feet on.

Suleyman certainly wanted to put his feet on more land, and campaigned vigorously.

In the East, he invaded Persian domains and captured Baghdad. In the West, he took

Belgrade and defeated the Hungarians.

Suleyman was succeeded by Selim II, known as the Drunkard, during whose reign the

Ottomans captured Cyprus, but then suffered a ruinous defeat at sea in the Battle of

Lepanto. When Mehmed III ascended the throne as Sultan, he had all 19 of his brothers killed. Ahmed I did not do that, but he rather built the glorious Blue

Mosque in Constantinople. In 1683, with their empire at its territorial zenith, the Ottomans marched on Vienna in Austria, and besieged it, but were defeated after the arrival of Polish forces.

The war that followed saw the Ottomans lose territory to European powers. As the 18th century progressed, the Ottoman Empire's decline became more and more evident, as it fell behind Western Europe in modernization. A war against Russia ended in defeat, and then another ended the same way.

To remedy the shortcomings, Mahmud II passed reforms, but the losses kept piling on, against Russia, against

France, and from within their own empire.

The Greeks launched a successful war of independence, and Ottoman efforts to address the rising nationalism of other subject nations flopped. Still, an alliance with

Britain and France saw a win against Russia in the Crimean War, but then a loss against Russia, as more nations broke away and gained independence, and Britain took control of Egypt and Cyprus. When the Armenians, tired of being second-class citizens, dared to appeal for better treatment, the Sultan gave Kurdish bandits permission to attack them. Still, the Armenians protested, and so they were attacked again, assaults that spiralled into a general slaughter of Christians. Tens of thousands died. In retaliation, Armenian nationalists attempted to assassinate the Sultan.

In 1908, a group known as the Young

Turks, led by men like Ahmed here, with his marvellous moustache, revolted against the tyrannical Sultan, demanding the restitution of Parliament and the Constitution.

In 1909, as the Sultan attempted to regain power, mobs decided to slaughter Armenians again, about 20,000 this time, but Turkish losses were far greater when they were kicked out of the Balkans.

These Bulgarians are posing proudly in front of dead Turkish civilians. Truly a time of misery. In WWI, the ailing

Ottoman Empire joined Germany to fight against the Allies, famously winning at Gallipoli, before incurring defeat in the Mesopotamian Campaign. The Arabs had eagerly joined the Allies to cast off

Ottoman rule, but before the Empire fell, it roared once more against its non-Turkish inhabitants. Hundreds of thousands of

Assyrians and Greeks were killed, and over a million Armenians were slaughtered, in a brutal genocide that the Turkish government to this day denies. The chief architect of the atrocities was assassinated by an Armenian soldier in 1921. The next year, the Ottoman Empire officially ended, and the future of partitioned Turkey was being decided via war.

Constantinople was occupied by the Allies, and the Turks aimed to do something about it.

Turkish forces secured the south with a victory over the French, and repelled the Greek push to acquire Anatolian land. With the

Sultanate abolished, the Republic of Turkey was born in 1923, and Mustafa Kemal became the first president, later known as Ataturk. He aimed to transform Turkey into a modern, secular state, and passed a number of reforms ranging from allowing women to vote, to changing the alphabet. Turkey avoided World War

II, and joined NATO. However, when the government became restrictive, and the economy faltered, there was a coup, and then another. Amidst clashes between Greeks and

Turks on Cyprus, Turkey invaded and occupied the north. This haven for

Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983, but only Turkey recognises it. Meanwhile, there was another coup, and an escalation in the long, bloody ongoing conflict with the Kurds, a large Iranian minority that demand independence. Turkey also began to apply for membership in the EU, but negotiations decelerated due to concerns over Turkey's human rights violations, concerns that only amplified under President

Erdogan. Anyway, Turkey today enjoys a very high level of human development, and is one of the most visited nations in the world, and possesses one of the largest economies, and its borders have encompassed great human achievements, ranging from literature and philosophy, sport, science, and cinema, and we can't forget that delicious food! So, that's it for Turkey, and that's all from me for now. Buh-bye!