identity

Ask a Turk what it means to be Turkish, and the answer will sooner or later pass through one name: Ataturk. The era that bears his name did more than create a state; it created a self-image for an entire people.

Every nation tells itself a story, and Turkey’s story was rewritten in a single generation. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, it did not simply create a new state; it created a new kind of citizen.

Turkey’s identity is a mosaic of the many civilizations that have shaped its land, and the ancient Greek Ionia is one of its brightest tiles.

Turkey’s identity is built on layers, and one of the richest is the Roman layer.

Every nation has a founding chapter, the moment its story begins, and for Turkey that chapter is written by the Seljuk Empire.

No force shaped modern Turkish identity more directly than the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey’s identity is often described as a bridge between worlds, and no empire did more to build that bridge than the Byzantine Empire.

Few ancient civilizations are as woven into modern Turkey’s sense of itself as the Hittites.