Overview

Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. The country's new leader, Mustafa Kemal, constitutionally abolished the caliphate, or practice of having a supreme Islamic leader. Kemal, renamed Ataturk (father of the Turks), instituted sweeping liberal reforms in order to Westernize the new nation. In 1945, Turkey joined the U.N., and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. Turkey occupied the northern portion of Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek...