events - Greece, Turkey

Chronography of Greece &Turkey

See below for classical� Olympic Games

Page last modified 14 January 2023

Click Here for map showing frontiers of Greece, 1830 � present day.

See also Cyprus

See also Islam

10 January 2023, King Constantine II, last King of Greece, died aged 82.

10 July 2020, The Turkish Council of State voted unanimously to reconvert the Hagia Sofia museum back into a mosque. There were protests from Greek Christians, noting that the building had been built as a church in AD 537 for Byzantine Emperor Justinian, before conversion to a mosque in 1470, and then a museum in 1934 as Turkey secularised under Attaturk. There were suspicions that the move by Turkish President Erdogan was intended to distract from Turkish economic problems.

10 August 2018, US President Trump announced a doubling of tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium. The US was in dispute over the detention of a US pastor on dubious charges of terrorism. There were concerns over Turkish President Erdogan�s increasingly authoritarian rule. Erdogan refused to raise interest rates, and the Turkish lira plummeted in value.

16 April 2017, A referendum in Turkey was narrowly won by President Erdogan, with 51.3% of the vote. The victory gave him wider powers.

31 December 2016, A nightclub in Istanbul packed with New Year�s Eve revellers was attacked by a gunman who killed 39 and injured 69.

19 December 2016, The Russian Ambassador to Turkey was shot dead in an art gallery in Ankara by an Islamist gunman in revenge for the Russian intervention to support pro-Assad forces in Syria. Turkey was in opposition to the Russian policy in Syria, being very anti-Assad.

10 December 2016, An explosion at a football match in Istanbul killed 35 people and injured 155. Kurdish militants were blamed.

15 July 2016, A military coup began in Turkey. The military wanted to preserve the secular nature of Turkey and were against the Islamist policies of President Erdogan. However by 16 July 2016 the coup had failed, with 161 dead, over 1,400 injured and some 3,000 arrested.

24 November 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian jet fighter that was taking part in Russia�s pro-Assad campaign in Syria, against both ISIS and non-ISIS rebels. Turkey said the aircraft had transgressed into Turkish airspace, and was warned several times. Russia denied the warnings, and it appeared the jet had at most been in Turkish airspace for 2 or 3 seconds as it (might have) crossed a finger of Turkish territory jutting into Syria.

Greek Debt Crisis 2010 (2002, 1992) - 2015

5 July 2015, A referendum in Greece solidly rejected the austerity measures demanded by the IMF and Brussels as a condition of further loans to Greece to rescue its economy. However these measures were largely implemented after the Greek banks and stock exchange closed and drastic limits were imposed on cashpoint withdrawals.

25 January 2015, In Greece the Left-Wing populist party Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, won the elections. Greece was suffering the effects of an austerity programme having gone through a major recession and owing massive debts to the EU. Syriza now threatened to default on Greece�s repayment schedule, much to the consternation of Germany. Greek debts in 2015 amounted to 175% of its GDP, with 25% unemployment.

27 October 2011, An emergency meeting in Brussels concerning the Greek Debt Crisis.� A writedown of 50% of Greek bonds was agreed, recapitalisation of European banks, and an increase in the bailout fund of the European Financial Stability facility.

2 May 2010, The EU and the IMF agreed a Euro 110 billion bailout for Greece; Greece would adopt austerity measures.

2002, Greece adopted the Euro.

2 December 1992, The Prime Minister of Greece, Constantine Mitsotakis, dismissed his entire Cabinet after dissent over austerity measures broke out.

29 October 2014, 150 Kurdish fighters set off from Erbil (Kurdish Iraq) to travel through� Turkish territory to reinforce Kurdish fighters across the Turkish-Syria border battling ISIS in the Syrian border town of Kobani. ISIS began to lose ground there, as Syrian Kurds were reinforced by US arms drops and US air strikes against ISIS. The fight for Kobani assumed increased importance as the global TV media focussed on the battle from just across the border in Turkey. The issue of Turkey allowing Kurdish reinforcements across its territory was sensitive because Turkey has its own Kurdish minority region in the south-east.

2013, The European Court of Human Rights demanded that Turkey pay Euro 90 million compensation in damages to Greek Cypriots. Turkey refused to comply.

31 May 2013, Turkish police burnt down a protestors camp in Gezi Park, Istanbul. The protests were against plans to redevelop the park, one of the few green spaces in the city, for commercial uses.

6 December 2008, Rioting in Greece after Greek police shot a 15 year old in the head, killing him.

2007, Turkish-Armenian community leader Hrant Dink was assassinated.

22 July 2007, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected President of Turkey. There were concerns that his Islamic sympathies might threaten the secularism of Turkey.

2006, Talks on Turkey joining the EU broke down over the northern Cyprus issue.

28 November 2006, Pope Benedict XVI began a visit to Turkey He expressed support for their bid to join the EU, but also spoke of the need to respect freedom of worship, an oblique reference to the freedom of Christian worship there.

2003, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the AK Party became President in Turkey. Restrictions on using the Kurdish language in Turkey were eased.

Erdogan took power

20 November 2003, Suicide bombers struck again in Istanbul at the British Consulate and the headquarters of the HSBC bank. They killed 27, including the British Consul, Roger Short.

1/3/2003, Turkey refused to allow the US to use its territory for attacks on Iraq.

8/2/2000, In Turkey, Kurdish supporters of Abdullah Ocalan declared a ceasefire, and Ocalan was granted an indefinite stay of execution.

29/6/1999, In Turkey, Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan was sentenced to death.

15/2/1999, Turkish agents in Kenya captured Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan and took him to Turkey to stand trial. His supporters then planted bombs in Turkey, in 3/1999.

23/6/1996, Andreas Papandreou, Greek statesman, born 1919, died.

2 July 1993, In Turkey, 40 died in an arson attack on a hotel by Islamist terrorists protesting against Salman Rushdie�s book The Satanic Verses.

14/6/1993, Tansu Ciller became Turkey�s first woman president.

1991, Turkey relaxed some laws that repressed Kurdish culture. Speaking Kurdish was now allowed, but publishing or broadcasting in Kurdish remained banned; it was also an offence to own a recording of Kurdish music.

1987, Turkey applied to join the EEC.

6 December 1983, Turkey�s National Security Council dissolved, ending three years of military rule.

24 April 1983. Turkey restored political parties.

18 October 1981. The first Socialist government in Greece was elected under Andreas Papandreou.

1 January 1981. Greece became the 10^th member of the European Community.

12/9/1980, General Kenan Evren headed a military takeover in Turkey. Demirel was ousted.

15 October 1979, Bulent Ecevit, leader of the governing leftist secular Republican People�s Party, resigned amidst growing unrest in Turkey. At the start of 1979, martial law was in force in 13 of Turkey�s 67 provinces, due to clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslims. In April 1979 unrest in Kurdish regions caused martial law to be instituted in a further 6 provinces. There were also Left-Right wing clashes. The Turkish Army began to ally with the Right wing opposition Justice Party, led by Suleyman Demirel. Demirel took over governing Turkey, and announced that during Ecevit�s 22-month rule, there had been 2,444 murders by terrorists. However the killings continued. The US was hoping to store nuclear weapons at its bases in Turley, but Ecevit had not allowed this, without USSR approval, which was not given.

24 August 1975, The officers responsible for the military coup in Greece were sentenced to death in Athens � this was later commuted to life imprisonment.

12/6/1975. Greece applied to join the EEC.

8 December 1974, Greece voted against restoring the monarchy by 62%.

17 November 1974. The rule of the colonels ended in Greece, and Karamanlis became Prime Minister.

19 August 1974, The US Ambassador to Nicosia, Rodger Davies, was shot dead during a Greek Cypriot demonstration outside his Embassy.

1 August 1974, Restoration of the 1952 Constitution in Greece.

27 July 1974.� Greek military leaders handed political power to a civilian government.

23 July 1974, The Greek �Colonels� military junta resigned.� Civilian rule returned to Greece, under President Karamanlis.

25 December 1973, Ismet Inonu, Turkish statesman, died aged 84.

14 November 1973, Greek students, in a protest against the military rule of the Colonels, occupied the Polytechnical School of Athens. The protest was ended by brutal police violence.

5 August 1973, A terrorist attack at Athens Airport left 3 dead and 55 wounded.

1/6/1973. The Greek monarchy was abolished and George Papadopoulos became first president of the Republic.� The Greek Colonels (see 21 April 1967 and 13 December 1967) alleged that ex-King Constantine II was plotting to overthrow their regime from exile.

15 April 1973, Naim Talu, former civil servant, formed the new Turkish Government.

23 May 1973, The Greek Government foiled a naval mutiny.

10 April 1970, The Greek government relaxed martial law.

17/9/1968, Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, was born

1 November 1968, Georgios Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, died.

13 December 1967, King Constantine II fled Greece after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the military junta, see 21 April 1967, and 1/6/1973.

21 April 1967. Colonels in Greece under Papadopolous took power in a military coup; parliamentary democracy was suspended. King Constantine II initially collaborated with the colonels until 13 December 1967� but then unsuccessfully attempted a counter coup.� He later fled to Rome.

17 August 1964, Greece withdrew its forces from NATO because of tension with Turkey over Cyprus.

6/3/1964, Constantine II became king of the Hellenes, succeeding his father Paul I.

29 October 1961, General elections in Greece were won by the National Radical Union. Constantine Karamanlis became Prime Minister.

17/9/1961. The ex-President of Turkey, Menderes, (see 27 May 1960) was executed at the prison on Imrali island, having been accused of breaking the Turkish Constitution.

27 May 1960, President Adnan Menderes (1889-1961) of Turkey was ousted in an army coup.� He founded the Democratic Party in 1945 and became Prime Minister in 1950. Pro-Western, he took Turkey into NATO in 1952. However he was also sympathetic to Islam, and the Turkish army, very secularist, found this intolerable. The Army believed that Menderes posed a threat to the secularisation of Turkey begin by Ataturk in the 1920s. Ultimately, severe inflation from 1954 eroded Menderes�s support in the towns; Menderes relied on rural peasant support.� Menderes was forced to assume dictatorial powers in April 1960, just before his overthrow. See 17/9/1961. In September 1990 Menderes was posthumously �rehabilitated� and given a State Funeral, attended by the Turkish President.

14/6/1959, The US agreed to provide Greece with nuclear information and supply ballistic missiles.

27 October 1957, Celal Bayar was re-elected President of Turkey.

16 October 1957, Syria declared a State of Emergency following Turkish troop movements on the Syrian border. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles warned the USSR against attacking Turkey.

5 October 1955, Karamanlis became Prime Minister of Greece, succeeding Alexander Papagos on his death.

6/9/1955, Anti-Greek riots in Istanbul and Izmir.

24/2/1955, Turkey and Iraq signed the Baghdad Pact. This was an alliance of mutual support against Communist activity within their borders or as an external threat. Iran joined later in 1955.

27 November 1954, Istanbul�s ancient bazaar was devastated in a� fire that destroyed 2,000 shops and caused �178 million damage.

23 August 1954, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey signed a treaty of mutual assistance.

16 November 1952, In Greece, Field Marshal Alexandros Papagos formed a government after the success of Greek Rally in the elections.

18/2/1952, Greece and Turkey joined NATO.

20/9/1951, NATO invited Greece and Turkey to join.

2 April 1950 Recep Peker, Prime Minister of Turkey 1946�1947, died aged 61

16 October 1949, The Greek civil war ended with the defeat of the rebels.

20 August 1948, Greek Communists were defeated by Government forces.

27 December 1947, The Greek Government banned the Communist Party.

22 May 1947, US Congress agreed aid for Greece and Turkey.

1 April 1947. King George II of Greece died aged 56, and was succeeded by his brother, 45, as King Paul I.

28/9/1946, King George II returned to Greece. A referendum had shown a majority in favour of restoring the monarchy.

1/9/1946. A Greek plebiscite favoured return the of the monarchy.

27/6/1946, Italy ceded the Dodecanese islands to Greece.

23/2/1945, Turkey, reluctantly, declared war on Germany � only because the Allies had announced that only those nations who did so would be invited to take part in the United Nations Conference at San Francisco.

Post War civil conflict in Greece

12/2/1945, The Treaty of Varkiza was signed. The Greek resistance agreed to disarm and relinquish control of all the territory it occupied in exchange for legal recognition, free elections, and the removal of Nazi collaborators from the armed forces and police.

20 December 1944, British troops rescued 350 military personnel from Greek ELAS Communist fighters at Kifissia, near Athens. Since Greece was liberated from the Nazis, there has been a vicious power struggle between Communist and Nationalist factions.

18 December 1944, British troops in Greece began an offensive against ELAS rebels

17 October 1944, Rival partisans in Athens began to fight each other.

End of World War Two in Greece

13 October 1944, Athens was liberated from the Germans, who occupied it on 27 April 1941.

4 October 1944, Allied troops landed on the Greek mainland, at Patras.

2 October 1944. British troops landed on Crete.

2 August 1944. Turkey broke off relations with Germany, reluctantly, under pressure from the United Nations to fulfil its treaty obligations.

3/1944, The EAM (National Liberation Front) of Greece, a Leftist coalition dominated by the KKE (Communist Party of Greece), set up the PEEA (Political Committee of National Liberation). This was effectively a rival to the Greek Government-in-exile; the PEEA ran, in areas liberated from the Nazis, systems of healthcare, education and ustice. It was vehemently opposed to the return of King George II. In 1945 the EAM disintegrated and the KKE took over. After the War, the Communists, Republicans and Royalists started a civil war that lasted until 1949.

See France-Germany, World War Two for main European events of World War Two

4 December 1943, Allied leaders tried to persuade Turkish Prime Minister Ismet Ionu to join the War. Turkey however, being weak, feared a German invasion if it did so, and he only gave a vague promise to possibly allow British aircraft to operate from Turkish bases.

18/6/1941, Turkey concluded a two-year non-aggression pact with Germany.

29 May 1941. Axis forces took the capital of Crete, Canea.

20 May 1941. Germany began an aerial invasion of Crete. King George II of Greece fled Crete on 23 May 1941. By 1/6/1941 the German occupation of Crete was complete.� Guerrilla action continued on Crete until its liberation in 1945.

14 May 1941. Germany began a week-long bombing of Crete. On 20 May 1941 German paratroopers attacked the islands three airfields. They managed to seize only one airfield, Maleme, but this was enough, and the British had to evacuate Crete, leaving 13,000 wounded behind.

27 April 1941. The Germans occupied Athens. They held it until 12 October 1944.

22 April 1941. British forces left Greece.

9 April 1941, Salonika was taken by the Germans.� This cut off Thrace from Greece and divided Macedonia in two.

28/3/1941, The Battle of Matapan, off the coast of Crete. The British navy beat an Italian fleet, sinking seven warships for no loss of its own.

2/3/1941, Turkey made passage of the Dardanelles by permit only.

22 November 1940. The Greeks routed the Italians at Koritza.

29 October 1940, British troops landed in Greece.

28 October 1940. Italy invaded Greece, from Albania.� This opened a Balkan Front, and was a complication to Hitler�s plans to invade Russia, as the British would become involved.

2/6/1940, Constantine I, King of the Hellenes, was born the son of King Paul.

24/6/1939, Turkey concluded a pact of mutual assistance with France, see 12 May 1939.� Turkey enedeavoured to remain neutral in the unfolding conflict.� Its army was poorly equipped.

23/6/1939. Hatay, formerly the Syrian town of Alexandretta, was incorporated into Turkey. It had been part of Ottoman territory until 1919, and had been the subject of a Franco-Turkish dispute which was settled at the League of Nations in 1937. This said that Alexandretta was to be its own entity controlling its own internal affairs, with Syria controlling its foreign policy. Iskenderun is the Turkish name; a city near this site was established by Alexander the Great in 333 BC to commemorate his victory over the Persians at Issus.

12 May 1939, Turkey concluded a pact of mutual assistance with Britain.� See 24/6/1939.

18 November 1938, Twenty people were trampled to death at the funeral of Kemal Attaturk.

11 November 1938. Ismet Inonu succeeded Kemal Ataturk, who died the day before, as President of Turkey.

10 November 1938. Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923, died aged 57. Ismet Inonu, 54, was elected to succeed him.

31 July 1938. Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with Greece.

3 July 1938, By agreement with France, the district of Alexandretta was established as an autonomous part of Syria, but with a legal system conforming mainly to Turkey.� It was called Hatay, after the Hittites, which Turkey considered its ancestors.� Within a� year, Hatay was ceded to Turkey.

27 April 1938. A friendship treaty was signed between Greece and Turkey.

25 October 1937, Celal Bayar became Prime Minister of Turkey.

15/2/1937, The Balkan Entente Conference was held at Athens.

5 August 1936, The Greek Communist Party attempted to call a General Strike.� However this precipitated a Right Wing dictatorship which broke up the Communist Party.

13 April 1936, After the inconclusive Greek general elections of 26 January 1936, a period of uncertainty, and the death of Prime Minister Demerdjis, General John Metaxas became Greek Prime Minister.

18/3/1936, Eleutherios Venizelos, Greek politician, died.

25 November 1935, The monarchy was restored in Greece.

3 November 1935, Plebiscite in Greece favoured the restoration of King George II, with 97% voting in favour.

9/6/1935, General election in Greece. The Populists (Monarchists) won 243 seats, although the Liberal party boycotted the election,

Turkish secularisation programme under Ataturk

1 January 1935. Mustafa Kemal changed his name to Kemal Ataturk.

25 November 1934. Mustapha Kemal told all Turks to adopt a surname by 1 January 1935. His was to be �Ataturk�, or �Father of the Turks�. He also banned hereditary titles in Turkey. Turkey decreed that the Hagia Sofia mosque in Istanbul was now to be a secular museum.

20 April 1931. The Republican party of Mustapha Kemal won a landslide in the Turkish national elections.

28/3/1930. Constantinople had its name changed to Istanbul, and Angora to Ankara, by Kemal Attaturk.

3 November 1928. Turkey abolished the use of the Arabic script and adopted the Roman alphabet. The Turkish Post Office was ordered to return to sender all post not bearing the new-style �correct� addresses.

9 April 1928. Turkey abolished Islam as the State religion.

2/9/1927, Mustafa Kemal made Turkey a one-party state.

1/9/1926, Civil marriage was established in Turkey.

17/2/1926, Polygamy was prohibited in Turkey.

25 November 1925, In Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, as part of his Westernisation program, outlawed the traditional fez and substituted western hats.

25/2/1925, Kurdish rebellion broke out in Turkey.

20 April 1924, Turkey continued its modernisation plan, with the abolition of tithes and the shortening of military service.

3/3/1924, Mustafa Kemal formally abolished the caliphate, and exiled all memnbers of the House of Osman. This ended the Ottoman Dynasty, founded in 1290.

2/3/1924, The Turkish National Assembly abolished the caliphate, disestablishing the Islamic religion.

29 October 1923. Mustapha Kemal proclaimed Turkey a Republic and himself as its first President, called Kemal Ataturk.

12 October 1923. The Turkish capital was officially moved from Istanbul to Ankara.

13 August 1923. Mustapha Kemal, (Ataturk), was elected President of Turkey.

1 November 1922. Mustafa Kemal announced a new Turkish Republic.

5 August 1921, Mustafa Kemal became ruler of Turkey and Supreme Commander of the army.

16 January 1933, Eleutherios Venizelos again became Prime Minister of Greece.

31 October 1932, In Greece, after an inconclusive general election, Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos resigned and was replaced by Panyoti Tsaldaris, a moderate Royalist.

1930, The Balkan Entente was set up. It included Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia; it was essentially a defensive alliance against the expansionist aims of Bulgaria, which was seeking to regain territories lost to Greece and Yugoslavia under the Treaty of Neuilly (1919). In the 1930, as authoritarian regimes gained power in all members of the Balkan Entente, the entire region moved politically closer to Germany and Italy.

30 October 1930. Greece and Turkey signed a treaty of friendship.

12 August 1930. Turkish and Iranian forces launched attacks on Kurdish rebels.

27/6/1929, In Turkey, President Kemal outlawed Communist propaganda.

19 August 1928, Greek elections produced a victory for the Liberals under Venizelos.

3 July 1928. In Greece, Eleutherios Venizelos was again appointed Prime Minister, following his return in March.

30 October 1927, Admiral Paul Kondouriotis, the President of Greece, survived an assassination attempt by a 25-year-old waiter. Zafioios Goussies shot President Kondouriotis in the head as the he was leaving a conference of Greece's mayors in Athens.

5/6/1926, At the Treaty of Angora, Turkey accepted the Brussels Line, setting the northern boundary of Iraq, and including Mosul within Iraq.� Turkey was to receive a share of oil revenues from Mosul for the next 25 years, and to be compensated for public works carried out around Mosul.

3 January 1926, In Greece, Pangalos assumed dictatorial powers; in April 1926 he was elected President.

16 December 1925, The League of Nations voted to uphold the Brussels Line, dividing Mosul villayet, see 21 November 1925, 29 October 1924.

21 November 1925, The Permanent Court of International Justice agreed to the Brussels Line, dividing Mosul villayet, see 29 October 1924, and 16 December 1925.

29 October 1925, Greek troops withdrew from Bulgaria, on orders from the League of Nations.

22 October 1925. Border dispute flared between Greece and Bulgaria.

26/6/1925, Coup in Greece; General Theodoros Pangalos seized power.

16 April 1925. In Turkey, the Kurdish uprising ended.

2 April 1925, France and Turkey agreed on the autonomy of Alexandretta.

28/2/1925. Kurdish uprising in Turkey.

20 November 1924, Kurds in Turkey rebelled; they were suppressed with considerable force.

29 October 1924, The Council of Brussels drew the Brussels Line, dividing the villayet of Mosul into Turkish and Iraqi areas.� See 21 November 1925, 16,12,1925.

27 January 1924. Rauf Denktash, Turkish-Cypriot politician, was born.

Return of King Constantine. Turks pushed back Greek forces. King andicates and Greece becomes a Republic

11 January 1924, Eleutherios Venizelos accepted the Premiership of Greece under the National Assembly.

25/3/1924, Greece was proclaimed a Republic, as conformed by plebiscite on 13 April 1924. Admiral Pavlos Koundouriotis became President.

19 December 1923, King George II left Greece at the request of the ruling Revolutionary Committee.

17 December 1923. The Greek Army deposed King George II.

23 August 1923, The last Allied troops left Istanbul.

11 January 1923, Constantine, King of the Hellenes, died of a brain haemorrhage in Palermo (born 2 August 1868).

13 October 1922, The Armistice of Mudanya ended the Greek-Turkish War. Relations between Ankara and the Allies wree settled, and the Allies now allowed Turkish troops to enter Istanbul.

27/9/1922. Following Greece�s defeat in Turkey, King Constantine abdicated (see more at 18/3/1913). He was succeeded by King George II.

26 August 1922. Turkey began an offensive against Greece to recover land lost after World War One. The Russian government was sending military aid to Turkey. On 9/9/1922 Greece lost Smyrna, ending its presence on the eastern Aegean coast. Turkish forces now threatened British forces occupying the southern Dardanelles at Chanak; the British government authorised an ultimatum to Turkey, but the local British commander delayed its delivery until local Turkish agreement to respect the British zone had been secured.� As the Greek Army retreated it burnt Turkish towns.

29 July 1922. The Allies forbade Greece to occupy Constantinople.

18 December 1920 King Constantine was restored to the Greek throne.

5 December 1920, A Greek referendum result called for the return of King Constantine, deposed by the Allies in 1917.

31 August 1923. Italy seized the Greek island of Corfu.� This followed an incident in which an Italian General and 4 members of his staff were shot whilst determining the Albanian-Greek border on 27 August 1923.� Mussolini saw the incident as a national insult.� Greece appealed to the League of Nations on 3/9/1923, and under pressure from France and the UK, Italy withdrew from Corfu on 27/9/1923.� Greece was compelled to pay a considerable indemnity to Italy.

24 July 1923. The Treaty of Lausanne was signed. This restored Adrianople to Turkey after the Greco-Turkish was of 1923. Turkey regained the territories lost after World War One, including the eastern Aegean and Armenia.

11/9/1922. The British Mandate in Palestine began; Britain took over rulership from the Ottoman Turks.

9/9/1922, The Turkish Army entered Smyrna, and its Christians fled in chaos.� Central Smyrna was burnt on 13/9/1922.

1921, The chief organiser of the Ottoman massacre of Armenian Christians, Talaat Pasha, was himself assassinated by a survivor of that genocide. Pasha had rfecorded that the population of Armenians under Ottoman rule had fallen from 1,265,000 in 1915 to just 284,157 in 1917.

20 October 1921, France recognised the Turkish Government in Ankara.

13 October 1921, Turkey, Russia, and the Caucasian Republics signed a treaty in Kars.� Turkey retained Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin, and Russia took Batum.

4 April 1921, Greek forces defeated the Turks at Eskiskehr.

3 January 1921, Turkey concluded a peace with the Republic of Armenia at Alexandropol.� Armenia had been raiding Turkish frontier villages, which had led Turkey to attack Armenia.� Turkey took Kars and Alendropol.

2 December 1920, Armenia was forced to conclude a peace treaty with Turkey that not only annulled the Wilson Line but gave the district of Kars, formerly Russian/Armenian, to Turkey.� This treaty also stated that �there were no Armenian majorities anywhere in Turkey�.

22 November 1920, US President Wilson set a proposed border (The Wilson Line) between Turkey and Armenia that would have given Armenia lands as far west as Trebizond, Erzingan, and Bitlis.� However on the ground both Turkey and the USSR were advancing into Armenia and the Wilson line never materialised.� See 2 December 1920.

17 November 1920, Dowager Queen Olga became Regent of Greece.

25 October 1920, King Alexander of Greece died of blood poisoning after being bitten by a monkey. His father, who abdicated in 1917, resumed the throne, continuing the struggle against Turkey.

14 November 1920, In Greece, supporters of Venizelos were heavily defeated in general elections.

10 August 1920. The Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sevres, ceding 80% of its land area. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_S%C3%A8vres for possible dismemberment of Turkey as proposed by Sevres. Syria became a French mandate (including Lebanon, see1/9/1920), Palestine and Mesopotamia became British mandates, Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands went to Italy, and the other Aegean Islands went to Greece.

25 July 1920, The Greeks took Adrianople.

9 July 1920, The Greeks took Bursa.

24/6/1920. The Greeks defeated the Turks at Alashehr.

22/6/1920, With British support, Greek forces attacked Turkish Nationalist troops.

20/3/1920. In response to the Syrian claim of 8/3/1920, the Lebanese Christians proclaimed their independence, choosing as their flag the French tricolour with a Lebanese cedar at its centre.

16/3/1920. Allied troops occupied Istanbul; Turkey arrested the Nationalists and the Sultan closed Parliament. Some Nationalists escaped to Ankara.

8/3/1920. Syria proclaimed independence from Ottoman Turkey, with Emir Faisal, hero of the Arab revolt, as King. He claimed not just the smaller Syria agreed by Britain and France, but of �natural Syria�, extending to the Euphrates and including Lebanon and Palestine. See 20/3/1920.

12/2/1920, A conference began in London to settle the main frontiers of Turkey to be demarcated in the Treaty of Sevres.� This conference ended on 23/2/1920, see 19 April 1920.

28 January 1920, The new Turkish Parliament, with a Nationalist majority, issued the Pact of Ankara affirming the integrity of Turkish territory, based on the resolutions of the Nationalist Congress of 1919.

Campaign by Mustapha Kemal against further loss of Turkish territory

23 April 1920. Turkish Nationalists set up a provisional government at Ankara, with Mustapha Kemal as President.

5 August 1919, Kemal declared Turkey independent of the Sultan at the Turkish Nationalist Congress.

23 July 1919, Turkish Nationalists met at Erzurum to resist Allied plans to carve up Turkey.

11 July 1919, The Turkish Sultan outlawed Kemal.

8 July 1919, The new Turkish Sultan Mohammed VI dismissed Mustapha Kemal.

19/6/1919, In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal and other nationalist leaders signed the Amasia Protocol, declaring their resistance to the Allied plans for Turkey and the Sultan�s co-operation with these plans.

19 May 1919, The Turkish war hero Mustapha Kemal resisted the further reduction of Turkish territory, organising military resistance.

15 May 1919, The Greek Army landed at Smyrna, under the protection of British, French, and US fleets, beginning an occupation of the area by massacring Turkish civilians.

5/2/1919, Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, was born.

2 January 1919, 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey were massacred by Turks.

26 December 1918, George Rallis, Prime Minister of Greece, was born (died 2006).

17 November 1918, The Communist Party of Greece was founded.

End of World War One

1 November 1918, Anglo-French troops took Constantinople.

31 October 1918. Ottoman Turkey surrendered to the Allies; the Dardanelles were reopened to Allied shipping. Anglo-French troops occupied Constantinople.

30 October 1918. (1) An armistice was concluded aboard the British warship Agamemnon, at Mudros, between Britain and Turkey.� However Turkey was to face some four more year�s fighting with Greece, and effectively with the Western Allies.

(2) Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lawrence, �Lawrence of Arabia�, shocked King George V by turning down the Order of the Bath and Distinguished Service Order. Lawrence was disappointed at how the Arabs had not achieved independence after World War One but their land had been carved up between Britain and France.� France, Catholic, took the Christian sites of Lebanon and Syria; Britain took Jordan and Iraq.

26 October 1918. Aleppo, Syria, was captured from the Turks by British and Arab troops advancing from the south.

13 October 1918, British troops occupied Tripoli, Lebanon.

7 October 1918, British troops took Beirut and Sidon.

1 October 1918. Arab forces under Emir Faisal, including the British officer T E Lawrence, captured Damascus from the Turks.

22/9/1918. Turkish resistance in Palestine collapsed.

20/9/1918. The British captured Nazareth.

18/9/1918, The British under General Allenby started a major offensive against the Turks, pushing them north out of Palestine, starting with a British victory at Megiddo. This offensive pushed the Turks out of Palestine, captured Damascus, and forced the Turks to accept an armistice on 30 October 1918.

9/9/1918. Allied victory at Megiddo.

29 July 1918. Germany severed diplomatic relations with Ottoman Turkey.

13/6/1918. A Turkish offensive in Palestine was halted.

26 April 1918, The Turks captured Kars, Caucasus, from Russia, however their cause was doomed as General Allenby made major gains in Palestine.

14 April 1918, Following the collapse of the Russians, Turkey captured Batumi on the Black Sea.� See 26 April 1918.

10/2/1918, Abdul-Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey from 31 August 1876, died (born 21/9/1842).

9 December 1917. Jerusalem was surrendered by the Turks to the British under General Allenby, who had advanced from Gaza in 10/1917 into Judaea and on to Jerusalem. The Turks had ruled Jerusalem since its capture from the Crusaders in 1244.

14 November 1917. Jaffa (Joppa) was captured by the British, under General Allenby, from the Turks.

9 November 1917. Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, unveiled plans for a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. The message was conveyed to the Zionist representative, Baron Rothschild. The British Wear cabinet, under David Lloyd George, believed that Zionist support would help the war effort, especially against the Ottoman Turks. Arabs outnumber Jews by ten to one in Palestine but Zionist leaders like Dr Chaim Weizmann would try and build up their numbers.

31 October 1917. British forces under General Allenby captured Beersheba from the Turks. This opened the way for the British capture of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine.

Meanwhile in 1916 Britain and France had secretly signed the Sykes-Picot agreement to divided up the Ottoman Lands in the Middle East after the War. France was to get the north-western half of the Fertile Crescent, that is Syria and Lebanon; Britain was to get the south-east, Jordan and Iraq. The Catholic church wanted French control of the Mediterranean coast, where many Maronite Christians lived, and Britain wanted French lands between them and the Russians to the north. Britain retained an air corridor to Iraq through Jordan; Britain was dropping poison gas on rebellious Iraqi Arabs. France divided off Lebanon as a Christian Republic from Syria; it also divided off Hatay and gave that to Syria, due to lobbying from Hatay�s Turkish minority. The Allies also considered giving Palestine to Belgium. They also, at the Treaty of Sevres (10 August 1920) backed the formation of a Kurdish State, but refused to allow the Kurds in Iraq or Syria to be part of this State; the idea never materialised.

22 July 1917, In Greece, King Constantine was forced to abdicate.

12 July 1917, First Battle of Ramadi. Unable to organize any attack on open ground due to searing heat, British forces were forced to retreat during the night while hounded by a force of 1,500 pro-Turkish Arabs.

4 July 1917, Lawrence of Arabia reassured the Arabs, who were wary of attacking the Turkish fort of Kethira under a full moon, that �for a while there will be no moon�. Lawrence knew a lunar eclipse was due. Turkish defenders panicked as the moon vanished, and the fort fell to the Arabs.

29/6/1917. Greece declared war on Germany.

12/6/1917. The pro-German King Constantine of Greece, who dismissed the pro-Allied government of Venizelos, was himself forced to abdicate by the Allies.

26/3/1917. British attack the Turks at Gaza (First Battle of Gaza).

17/3/1917. The British heavily defeated the Turks near Gaza.

11/3/1917. The Allies captured Baghdad from Ottoman Turkey.

17 October 1916, The Allies formally recognised the Greek Venizelos Government.

16 October 1916. The Allies took Athens.

9 October 1916, In Greece, Venizelos formed a provisional government at Salonika.

27/9/1916. Greece declared war on Bulgaria, which itself had declared war on Rumania earlier in the month.

10/9/1916. The Allies launched an offensive in Salonika.

See France-Germany for main events of World War One

20 August 1916. The Allies began an offensive against Turkey in Mesopotamia.

5 August 1916. The British defeated the Turks in a naval battle off Port Said.

16/6/1916, The Ottoman garrison at the Red Sea port of Jeddah surrendered to the Arabs.

9/6/1916. Sherif Hussein of Mecca led a revolt against the Ottoman Turks. The Arabs were angered by the Young Turks nationalist and secular policies.

16 May 1916, French diplomat Francois-Georges Picot and British diplomat Mark Sykes began a secret correspondence to decide how the Middle East would be divided up after World War One (see also 30 October 1917). The Western Powers had already decided that the Ottoman Empire was too vast and too corrupt to be allowed to survive. Britain would claim Jordan, most of Iraq, and the port city of Haifa. France� would take SE Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Palestine would be jointly administered between Britain and France. Russia would be granted the city of Constantinople and several Armenian-dominated regions. In fact the Russian Revolution of 1917 and further diplomatic developments meant that not all these provisions became reality, but the Sykes-Picot agreement set the scene for many of the issues of the Middle East during the 20th century.

29 April 1916. British troops surrendered to the Ottoman Turks after a siege of 143 days at Kut-el-Amara in Iraq. See 22 November 1915.

14 April 1916. The Allied bombarded Istanbul.

2/3/1916, The Russians took Bitlis, in Turkestan, from the Ottoman Turks.

16/2/1916, The Russians captured Erzurum, in the Caucasus, from Turkey.

13/2/1916, In the Erzurum Offensive Russian forces advanced on the Ottoman Third Army, which was too small to defend against the assault.

7/2/1916, The Erzurum Offensive. Russia� captured the Turkish towns of Hınıs and Mus,

4/2/1916, In Turkey, Crown Prince Yussuf Izzedin was assassinated.

17 January 1916. Russia began an offensive against Turkey.

Gallipoli Expedition

8 January 1916. Gallipoli was evacuated by Allied troops. This was the end of an unsuccessful attempt to capture Constantinople. See 20 December 1915.

20 December 1915. Australian, New Zealand, and British troops were evacuated from the ill-fated Gallipoli expedition. See 25 April 1915. The aim had been to capture the Dardanelles and Constantinople, and so knock Turkey out of the war, and link up with the Russian Black Sea Fleet. However disease, flies, fever, and mosquitoes, and the incompetence of the Allied commanders, were compounded by the fact that landings were not made until two months after Turkish positions here had been bombarded. Hence the element of surprise was lost, and the Turks had ample time to prepare strong defences. Evacuation was completed by 8 January 1916, without casualties. An ingenious plan involved loading provisions onto the Gallipoli beaches in daylight, but at night men, guns and horses were evacuated, leaving rifles set to fire automatically at intervals. At the last moment an Allied destroyer trained a searchlight on the Turkish lines, the Turks fired back, and under this exchange of fire the Allies slipped away undetected.

15 August 1915, The Allied landings at Suvla, Dardanelles, were completed.

6 August 1915. New Allied landings on Gallipoli. See 8 January 1916.

26 April 1915. Allied forces established themselves on the Gallipoli Peninsula, having landed the previous day, 25 April 1915. This was an attempt to take control from the Dardanelles from Turkey, and open up a supply route to Russia. The Allies hoped, against all evidence, that the landing itself would provoke a coup in Turkey and remove it from the War. Russian Jews, who saw the ottoman Empire as a barrier to a Jewish Homeland, supported the exercise. Forces landed included 27,500 British, 18,100 ANZACs, and 16,800 French. However the landing site was fully exposed to Turkish fire, and evacuation of Allied troops was the only option. Also on 25/9/1915 the Germans attacked Serbia and Allied forces had to go to Salonika to buttress Serbian resistance (see 5 October 1915). Evacuation began on 8 December 1915 and was completed by 9 January 1916. The Dardanelles expedition cost 70,700 British casualties (26,000 dead), 25,700 Australians (7,800 killed), 23,000 French (8,000 killed), 7,100 New Zealanders (2,445 killed) and 5,500 Indians (1,682 killed). However the evacuation was managed with very little loss of life.

22 November 1915. General Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend was advancing by boat on Baghdad with a force of 9,000 men of the 6^th Indian Division. The land was roadless, an �arid billiard table� as he described it. At Ctesiphon, 20 miles short of Baghdad, Townshend came up against a large, well supplied force. He was short of supplies because a stingy and over-optimistic government in India expected him to get all the supplies he needed in Baghdad.� Townshend�s forces drove out the Turks but at a loss of 40% of his men. He was now unable to withstand any Turkish counter-attack, let alone advance further, so he retreated to Kut with 1,600 Turkish prisoners of war and 4,500 wounded from both sides.� The Invasion of Mesopotamia was to secure the oil but that only required the occupation of a small area around Basra. This would, keep the Turks away from the Iranian port of Abadan, terminus of the Anglo-Iranian pipeline which supplied the Royal navy with oil. Kut was besieged by the Turks, from 8 December 1915. Townshend had 13,500 inside to feed, including some 2,500 Indian non-combatants and 2,000 sick and wounded. There were also 6,000 Arabs. They had to contend with freezing cold and torrential rain. A relief force never got near enough; three relief attempts were made, at a cost of 23,000 casualties. The Indians would not eat meat, although the oxen were slaughtered for food by the British, then the camels, horses, and finally cats, starlings, dogs, and hedgehogs. Gallipoli had been evacuated by the British on 8 January 1916 and elated by this, and now with troops to spare from there, the Turks refused a ransom of �2million (�67million in 2002 prices) to let the defenders leave. Kut was the first siege in which supplies were dropped by air, including flour for the Indian�s chappatis. However the Turks and their German allies had more and better aircraft. Finally Kut surrendered on 27 April 1916, with rations down to seven ounces of grain a day for the 12,000 men there. More Indian and British soldiers died during the forced march from Kut to captivity in Mesopotamia or even all the way to Turkey. However Townshend was in relatively comfortable captivity near Constantinople.� Kut finally fell to the Allies in February 1917, and Baghdad fell in March 1917.

5 October 1915. Allied troops landed at Salonika, Greece, to help Serbia (see 26 April 1915). These troops probably dissuaded Greece from joining the German side, and in 1918 took part in an offensive against Bulgaria, but otherwise played little role in the war.

28/9/1915. The British defeated the Turks at Kut El Amara in Mesopotamia.

23/9/1915. King Constantine of Greece began mobilising against Bulgaria, in aid of Serbia.

15/9/1915, The Entente (France, UK) promised Bulgaria part of Macedonia if she declared war on Turkey.

21 August 1915. Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

27 May 1915. The Turkish government decided to deport the entire Armenian population to Syria and Mesopotamia, suspecting them of lack of loyalty. The deportation involved much cruelty against the Armenians. Of the total Armenian population of 1.8 million, a third were deported, a third escaped deportation, and a third were killed. The Russians conquered Turkish Armenia in 1916 and proclaimed �the liberation of the Armenian people from the Turkish yoke� but prevented the Armenians from returning to their homeland as they planned to settle the area with Cossacks.

24 April 1915. The arrest in Constantinople (now Istanbul) of 235 Armenian academics, politicians, lawyers and journalists. Another 600 were later detained. All were sent to Anatolia, most of them slaughtered. Turkey feared they would collaborate with Russia. On this day the Ottoman Interior Minister, Talaat Pasha, gave the order for the Armenian Massacre. Many Armenians were deported to the Syrian desert to die.

19/2/1915 �The Dardanelles campaign began. A Franco-British fleet began shelling Turkish fortifications along the Dardanelles, to open up the strategic waterway to get munitions to Russia via the Black Sea, and deliver Russian grain to France and the UK. Spotter planes from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal were directing the gunners by radio.

2/2/1915. The Turks were defeated on the Suez Canal.

See France-Germany for main events of World War Two

14 November 1914. The Sultan of Turkey declared a Jihad, or Holy War, against the Allies.

6 November 1914, British troops landed at Fao (now Iraq) and captured the Turkish fort there.

5 November 1914. Following Russia, Britain and France declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Britain annexed Cyprus. However the Dardanelles were now closed to Allied shipping, and it was vital to be able to get supplies to support Russia. The ports of Archangel and Vladivostock were ice-bound, so an attempt was made to seize the Dardanelles by the Gallipoli campaign (see 25 April 1915).

4 November 1914. The Russians declared war on Turkey and invaded Armenia, part of the Ottoman Empire.

29 October 1914, Turkish warships bombarded the Russian ports of Sevastopol, Odessa and Novorossiysk. This provoked a declaration of war by Russia against Turkey on 4 November 1919; also by Britain and France on 5 November 1914. In Turkey the Young Turks, in 1908, had had two aims; to pull together the disintegrating remains of the Ottoman Empire, and to recover land lost to Russia. However they found the Turkish Treasury in debt to European banks by the then-colossal sum of �200 million. They sought an alliance with a wealthy European nation that could help rebuild the Turkish economy. Britain, which had helped found Turkey�s National Bank in 1908, was approached, as an enemy of Germany with whom the former Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid had been friendly. Britain declined the approach, believing that an alliance with Turkey would unite Europe against it. Turkey again approached Britain during the Balkan War (1912-13) and was again rebuffed. In July 1914 France also rejected overtures by Turkey. Moreover on 1 August 1914 Winston Churchill ordered the requisition of two warships being built in Britain for the Turkish Navy. Meanwhile the German General Otto Liman von Sanders was assisting the modernisation of the Turkish Army. Germany hoped that Turkey, possibly allied with Bulgaria, would threaten Russia without direct German involvement. The Young Turk, Ismail Enver Pasha, Minister for War, approached the German Ambassador in Constantinople� on 22 July 1914 to propose a formal alliance. The German Ambassador, Freiherr von Wangenheim, declined; Germany assessed that an alliance with Turkey would exacerbate tensions with Russia, and therefore be of advantage to Britain and France, but be of no gain to Germany because of the weak state of the Turkish Army, and the parlous state of the Turkish economy that retarded the development of the Turkish military. However Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, on learning of Enver�s approach, overruled Wangenheim and instructed Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann to open negotiations with Turkey. A secret treaty of alliance between Germany and Turkey was signed on 2 August 1914, essentially a mutual guarantee of defence against, only, any attack by Russia. The secrecy allowed Enver to hedge his bets and only intervene against Russia when it suited him. Therefore although Germany had mobilised against Russia on 1 August 1914 Enver did not attack immediately. German Admiral Wilhelm von Souchon sailed two German ships, the SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau, past British ships in the Mediterranean just hours before Britain declared war on Germany, on 4 August 1914. Britain chased these ships but did not prevent their arrival at Constantinople, where they became part of the Turkish navy, replacing the ships confiscated by Britain. They were renamed the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Midilli, and Turkey also received 20 million marks in gold by train from Germany, to assist in updating Turkish military capabilities. Once the gold was received, and Turkey had witnessed German successes against the Russians in East Prussia (following initial defeats inflicted on Germany at Tannenbirg and the Marne) the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Midilli, complete with German crews, bombarded the Russian ports. Churchill was not too perturbed by Turkey�s entry into the Great War on the German side. Almost all the Turkish Army�s 43 divisions were only on peacetime strengths of 4,000 men, not the wartime basis of 10,000. The Turkish divisions based in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), also Arabia and the Levant, were manned by local recruits of dubious loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. The British enjoyed easy victories against these divisions in the Basra area, where the local oilfields were secured. However later in the war the Young Turks reinforced the fighting capabilities of the army, giving Britain a harder battle.

1 October 1914. Turkey closed the Dardanelles.

2/9/1914. The Ottoman Empire mobilised its forces, in World War One.

Start of World War One

13 August 1913, Archbishop Makarios, President of Cyprus 1960-77, was born near Paphos, the son of a farmer.

Second Balkan War

13/6/1914, Greece annexed the islands of Chios and Lesbos from Turkey.

12/6/1914, 100 Greeks in Phocaea were massacred by Turkish irregular troops.

14/3/1914, Peace was concluded between Turkey and Serbia.

14 December 1913, Greece formally annexed Crete.

13 November 1913, Peace was concluded between Turkey and Greece.� Greece acquired Crete and the Aegean Islands, excepting Tenedos and Imbros; also the Dodecanese Islands remained under Italian occupation.

17 October 1913. Serbia invaded Albania.

29/9/1913, The Treaty of Constantinople, an addition to the Treaty of Bucharest (see 10 August 1913), settled the frontier between Bulgaria and Turkey.

21/9/1913. Turkey and Bulgaria settled their border dispute; Turkey kept Adrianople.

10 August 1913. The Third Treaty of Bucharest ended the Second Balkan War.� Rumania gained the fertile area of Southern Dobruja, which had been Bulgarian since 1878, whilst Serbia and Greece divided Macedonia between them; again� territory that Bulgaria wanted.� Greece received Salonika, a major port.� Bulgaria merely received the mountainous areas of Pirin and Dospat, and two small Mediterranean ports called Dedeagach and Lagos; Bulgaria was left resentful.� Turkey�s possession in Europe were limited to the area around Constantinople and Adrianople.� Albania was created.� See 6/9/1915.� In the First World War, the losers by this Treaty (Turkey and Bulgaria) fought on the German side; the gainers (Greece, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro) fought on the Allied side.

18 July 1913, Turkish forces recovered Adrianople from the Bulgarians, who took the city in March 1917.

12 July 1913, Turkey seized Adrianople.

11 July 1913, Romania invaded Bulgaria.

10 July 1913. Russia declared war on Bulgaria.� 500,000 Romanian troops crossed the frontier into Bulgaria, occupied southern Dobruja, and advanced on Sofia.

3 July 1913. Romania mobilised its troops. in response to Bulgaria�s attack on its neighbours.

1 July 1913. Greece and Serbia declared war on Bulgaria.

29/6/1913. Bulgaria launched a surprise attack on Serbia and Greece, thereby starting the Second Balkan War.� Bulgaria was then invaded by Romania and Turkey.� See 10 August 1913.

24/6/1913. Greece and Serbia broke their alliance with Bulgaria over a border dispute. On 29/6/1913 Greece and Serbia were attacked by Bulgaria.

18/3/1913, George I, King of Greece from 1863, was assassinated in Salonika by a Greek called Schinasi.� Constantine I became King of Greece, in the newly-occupied city of Salonika.� Constantine opposed the pro-Allied policy of Venizelos, and in June 1917 the Allies forced his abdication in favour of his second son, Alexander, who ruled until dying from a monkey bite in October 1920.� A plebiscite two months later voted overwhelmingly for the return of Constantine I.� However Constantine was unfairly blamed for Greek military failure in action against Turkey in Anatolia and Smyrna, and he abdicated on 27/9/1922.� He died in exile in Sicily a year later.

1912, Electric lighting was introduced in Istanbul.

First Balkan War

30 May 1913. Turkey signed a peace treaty with the Balkan League (the Treaty of London), ending their war.� Under this Treaty Salonika was formally assigned to Greece. The Great Powers formally recognised Albanian sovereignty.

22 April 1913. Montenegro captured Scutari after a 6 month siege.

16 April 1913, Turkey signed an armistice with Bulgaria.

1 April 1913, The Turkish government approved the terms of peace to end the First Balkan War, losing 60,000 square miles of territory to the Balkan nations.

26/3/1913. The Balkan allies took Adrianople from Turkey after a 155 day siege.

6/3/1913. Hostilities resumed in the Balkans; the Greeks took Janina, capturing 32,000 Turks.

7/2/1913, 5,000 Turks died in a battle with Bulgaria.

3/2/1913. Bulgaria re-stared the Balkan War. On 7/2/1913 a Turkish-Bulgarian battle left 5,000 Turks dead, and on 26/3/1913 the Bulgarians captured Adrianople from Turkey.

22 January 1913, Turkey accepted a ceasefire ultimatum.

17 January 1913, Serbian troops massacred Muslims.

9 January 1913. Turkey breached the armistice by attacking Bulgaria.

6 January 1913, A peace conference in London broke down when Turkey refused to cede Adrianople, the Aegean Islands and Crete.

2 January 1913. Turkey agreed to give up almost all its European territories.

16 December 1912, The Balkan Peace Conference began in London.

4 December 1912. Turkey concluded an armistice with Bulgaria and Serbia; Greece also ceased fighting.

30 November 1912, Bulgaria and Turkey signed an armistice.

28 November 1912. Albanian independence was proclaimed and confirmed in London on 20 December 1912 in principle and the new state�s borders were confirmed on 29 July 1913. However these borders included less than half of the ethnic Albanians.

18 November 1912. The Serbs occupied Monastir.

8 November 1912. The Greeks occupied Salonika.� This was during the First Balkan War, and ended 482 years of Turkish occupation.

5 November 1912, The Serbs and Greelks routed the Turkish Army at Monastir. Turkey lost some 20,000 men.

3 November 1912. Turkey appealed for mediation in the war with Italy, by the great European powers.

1 November 1912. The Greeks occupied Samothrace.

31 October 1912, Bulgarian forces defeated the Turks at Lule Burgas.

24 October 1912, Serbian forces defeated the Turks at Kumanovo.

23 October 1912. The Greeks routed the Turks at Sarandaporos.

19 October 1912. Allied Balkan armies invaded Turkey.

18 October 1912. The Ottoman Turks agreed to cede Tripoli and Cyrenaica (now Libya) to Italy, at the Peace of Lausanne.� Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia declared war on Turkey. The Greek Army had been well-equipped under Venizelos, and the Turks were pushed back, to the point where Istanbul itself was threatened; the city was only saved by bad weather making the roads impassable and a cholera outbreak, halting military operations.

15 October 1912, Turkey made peace with Italy at Ouchy.

14 October 1912. The Turks invaded Serbia.� Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria issued ultimatums to Turkey demanding the demobilisation of the Turkish Army in the Balkans.

8 October 1912. Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

1 October 1912, Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia prepared to fight Turkey.

30/9/1912, Russia mobilised its forces in response to unrest in the Balkans.�

29/9/1912, British and French forces quelled riots on Samos, after Turkey withdrew troops from there.��

3 August 1912. The Ottoman Turks granted Albania limited autonomy.

2 July 1912, Serbia allied with Greece and Bulgaria against Ottoman Turkey, see 29 May 1912.

29 May 1912. Greece signed an anti-Ottoman alliance with Bulgaria. Serbia joined this alliance on 2 July 1912.

First Balkan War

25/3/1912, The Greek Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos won a majority of seats in elections in Greece.

13/3/1912, Under Russian influence (wanting to undermine Austro-Hungary), Serbia and Bulgaria buried their territorial rivalries for the time being (but see 29/6/1913), and, along with Greece and Montenegro, formed the Balkan League. Originally directed against the large multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire (which contained many ethnic Serbs within its borders), the League redirected its efforts against Ottoman Turkey, ultimately aiming to oust the Turks entirely from all its European territories. Serbia and Bulgaria signed a mutual defence pact. Balkan nationalism was on the rise. The pact also divided northern Macedonia between them. It was assumed that southern Macedonia would be divided between Bulgaria and Greece. On 30 May 1913 the Treaty of London divided up the Balkans amongst the members of the Balkan League, leaving Ottoman Turkey with only a sliver of European territory immediately west of Istanbul.

Italian conquest of Turkish lands

4 May 1912. The Italians occupied the island of Rhodes, formerly held by the Ottoman Turks.

5 November 1911. Italy announced that it had taken from Turkey the territories of Libya, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaiaca.

20 October 1911. Italy defeated the Turks at Tripoli, Libya.

30/9/1911. Italian troops attacked the Turks in Tripoli harbour.

29/9/1911. Italy declared war on Turkey, having been assured of the neutrality of other European countries.� The Italian Navy bombarded Preveza, and Italian forces landed at Tripoli and in Cyrenicia. This was in retaliation for the alleged mistreatment of Italians in Libya. The Italians expected the Arabs to welcome them as liberators from Turkish rule, but instead the Arabs sided with the Turks in resisting Italian rule. In May 1912 Italy invaded some islands off Turkey, including Rhodes, to put further pressure on Turkey. Then Italy had some unexpected good fortune when in 1912 Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece started the Balkan War against Turkey, forcing the Ottomans to surrender Libya to Italy. However Arab resistance continued and despite a permanent Italian garrison of 50,000 troops Italian rule only covered Tripoli and other major towns. At least, though, Italy could now claim to have its own African colony.

See also Italy

6/2/1911. A large part of Constantinople was destroyed in a fire.

9 December 1910, The Turks suppressed an Arab uprising in Palestine.

28 August 1910. Montenegro declared independence from Turkey under King Nicholas I, 69, who ruled for 9 years.

11 December 1910, In elections for the Greek National Assembly, supporters of Venizelos received 300 seats out of 364.

18 October 1910, Elentherios Venizelos became Prime Minister of Greece.

21 August 1910, First meeting of the Greek National Assembly (officially opened by the King on 14/9/1910).

27 April 1909, Mehmed V (1844-1918) succeeded his father, Abdul Hamid II (born 1842, died 1918; Sultan from 1876 � 1909) as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

24 April 1909, The Turkish Army coup of 13 April 1909 was suppressed, and its leaders executed.

23 April 1909. Moslem fanatics backed by the sultan massacred at least 30,000 Armenians.

19 April 1909. Turkey recognised Bulgarian independence. On 27 April 1909, Germany, Austria, and Italy also recognised Bulgarian independence.

13 April 1909, Army insurrection in Constantinople. The First Army Corps deposed Hussein Hilmi Pasha. See 24 April 1909.

13/2/1909, In Turkey, Kiamil Pasha, 76-year-old Ottoman Grand Vizier, was deposed and replaced by Hussein Hilmi Pasha.

12 January 1909. Turkey accepted Austria�s offer of 2.5 million Turkish Pounds for Bosnia-Hercegovina.

1 December 1908, Italy demanded that Austria pay compensation for the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, see 7 October 1908.

7 October 1908. Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, taking advantage of instability within the Ottoman Empire. Though formally part of the Ottoman Empire, its Serb-Croat population favoured union with Serbia. Other European countries were shocked at Austria�s move. Serbia was especially angry that Serbs in the region had not got autonomy. However Russia agreed with Austria not to oppose this annexation in return for Austria supporting the opening of the Dardanelles to Russian warships. Turkey accepted cash compensation for the loss of Bosnia and Hercegovina on 12 January 1909. See 1 December 1908.

27 July 1910. Turkey threatened Greece with war if it accepted Cretan representatives in Parliament.

6 October 1908. Crete declared itself independent of Turkey and joined Greece.

28 January 1906, Markos Vafiadis, Greek General and politician, was born (died 1992).

16/3/1900, On Crete, British archaeologist Arthur Evans discovered a previously unknown Bronze Age civilisation. He called it �Minoan� after a legendary Cretan king.

6 November 1898. Turkey evacuated its forces from Crete.

5 October 1908. Prince Ferdinand declared Bulgaria independent of Ottoman Turkey. Russia wanted Turkey weak so as not to block its plans for expansion.

Young Turks

23 January 1913, Enver Pasha, leader of the Young Turks, entered the principal council chamber of the Sublime Porte with Talat and Kemal and shouted �Death to Kamil Pasha�. They forced the Grand Vizier to resign at gunpoint and shot dead the Minister of War, General Nazim. Enver then forced the Sultan to appoint his ally, Shevket, as Grand Vizier. The British ensured safe passage for Kamil out of Turkey but he was never reinstated as Grand Vizier. Enver, Talat and Kemal went on to establish a military junta to govern Turkey.

4 April 1909, The Young Turk, Mahmud Shevket, entered Constantinople, and imposed his will on the National Assembly and the Old Turks.

24 July 1908, Sultan Abdulhamid II, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was forced to implement reforms by the Young Turk (Jonturkler) Movement. This included the reinstatement of the 1876 constitution and the recall of Parliament, both suspended under the Sultan�s autocratic rule. The Young Turk Movement began in 1889 when a group of medical students at the Istanbul Academy started a campaign to overthrow the Sultan. The Movement spread to other colleges, and the authorities tried to suppress it; they exiled many Young Turks to Paris, where they continued to plan for a revolution.

6 December 1901, The secret Turkish organization Committee of Union and Progress, composed of members of the Young Turks movement, approved a plan to assassinate Abdul Hamid II, Ottoman Sultan. One of the persons at the meeting, however, was a spy for the Sultan, and informed security forces, who shut down the CUP's centre in Istanbul.

10 January 1900, The Young Turks published their manifesto in Cairo. It called for the modernisation of Turkey and an end to �ineffective� Ottoman rule.

1891, The Young Turks organised in Geneva. They wanted a return to the 23 December 1876 Constitution.

1889, The Young Turk movement was founded by an Albanian, Ibrahim Temo.

3 July 1908, In Ottoman Turkey, Major Ahmed Niyazi revolted against the provincial authorities, under the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II. The rebellion quickly spread to other army divisions, forcing concessions by the Sultan.

8/2/1908. Czar Nicholas II ordered Russian troops to the Iranian border after Turkey made incursions into Iran.

13/6/1905, Theodoros Delyanni, Greek statesman, born 1826, was murdered in revenge for the strict measure shad had taken against gambling houses.

21 April 1905, The Crete Assembly voted for Union with Greece.

10 October 1904. Kurdish tribesmen massacred Armenians in Turkey.

26/3/1904, Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece, was born.

18/2/1904, Turks besieging Shemshi Pasha massacred 800 Albanians.

17/9/1903, Turks massacred 10,000 in Macedonia.

8/9/1903. Turks massacred 50,000 Bulgarians.

2 August 1903, The revolutionary organisation VMRO (Vnutrasnja Makedonska Revolucionarska Organizacija, or Internal Revolutionary Macedonian Organisation) staged the Illinden Uprising against Ottoman rule. They hoped to bring in the major European powers, but the rebellion was badly organised and its leader, Gotse Delchev, was captured and executed before it even began. The European powers avoided involvement in the uprising and it was brutally suppressed by the Ottomans. However post-event the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia