1938: the death of Turkey's founding father

On November 10, 1938, Mustafa Kemal - the founder of modern Turkey and the first president of the Turkish Republic - died. He left a legacy, however, that endures to this day; his impact and influence on modern Turkey are difficult to overstate. His people endearingly call him "Ataturk" - the father of the Turks.

Mustafa Kemal's legacy began at the end of World War I. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was threatened with the prospect of colonization at the hands of England, France and Italy. Kemal - a general in the Ottoman army - rallied the Turks and defeated the imperialist powers, securing independence for his people and declaring the birth of the Turkish Republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

Having secured his country's future through military means, Kemal set aside his fatigues and became a statesman. Under his direction, the Turkish government passed and implemented a radical series of reforms, aimed at transforming the country into a modern, secular state modeled after the nation states of Western Europe. These reforms affected the daily lives of ordinary Turks in astonishing ways. One reform changed the weekend from Thursday-Friday (the Muslim day of worship is Friday) to Saturday-Sunday, in line with the Christian West. Another outlawed traditional dress and hats, mandating instead the adoption of Western style dress.

But not all reforms involved abandoning Ottoman-Turkish cultural traditions in favor of Western ones. Modern civil codes, economic reform (including industrialization), and political reform were also crucial to Mustafa Kemal's vision of a modern Turkish state. While his rule was autocratic and he wielded absolute power during his lifetime, Kemal viewed Turkey eventually developing into a vibrant democracy, one in which the Turkish people would carry on his vision of reform and modernization.

This transition began in 1950, twelve years after his death, when the first multi-party elections were held. The opposition party won handily - evidence that the elections were fair and free. Turkey's subsequent political history is far from smooth, marked by periods of violence and military intervention in politics. Today, however, Turkey's economy is five times that of Egypt, and its political system is still democratic - a testament to the enduring strength of Turkey's founding father.

Treaty of Lausanne and the Birth of a Democracy

In October of 1918 the First World War was nearing its end - and so was the Ottoman Empire. Allied troops occupied Istanbul, the capital, as well as several other cities and ports. Having allied itself with Germany and Austria during the War, the Ottoman Empire found itself at the mercy of the victorious Triple Entente (Britain, France and Italy) - who would soon dismember the empire and distribute its territories among themselves.

Founded in the 15th century in what is modern Turkey, the Ottoman Empire soon expanded to include most of the Middle East, as well as much of North Africa, the Balkans and South Eastern Europe. By the late 19th century, however, its glory days were long past, and other European powers dubbed it the sick man of Europe. The end of WWI was the coup de grace.

During the negotiations following the end of the war, the Allies decided to partition the Ottoman Empire's territories: what is now Israel-Palestine, Jordan and Iraq went to Britain; Syria, Lebanon, and Southeastern Turkey were to go to France; Italy was to have Southern and Southwestern Turkey, and Greece and Armenia were given pieces of the pie as well. With their capital occupied by foreign troops, the Ottoman government had no choice but to accept. The Treaty (known as the Treaty of Sevres) was ratified by the Ottoman government.

In Ankara, however, a Turkish nationalist movement had formed around the Turkish army, under the leadership of General Mustafa Kemal. The nationalists refused to accept the Treaty of Sevres; they were horrified at the prospect of Turkey becoming merely another colony of Britain and France. In addition, they refused to cede territory to Greece or Armenia.

In order to enforce the Treaty of Sevres, the allies decided to use force. The British held Istanbul, the French attacked from the south east, and - under cover from British and French warships - the Greeks landed and attacked from the west. Known in Turkey as the War of Independence, this conflict began in 1919 and ended four years later in 1923 in a stunning Turkish victory. With all their enemies driven from Turkish soil, a new treaty was negotiated.

This new treaty - the Treaty of Lausanne - resulted in the creation of the modern state of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal became its first leader, and set the nation on a path towards democracy - a path it still follows today. As of the writing of this article, Turkey is the only democracy in the Middle East - and the only Middle Eastern country to have successfully resisted colonization by Western Europe.

The 1948 War and the Creation of Israel

The history of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War dates back to at least the late 19th century and the beginnings of the Zionist movement. In response to intense persecution in Eastern Europe, Russia and elsewhere, some Jews began to speak of the need for a homeland for the Jewish people. At the First Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897 the World Zionist Organization was created, and prominent Zionist leaders, such as Theodore Herzl, proposed a return to the land of Palestine, the Biblical Jewish homeland. Negotiations with the Ottoman Empire, however, proved unsuccessful. As a result, the WZO opted for small-scale immigration to Palestine.

This policy intensified after World War I, when the British took control of Palestine from the Ottomans. The famous Balfour Declaration, issued by British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour, proclaimed British support for the Zionist goal of a Jewish national home in Palestine; as a direct result, Jewish immigration to Palestine increased dramatically throughout the first half of the 20th century. After World War II and systematic murder of approximately six million Jews in Europe at the hands of Nazi Germany, both immigration to Palestine and international support for the creation of a Jewish national homeland surged to their highest levels.

Meanwhile, the influx of hundreds of thousands of Jews caused increasingly heated friction with the native population of Arabs. Attempts by the British to mediate the two factions failed, as did their attempts to limit Jewish immigration. Finally, the British gave up and turned the territory over to the United Nations, which issued a partition plan for the territory - essentially dividing it into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arabs rejected this plan, saying it gave far too much land to the Jewish state, given their respective populations. The Zionists, however, responded by declaring the creation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948.

War promptly ensued, with armies from the neighboring Arab states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria invading the nascent state. The result was a resounding victory for Israel, and in midst  of the conflict nearly all of Israel's Arab inhabitants (~90%) either fled or were forcibly driven from their homes by the Israeli army. To this day, these refugees (several million in number) are unable to return to their homes; their fate is perhaps the most significant obstacle in the negotiation of a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement.