土耳其人的历史涵盖了4000多年的历史。土耳其人最早在公元前2000年居住在中亚。后来，其中一些人离开中亚并四处迁移，在亚洲和欧洲的广大地区建立了许多彼此独立的国家。这些国家包括大匈奴帝国（在公元前3世纪建立，就是中国秦汉的匈奴），古突厥帝国（中国隋唐时的突厥汗国552-740），回鹘帝国（741-840），阿瓦尔帝国（柔然西迁公元6-9世纪），哈扎尔帝国（中国史籍称之为“可萨人”，公元5-10世纪），大塞尔柱帝国（1040-1157）等。
土耳其人在安那托利亚：土耳其人在11世纪初开始通过不断的迁徙和入侵而定居在安那托利亚。Malazgirt在1071年击败拜占庭人的胜利从字面上打开了安那托利亚通往土耳其人的大门。在此之后，土耳其人完全征服了整个安纳托利亚，并在那里建立了安那托利亚·塞尔柱突厥政权（1080-1308），这是安那托利亚的第一个土耳其国，在其多年的首都科尼亚之后有时被称为苏丹国。
OTTOMAN时代1299–1923年：Seljuk国家在1243年开始的对安那托利亚的蒙古入侵中迅速衰落。在Anatolian Seljuk州衰落期间和消失之后，许多土库曼斯坦公国在安纳托利亚建立，直至十三世纪。其中之一是奥斯曼帝国（类似于土耳其公国的奥斯曼帝国），以其创建者的名字命名，这位土耳其统治者于1299年在半岛西北角埃斯基谢希尔（Eskişehir）索格特（Söğüt）周边的一个名为奥斯曼的土耳其统治者。奥斯曼帝国（Eytoman Beylik）在整个14世纪迅速扩张，并由此诞生了奥斯曼帝国，该帝国统治着三大洲的广阔领土，持续了623年，直到第一次世界大战结束。
奥斯曼帝国于1453年苏丹穆罕默德二世（1451-1481）统治期间占领君士坦丁堡，拜占庭帝国沦陷，这也标志着中世纪的结束和新时代的开始。在以“征服者”的头衔苏丹穆罕默德二世统治期间，奥斯曼帝国进入了一个快速发展的时代，这一时代一直持续到16世纪末。在最高峰时，奥斯曼帝国统治着巴尔干半岛的今天的希腊，保加利亚，南斯拉夫，阿尔巴尼亚和罗马尼亚，东地中海的所有岛屿以及今天的中东。帝国的边界从北部的克里米亚延伸到南部的也门和苏丹，从东部的伊朗和里海延伸到西北部的维也纳和西南部的西班牙。
然而，从16世纪开始，与欧洲相比，奥斯曼帝国逐渐失去了其经济和军事优势，欧洲在文艺复兴时期，征服新领土，获取原材料和工业革命后迅速发展。奥斯曼帝国未能适应这些新发展。因此，力量均势转向欧洲国家。始于19世纪的民族主义运动以及受到欧洲大国和俄罗斯支持的巴尔干国家的自决运动和叛乱，使奥斯曼帝国逐渐衰落。
第一次世界大战（1914年-1918年）：帝国的衰落一直持续到第一次世界大战为止。奥斯曼帝国（Ottoman Empire）于1914年在盟国的一面进入第一次世界大战，并在1918年的战争中被击败，被迫签署了孟德罗斯停战协定1918年10月30日。根据本次停战协定，奥斯曼帝国的领土被英国，法国，俄罗斯和希腊占领。这实际上是奥斯曼帝国的终结。
在奥斯曼军事指挥官穆斯塔法·凯末尔（Mustafa Kemal）的领导下，民族抵抗运动和解放运动应运而生，穆斯塔法·凯末尔（Mustafa Kemal）动员了安纳托利亚，以寻求土耳其的自决和民族独立。他团结了安纳托利亚的零星和零散的抵抗团体，并将其组织成一支有组织的军队。在穆斯塔法·凯末尔（Mustafa Kemal）的领导下（后来改称为阿塔图尔克（Ataturk）或“土耳其之父”），抵抗力量凝聚了力量，土耳其人有能力为民族解放而战。
土耳其民族解放战争是在一个已经完工的帝国废墟上建立新国家的努力。它持续了四年（1919年至1922年），其中一小批志愿军奋战并赢得了与这次领导力量的战争。阿塔图尔克的胜利不仅是军事上的胜利，而且是外交上的胜利。1923年7月24日签署《洛桑和平条约》，土耳其取得了军事上的胜利，取得了外交上的成功。该条约与英国，法国，希腊，意大利等签署，承认土耳其国家和国家的建立和国际边界。保证其完全独立。
土耳其共和国：1923年10月29日宣布成立共和国。几个世纪以来，土耳其人民首次享有自治。凯末尔当选为土耳其共和国的第一任总统。
穆斯塔法·凯末尔·阿塔图尔克（Mustafa KemalAtatürk）担任总统已有15年之久，直到1938年去世为止，在政治，社会，法律，经济和文化领域进行了广泛的改革，这在任何其他国家都几乎是无与伦比的。
在阿塔图尔克领导下的第一届国民议会建立了新的政治和法律体系，其基础是议会民主，人权，国家主权和分权，私有制和世俗主义以及宗教与国家事务分离的原则。建立了新的世俗教育体系，将阿拉伯字母更改为拉丁字母，并从欧洲模式改编了新的民法典和刑法典。土耳其妇女获得平等权利的法律规定，如选举权和被选举担任公职，从而使许多西方国家的土耳其提前在妇女权利方面。这是一次革命，使当时的穆斯林国家与西方文明和普遍价值观保持一致，这在当时乃至今天都是无与伦比的。
A Brief Outline of Turkish History
The history of the Turks covers a time frame of more than 4000 years. Turks first lived in Central Asia around 2000 BC. Later, some of them left Central Asia and spread around, establishing many states and empires independent from each other within a vast area of Asia and Europe. These empires included The Great Hun Empire (established during the 3rd Century B.C.), the Göktürk Empire (552- 740), the Uygur Empire (741- 840), the Avar Empire (6-9 Century A.D.), the Hazar Empire (5-10 Century A.D), the Great Seljuk Empire (1040- 1157), and many others.
Turks in Anatolia: The Turks started to settle in Anatolia in the early 11th century by way of continual migrations and incursions. The Malazgirt victory in 1071 against the Byzantines literally opened up the gates of Anatolia to the Turks. It is following this date that the Turks fully conquered the whole of Anatolia and established the Anatolian Seljuk State there (1080-1308).This was the first Turkish State in Anatolia and was sometimes called, after its capital city of many years, the Konya Sultanate.
OTTOMAN AGE 1299–1923: The Seljuk State rapidly declined with the Mongol invasion of Anatolia which started in 1243. During the period of the decline of the Anatolian Seljuk state and after its disappearance, many Turcoman principalities were established in Anatolia towards the end of the thirteenth century. One of these was the Ottoman (in Turkish Osmanli) Beylik (similar to a Principality) named after its founder, a Turkish ruler named Osman in 1299 in the environs of Söğüt in Eskişehir in the northwestern corner of the peninsula. The Ottoman Beylik rapidly expanded throughout the fourteenth century and thus arose the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over a vast territory on three continents and lasted for 623 years until the end of the First World War.
The Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II (1451-1481), and the Byzantine Empire fell, which also marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the New Age. During the reign of Sultan Mehmet II, who assumed the title of “The Conqueror,” the Ottoman state entered into an era of rapid development which would last until the end of the sixteenth century. At its height, the Ottomans ruled over what is today Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania and Romania in the Balkans, over all the islands in the Eastern Mediterranean, and over what is today the Middle East. The borders of the Empire extended from the Crimea in the North to Yemen and Sudan in the South and from Iran and the Caspian Sea in the East to Vienna in the Northwest and Spain in the Southwest.
Starting in the 16th century, however, the Ottoman Empire incrementally lost its economic and military superiority in comparison to Europe, which had developed rapidly with the Renaissance, with its conquest of new territories and its access to raw materials, and with the Industrial Revolution. The Ottoman Empire failed to adapt to these new developments. Thus, the balance of power shifted in favor of the European States. The nationalist movements that started in the nineteenth century and the self-determination movements and rebellions of the Balkan nations, supported by the European powers and Russia, slowly brought the Ottoman Empire to a decline.
WORLD WAR I 1914 –1918: The weakening of the Empire continued until World War I. The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War in 1914 on the side of the allied powers and emerged defeated from the war in 1918, compelled to sign the Mondros Armistice on October 30, 1918. Under the terms of this Armistice, the territories of the Ottoman Empire were occupied by Britain, France, Russia, and Greece. This was the actual end of the Ottoman Empire.
A national resistance and liberation movement emerged as a reaction to this occupation under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, an Ottoman military commander who mobilized Anatolia in a quest for Turkish self-determination and national independence. He united sporadic and disorganized resistance groups in Anatolia and organized them into a structured army. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal—later given the last name Ataturk or “Father of Turks”—the resistance became cohesive, and the Turks were capable of fighting the war for national liberation.
The Turkish National Liberation War was an effort to create a new state from the ruins of an Empire, which had completed its life. It lasted four years (1919-1922) wherein a small army of volunteers fought and won a war against the leading powers of this time. Ataturk’s victory was not only military, but it was also diplomatic. The Turkish military victory was sealed with a diplomatic success with the signing of the Lausanne Peace Treaty on July 24, 1923. Signed with Great Britain, France, Greece, Italy and others, the Treaty recognized the creation and international borders of a Turkish State and guaranteed its complete independence.
REPUBLIC OF TURKEY: The Republic was proclaimed on October 29, 1923. For the first time in centuries, the Turkish people enjoyed self-rule. Mustafa Kemal was elected as the first president of the Republic of Turkey.
As president for 15 years, until his death in 1938, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced a broad range of reforms in the political, social, legal, economic, and cultural spheres that were virtually unparalleled in any other country.
The first Grand National Assembly under the leadership of Ataturk created a new political and legal system based on the principles of parliamentary democracy, human rights, national sovereignty and division of powers, private ownership and secularism, and the separation of religion and state affairs. A new, secular education system was established, the Arabic alphabet was changed into the Latin alphabet, and new civil and criminal codes were adapted from European models. Turkish women received equal rights under the law such as the right to vote and be elected to public office, which put Turkey ahead of many Western nations in terms of women’s rights. It was a revolution, unparalleled at its time and even today, to bring a predominantly Muslim nation in line with Western civilization and universal values.