SPACE June 2025 (No. 691)
The Anatolian Peninsula:
The Crucible of Humanity Where Ancient Civilisations and Torrid Histories Rise and Fall
Türkiye is a vast open-air museum. Not only is it a geographical, historical, and cultural crossroads where Eastern and Western civilisations have long converged, but it is also the true cradle in which the myths and technologies of our human ‘civilisation’ first took root. Take Istanbul, for example—a city of 20 million people. From the ancient Mesopotamian civilisation to the Orient, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, and Islam, the city encapsulates 5,000 years of human stories, wisdom, and creative experimentation, all woven into its fabric. The historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee’s description of Türkiye as a ‘living open-air museum of human civilisation’ is by no means an exaggeration.
The territory of Türkiye is also known as the Anatolian Peninsula; literally, ‘the land where the sun rises’. True to its name, Anatolia has long served as the stage for numerous ancient civilisations and myths, as well as the backdrop for much of the Old Testament. It was the heartland of great cultures and empires: Troy, the Amazons, the Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Lycians, and the Persian Empire. Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey were born here, as were Aesop’s Fables. Anatolia is also the setting for Noah’s Ark and the Garden of Eden, the biblical city of Harran – home to Abraham and the Apostle Paul – the House of the Virgin Mary, and the earliest Seven Churches of Christianity. The importance of the Anatolian Peninsula as the ‘cradle of human civilisation’ became even more concrete in 2014, when archaeological excavations at the site of Göbekli Tepe uncovered more than 20 temple cities dating back 12,000 years. These discoveries of ultra-ancient civilisations were a groundbreaking event that pushed the origins of human civilisation back more than 7,000 years. However, the creators of these civilisations have no connection to today’s Turks. They officially settled in the Anatolian Peninsula only after the year 1071, becoming its new rulers.
The New Rulers of Anatolia
From around 2,000 BCE, the Turks built 16 empires and more than 100 small states across the vast Eurasian steppes, developing a highly advanced Steppe Culture based on iron and horses. Among the great Central Asian empires established through their sophisticated nomadic culture were the Xiongnu, the Göktürk, and the Uyghur Empires. After the fall of the Uyghurs in the 9th century, the Turks left Central Asia and began expanding westward. By the 11th century, they surged into the territories of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. In 1071, the Seljuk Empire won a decisive victory at the Battle of Manzigert by capturing Emperor Romanos IV of Byzantium. From that point on, most of the Anatolian territory came under Turkish control. This victory signified a triumph of Islam over Christianity. As the Seljuk Empire swept through the Eastern Mediterranean and even into Jerusalem, the Roman papacy launched the Crusades in response. Though the Seljuk Empire later fell to the Mongol forces of Genghis Khan and the region entered a brief period of turmoil, the Ottoman Empire rose in 1299 and went on to build a vast empire encompassing not only Anatolia but also the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans in Europe.
While medieval Europe wandered through a thousand years of the so-called Dark Ages, the Seljuk and Ottoman Empires built by the Turks embraced and developed the brilliance of Islamic civilisation, halting the stagnation of world culture and leading the development of high-level medieval and early modern civilisations. Furthermore, in 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople (now Istanbul), the Turks dominated and ruled over the Europeans, ushering in the era of Pax-Osmanica. However, the Ottoman Empire, having allied with Germany and Austria during World War I, was defeated by the Allied Powers—Britain, France, and Russia. This defeat shattered the vast empire, and in the end, through a war of independence, Türkiye managed to salvage its present territory only in 1923.
Türkiye: A Living Landscape of Cultural Complexity and Religious Coexistence
After coming under new rule in the 11th century, the Anatolian Peninsula began to experience the gift of changes, religious coexistence, life’s compromises, and artistic creativity of various civilisations, including nomadic and urban settlements, Islamic and Christian traditions, Steppe and Mediterranean civilisations, continental and maritime cultures for the last thousand years. Hagia Sophia, once the ecclesiastical heart of the Eastern Orthodox Church, became a trophy of conquest and was converted into a mosque. However, its structural and architectural elements were preserved intact. In adherence to religious precepts forbidding idolatry, the images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus in the main chapel and the iconographic frescoes on the second floor were either covered with curtains or whitewashed. The main chapel of Hagia Sophia, like other Eastern Orthodox Churches, originally faced due east, towards the rising sun. But upon its conversion to a mosque, the direction of worship had to be reoriented toward Mecca, resulting in a slight southeastward shift with the installation of the mihrab. To prevent damage to the Christian murals, large copper panels inscribed with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and other Islamic figures were hung around the walls. Thanks to these measures, when Hagia Sophia was designated a museum by special decree in 1935, the golden mosaic icons and Christian relics hidden beneath could be fully restored.
The encounter with Islam brought significant changes to Eastern Christianity. Islam’s iconoclastic culture sparked the iconoclasm controversy between the Eastern and Western Churches. The question of whether icons and religious artifacts should be viewed as idols or allowed as symbolic religious instruments led to the Great Schism of 1054. Later, the Fourth Crusade (1204), led by the Roman Church, resulted in the plundering of Hagia Sophia and the humiliation of its clergy. Ironically, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Eastern Orthodoxy enjoyed greater religious freedom and security. Even after Greece gained independence, the Eastern Orthodox Church chose not to move its patriarchal seat to Athens but remained in Istanbul. The Ottoman Empire notably respected the autonomy and cultural identity of various religious communities. Through the Millet system, Jews, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Armenians were granted legal recognition of religious freedom, traditional practices, and cultural independence under the leadership of their rabbis or patriarchs, free from state interference. This multicultural and multi-religious coexistence policy was extraordinary for a medieval society. The satisfaction derived from this religious and cultural autonomy still resonates today, as Türkiye remains home to one of the largest communities of elite Jews outside Israel and the United States. Many of them own major corporations and media outlets, while the Armenian community continues to play a vital role in Istanbul’s economic landscape.
A City in Which History, Religion, and Daily Life Intertwine
The new Islamic conquerors did not merely accommodate existing cultures or seek physical assimilation. Instead, they built a culture of their own, drawing on accumulated knowledge and wisdom. This is represented most clearly by the mosque. Mimar Sinan (1489 – 1588), the most renowned architect of the Ottoman Empire, modeled the design and spiritual arrangement of the dome in the Süleymaniye Mosque (1550 – 1577) after that of Hagia Sophia, constructed a millennium later. In Muslim prayer rituals, worshippers stand shoulder to shoulder, as a gap between them is believed to provide a passage for Satan. As prayer is performed five times a day with five body parts – forehead (or nose), hands, and feet – touching the ground, the mosque floor must remain immaculately clean. Since a new row of worshippers cannot form unless the front row is filled, a design that avoids internal columns or barriers is essential. This functional need is one reason for the preference for dome structures in mosque architecture. The Quran recitations by the muezzin and the sermons by the imam ascend into the dome and descend uniformly as if echoing divine voices from heaven.
The Ottoman Empire, which perfected mosque architecture characterised by domes and tall minarets, sought to maximise the organic relationship and communication between religion and daily life – as well as the efficiency of life – through a distinctive architectural complex called the Külliye, typically situated in the heart of the city. Whenever a mosque was built at the centre of numerous radial alleys or atop a prominent hill, at least five auxiliary buildings were constructed alongside it: a school (university), a hospital, a public bath, a library, and an inn. Naturally, a bazaar (grand market) would form where people gathered, drawing in merchants and accommodations for them. The most representative example of a Külliye can be found around the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. Centred on the grand mosque are Istanbul University and its affiliated hospital, as well as an old Turkish bathhouse built in the 16th century. In addition, there are dozens of hotels and the Süleymaniye National Manuscript Library. Adjacent to this area, separated only by the walls of Istanbul University, lies the world’s largest covered market, the Kapalıçarşı, more widely known as the Grand Bazaar, which stretches endlessly. A particularly memorable scene I witnessed during my years studying abroad was how the square of Istanbul University would transform into a flea market almost instantly after sunset. This enduring custom reflects the Turkish view that scholarship should not be disconnected from real life—just as the 13th century philosopher of the people, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, once suggested: ‘True wisdom must stand with one foot in the ivory tower and the other firmly in the muddy trenches of life.’
The harmony between tradition and modernity, between Islamic heritage and European civilisation, is also vividly reflected in the urban layout. Historic Areas of Istanbul – the old city centre designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – evokes the traditions of civilisational coexistence and the values of Islam. Meanwhile, the new city rising on the hill across the Golden Horn represents a quintessential example of a cutting-edge European-style metropolis. With only the Galata Bridge in between, Istanbul forms a uniquely hybrid cityscape where the medieval and the modern, Islam and Europe, coexist in harmony. When we recall that Arabesque design – emphasising infinite repetition and symmetry without beginning or end, without distinction between east and west or left and right – is the central philosophy of traditional Turkish architecture, it is easy to see that contemporary Turkish architecture likewise reflects a strong sense of historical continuity and a multicultural heritage.
From an Islamic State to a Secular Modern Republic
Since adopting a republican form of government in 1923, Türkiye has carried out a series of revolutionary reforms. Proclaiming itself a secular state without Islam as the state religion, it adopted a Western legal system in place of Islamic law (Sharia). Through script reform, it abandoned the Arabic script that had been used for centuries and announced the use of the Latin alphabet to write the national language. Although this led to a cultural regression in which the nation lost the ability to read its own history and culture from just a century ago, it nevertheless achieved the fastest modernisation and Westernisation of the 57 Islamic countries. In particular, it brought about a revolution in women’s rights by granting women both the right to vote and to be elected, and legally banned the wearing of the hijab in public spaces. For men, personal faith was left to individual freedom, but even wearing turbans or growing beards in public was not permitted. The goal of the state was clear: even if it meant abandoning Islamic traditions, modernisation and Westernisation were to be pursued above all else. At the core of this national ideology were the ideas of secularism and the concept of a nation-state championed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the hero of the War of Independence.
Now, more than a century after the founding of the Republic, Türkiye is witnessing an accelerating movement toward Islamisation. As a growing number of people reflect critically on the era of secularisation – which had rejected its own religious values in favor of Westernisation – renewed attention is being given to Islam as the cultural foundation and core of Turkish ethnic identity. A hybrid mindset that seeks to preserve religious values while embracing advanced Western systems and ideas is gaining traction. This shift in societal consciousness helps explain how Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), which originated as a conservative Islamic party, has remained in power for 23 years under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since its founding in 2001. As a result, public restrictions on wearing the hijab have been lifted, and Hagia Sophia – once converted into a museum – has been returned to its function as a mosque.
Issues Surrounding Türkiye
Even today in the 21st century, Turks continue to ask questions of their roots and identity: ‘Who are we? Are we Eastern or Western?’ This question has long followed the Turkish people. Although 97% of its territory lies in Asia and only 3% in Europe, Türkiye competes as a European nation in Olympic qualifiers and the World Cup, and does not participate in Asian Games at all. It is a strong member of NATO, the Western security alliance, and has been striving for decades to join the European Union. Ideologically, however, Türkiye is closer to the East than to the West. The Turkish language belongs to the Altaic family and is most similar to Korean. Social customs such as respect for elders, the extended family structure, gender separation in living spaces, filial piety, nationalism, mutual aid within the community, a trust-based economy, the separation of private and public spaces in homes, and shamanistic folk traditions all strongly resemble Eastern values. Ultimately, the Turkish people stand at a crossroads between Eastern and Western civilisations, occupying a kind of ambiguous position, an Eastern spirit dressed in Western clothes.
The most pressing issue facing Türkiye today is the economic crisis and high inflation. The economic situation, worsened during the Coronavirus Disease-19 pandemic, is largely due to excessive national security spending and supply-demand imbalances resulting from Türkiye’s deep involvement in the Syrian civil war, as well as the protracted conflicts between Israel and Hamas and between Russia and Ukraine. Russia is Türkiye’s largest trading partner, and stability in the Middle Eastern energy market – upon which Türkiye is entirely dependent – is essential to its economy. Domestically, the armed separatist movement by the Kurdish population, which makes up 20% of the country’s population, continues to be a major obstacle. In an effort to break through these crises, the Erdogan government is pushing bold policy shifts. It has expressed full support for the new Syrian government that emerged following the civil war, aiming to participate in postwar reconstruction efforts, and it is playing a leading role as a peace mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war. Türkiye’s foreign policy, which has long pursued a pro-Western and moderate stance, emphasises maintaining friendly relations not only with the U.S. and Russia, but also with neighbouring countries. This diplomatic flexibility explains how Türkiye, while a key NATO member, could take the unprecedented step of introducing Russia’s latest S-400 high-altitude missile defense system.
The Erdogan government is also pursuing a historic negotiation with domestic Kurdish separatists as a strategic card to overcome the economic crisis. Following the declaration of disarmament by Abdullah Öcalan – the leader of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (Partia Karkaren Kurdistan, PKK), currently serving a life sentence – the reconciliation and coexistence talks have gained rapid momentum. The disarmament of the PKK, which has caused the deaths of more than 40,000 people over the past 40 years, would significantly contribute to domestic peace, reduce national security costs, and pave the way for economic development. However, Türkiye’s political calendar has been thrown into chaos since President Erdogan had Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu – his strongest political rival and the leading opposition candidate from the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) – arrested this March. Once again, Türkiye reminds us that the concentration of power after 23 years of long-term rule may pose the gravest threat to democracy.
