But its territory, even after the continuous retreats, remained vast and strategic: it encompassed the Balkans, Anatolia, and all the Arab lands from Persia to Morocco.

However, like Manzikert, Myriokephalon was a pivotal event and following it the balance between the two powers in Anatolia gradually began to shift, for Manuel never again launched a strategically offensive campaign against the Turks and remained on the defensive.

As such, it was long used in Greek, Turkish and the Slavic languages to describe the lands of that empire ; however, following the conquest of Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire and the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmet II, it was applied to the southern Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire, which remained primarily Christian.

The Treaty of Lausanne saw Greece lose Eastern Thrace, Imbros and Tenedos, Smyrna and the possibility of staying in Anatolia, although Western Thrace remained Greek.

During the month of May the military situation in Anatolia remained indefinite, the Greeks suspending their offensive in order to prepare for a renewal of operations on a larger scale.

The major concerns of the Venetians in the Duchy were the valuable trade routes with the larger islands off of Anatolia, which they could now control ; although those islands themselves remained part of the Latin Empire, and later the restored Byzantine Empire, until taken by the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century.

Transported upriver to Baghdad by steamship, Melliss remained in hospital and unable to travel as the survivors of the 6th Division were marched north toward Anatolia.

Turkish-era Muğla also remained a minor site in the beginning despite having been captured relatively early for western Anatolia in the course of the 13th century.

Known for its warlike factions, it remained largely independent of the Lydians, and even the Persians, who conquered Anatolia in the 6th century BC, and divided the area into satrapies for greater control, were unable to cope with constant uprisings and turmoil.

Magnesia was one of the few towns in this part of Anatolia which remained prosperous under the Turkish rule.

Because of various factors arising from the Mongol invasion, their branch of the clan had left the regions of Fars and Kirman, and headed west into Anatolia, having remained for a time around Malatya, and then moving to the Kütahya area, where their beylik was formed rather rapidly.

It proved effective in defending what remained of Byzantine Anatolia and reclaiming much of the Balkans and even Constantinople itself in 1261.

When the Persian king Cyrus defeated Croesus ( 546 BC ) the Ionic Greek cities of Anatolia and the adjacent islands became Persian subjects and remained such until the Persians were defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis ( 480 BC ).

In 1255, the Mongols swept through eastern and central Anatolia, and would remain until 1335.

These include Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, Palestine and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period until the beginning of Islam in the 7th century.

Subsequently, the Galatians continued to be subsumed into the Greek world until their culture was barely indistinguishable from the Greeks before disappearing under the Turkish and Islamic Jihad and Genocide of Byzantine Anatolia.

** Achaeus, Seleucid general and later separatist ruler of most of Anatolia until his defeat and execution by the Seleucid king Antiochus III

** Timarchus, Seleucid nobleman, possibly from Miletus in Anatolia, appointed governor of Media in western Iran by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and who has rebelled against his successor, Demetrius I Soter, until he is killed in a battle with Demetrius ' forces

* Achaeus, Seleucid general and later separatist ruler of most of Anatolia until his defeat and execution by the Seleucid king Antiochus III

* Timarchus, Seleucid nobleman, possibly from Miletus in Anatolia, appointed governor of Media in western Iran by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and who has rebelled against his successor, Demetrius I Soter, until he is killed in a battle with Demetrius ' forces

Hattic was spoken in Anatolia ( Turkey ), in the area around ancient Hattusa ( modern Boğazköy ), until about 1800 BC, when it was replaced by the Indo-European Hittite language.

The Cimmerians or Kimmerians (, Kimmerioi ) were an ancient Indo-European tribe living north of the Caucasus and the Sea of Azov until they were driven southward by the Scythians into Anatolia during the 8th century BC.

The Turkish settlement of Anatolia from the late tenth century onward saw the introduction of a two-string Turkmen dutar, which was played in some areas of Turkey until recent times.

In southeastern Anatolia, the Ayyubids continued to rule the principality of Hisn Kayfa and managed to remain an autonomous entity, independent of the Mongol Ilkhanate which ruled northern Mesopotamia until the 1330s.

This identification was first put forth by Emil Forrer, but largely disputed by most Hittite experts until 1983 when Houwink ten Cate showed that two fragments were from the same original cuneiform tablet and in his discussion of the restored letter showed that Wilusa was correctly placed in northwestern Anatolia.

Arzawa in the second half of the second millennium BC ( roughly from late 15th century until the beginning of the 12th century ) was the name of a region and a political entity ( a " kingdom " or a federation of local powers ) in Western Anatolia.

After the collapse of the Hittite Empire from the 12th century, while Neo-Hittite states partially pursued Hittite history in southern Anatolia and Syria, the chain seems to have broken as far as Arzawa lands in western Anatolia were concerned and these could have pursued their own cultural path until unification came with the emergence of Lydia as a state under the Mermnad dynasty in the 7th century BC.

Turkish flow to Anatolia continued in a steady pattern depending on the policies of the ruling regimes until 1925 after which immigration was regulated.

The Kızılırmak flows for a total of about 1, 150 kilometers, rising in Eastern Anatolia around, flowing first to the west and southwest until, then forming a wide arch, the " Halys bend ", flowing first to the west, then to the northwest, passing to the northeast of Lake Tuz, then to the north and northeast, where it is joined by its major tributary, the Delice River ( also known by its Greek name Cappadox ) at, and after zigzagging to the northwest to the confluence with the Devrez River at, and back to the northeast, joining the Gökırmak before finally flowing into the Black Sea at.

2000 BCE ), which is the earliest evidence of Indo-European languages in the region attested historically ( some non-Indo-European languages were spoken in at least some parts of Anatolia for some substantial periods of time prior to the Hittite empire ) until the Persian Sassanid Empire collapsed in 651 CE.

His principality managed to resist interference in central Anatolia from both the Akkoyunlus and the Ottomans until it collapsed with his death in 1398.

From the 13th century until its fall in 1483, Karamanids was one of the oldest and most powerful Turkish beyliks in Anatolia.

A distinct Lydian culture lasted, in all probability, until at least shortly before the Common Era, having been attested the last time among extant records by Strabo in Kibyra in south-west Anatolia around his time ( 1st century BC ).

The Apostolic Age of the history of Christianity is traditionally the period of the Twelve Apostles, dating from the Crucifixion of Jesus ( c. 30-33 ) and the Great Commission in Jerusalem until the death of John the Apostle ( c. 115 ) in Anatolia.

Suleiman ibn Qutulmish (, Sulayman bin Kutalmish ) founded an independent Seljuq Turkish state in Anatolia and ruled as Seljuq Sultan of Rûm from 1077 until his death in 1086.

In early Greek testimonial Asia indicated central-western Anatolia.

With the beginning of the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, and as a result of the expansionist policies of Czarist Russia in the Caucasus, many Muslim nations and groups in that region, mainly Circassians, Tatars, Azeris, Lezgis, Chechens, and several Turkic groups left their ancestral homelands and settled in Anatolia.

The city has traditionally been a pole of attraction, and was a major center for refugees from various ethnic backgrounds who immigrated to Anatolia from the Balkans during the loss of the Ottoman territories in Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Woudhuizen revived a conjecture to the effect that the Tyrsenians came from Anatolia, including Lydia, whence they were driven by the Cimmerians in the early Iron Age, 750 – 675 BC, leaving some colonists on Lemnos.

The beginning of the Holocene corresponds with the beginning of the Mesolithic age in most of Europe ; but in regions such as the Middle East and Anatolia with a very early neolithisation, Epipaleolithic is preferred in place of Mesolithic.

Irregular sharpshooters ( Sekban ) were also recruited for the same reasons and on demobilization turned to brigandage in the Jelali revolts ( 1595 – 1610 ), which engendered widespread anarchy in Anatolia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

In the early stages of his reign, Orhan focused his energies on conquering most of northwestern Anatolia.

Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are considered evidence of early trade relations.

* c. 6200 BC: Mural painting or map from Çatalhöyük, an early civilized city that prospered by trading obsidian, Anatolia — modern Turkey.

Chalcidice was settled early on by southern Greek colonists and was considered part of the Greek world, while from the late 2nd millennium BC substantial Greek settlement also occurred on the eastern shores of the Aegean, in Anatolia.

Since the classicists of the early 20th century, biblical archeologists often identify the place-name Tarshish in the Hebrew Bible with Tartessos, though others connect it to Tarsus in Anatolia or other places as far as India.

Nicaea (; ) was a Hellenic city in northwestern Anatolia, and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea ( the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Church ), the Nicene Creed ( which comes from the First Council ), and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea.

Via Maris is the modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

Under the Kurgan hypothesis, there are two possibilities for how the early Anatolian speakers could have reached Anatolia: from the north via the Caucasus, and from the west, via the Balkans, the latter of which is considered somewhat more likely by Mallory ( 1989 ) and Steiner ( 1990 ).

Christianity had spread throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in Late Antiquity, but by the early 8th century Christian rule had become limited to Europe and Anatolia after the Muslim conquests.

Asbridge, however, fails to note that the recent Turkish conquests of Anatolia and southern Syria had shattered the tense but relatively stable balance of power that a somewhat revived Byzantine Empire had gradually developed with earlier Islamic powers over the course of the 10th and early 11th century.

There are early Neolithic cultures in Southeast Anatolia, Syria and Iraq by 8000 BC, and food-producing societies first appear in southeast Europe by 7000 BC, and Central Europe by c. 5500 BC ( of which the earliest cultural complexes include the Star &# 269 ; evo-Koros ( Cris ), Linearbandkeramic, and Vin &# 269 ; a ).

Notable Islamic architectural types include the early Abbasid buildings, T-Type mosques, and the central-dome mosques of Anatolia.

However, since the early 1990s Şanlıurfa has made huge leaps of development thanks to the Southeastern Anatolia Project, that provided a reliable supply of water for local farmers and fostered a real agricultural boom in every cultivar, but especially organic cotton production.

In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli the Bktashi tariqat was significantly influenced during its formative period by both the Hurufis ( in the early 15th century ) as well as the Qalandariyah stream of Sufism, which took many forms in 13th century Anatolia.

It seems likely that the migrating Phrygians brought Sabazios with them when they settled in Anatolia in the early first millennium BCE, and that the god's origins are to be looked for in Macedonia and Thrace.

During the early 20th century, and the expulsion of almost all the Armenians from Anatolia, Western Armenian was deprived of the land on which it was indigenously spoken.

The concept of Indo-Hittite fits a Proto-Anatolian outside of Anatolia, but it was used primarily to refer to an early stage of Proto-Indo-European, before the first separation.

) Vultures also feature prominently in the iconography of the Neolithic sites of Çatalhöyük and Jericho ; it is believed that in the early Neolithic culture of Anatolia and the Near East the deceased were deliberately exposed in order to be excarnated by vultures and other carrion birds.