Chronology.

• Position: Turkish history

552 First mention of T'u-kue tribe in Central Asia. 751 Chinese Buddhists driven out of Central Asia by Arab Muslim armies, opening the way for Turkish conversion to Islam. 861 Turkish slave soldiers kill the Muslim Caliph al-Mutawakkil. Turks become arbiters of Islamic courts from Cairo to Baghdad. 1071 Seliuk Turkish Sultan Alparslan Beg defeats Byzantine Emperor Romanus Diogenes IV at Mailzgert. Anatolia open for settlement by Turkish tribes. 1097 First Crusade devastates Seliuk fiefdoms and allows Byzantines to retake control of some of Anatolia. 1206-27 Genghis Khan begins Mongol invasion of Asia. 1236 Mongols conquer Russia. 1299 Establishment of the Ottoman Empire in central Anatolia. 1353 Ottoman invasion of Europe begins. 1453 Ottoman armies conquer Constantinople under Mehmed II. Collapse of Byzantine Empire. 1500s Ottoman Empire reaches its height under Suleyman the Magnificent. 1648 Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War. 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz: Ottoman Empire receives it first major blow. 1789 Selim III, the first Westernizing sultan, ascends the throne. 1821-8 Greek War of Independence. Turks defeated after Britain, Russia and France join in struggle. 1839 Gulhane Rescript ushers in major period of Ottoman reform, known as the tanzimat. 1854-56 Crimean War. Turks fight on the side of British and French against Russia. 1876-77 First Constitutional Period ended by Abdulhamid II. 1908 Young Turk Revolution. 1914 Ottoman Empire signs secret alliance with Germany 1914-18 First World War. Ottomans fight on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary 1918-22 Allied occupation of Istanbul after Young Turk leaders flee. 1919 Greek forces, encouraged by Britain and others, occupy Anatolia in May Turkish War of Independence starts. 1920 The Turkish Grand National Assembly meets for the first time on 23 April as representatives of the new Turkish state. Allies force sultan's government to sign Treaty of Sevres on 20 August, aiming to split Anatolia between British, French, Italian, Greek, Armenian and possibly Kurdish regions. Treaty is never ratified and Turkish troops launch offensive on Armenia to capture debated territory 1922 War turns in favor of Turks. Ataturk abolishes the sultanate on 1 November. 1923 Turkish-Greek Treaty exchanges nearly one million ethnic Greek Christians from Anatolia for nearly 400,000 Turkish Muslims in Greece. The signing of the Lausanne Treaty on 24 July provides the basis of international legitimacy...