Was Turkey a part of Ancient Greece?

Answer 1

Part of Turkey (Anatolia) was part of ancient Greeks if I may call it, since the history of ancient Greece is more of a history of city kingdoms. They established several colonies (mostly business centers) in Anatolia, especially on the coastlines of Anatolia. You can still see the remains on the Aegean coast. Later the Roman Empire took all of Anatolia (and all of the Mediterranean countries) and built many cities there. The Roman Empire destroyed the Greek hegemony.
When it was split into two as Rome and Byzantine, Anatolia became the main land of the Byzantine Empire, which suppressed all ethnic groups under its control, including the Greeks. The Byzantines, when they chose to be different from Rome, called themselves Orthodox Christians and replaced the Latin language with Greek so that they would be different from Rome. Many people confuse Greeks with Byzantines.
Anatolia today has remains from ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine times. This can be the answer to your question.

Answer 2

Turkey was not Turkey then, as the Turks appeared in the area later. But the area of Asia Minor was indeed inhabited by ancient Greeks, hence the present of many ancient Greek cities and monuments there. The colonisation of Asia Minor by the Greeks mostly happened around 1000 BC, I think, and probably not always very peacefully, hence the story of the Trojan war. The Greek population of Asia Minor remained there until 1922, when after the war they had to come to modern Greece as refugees(my grandparents among them).

Answer 3

Hi Tom,

If you ask the question as a Greek approach, the answer is yes, because a period in time the Greek Empire was in Anatolia so it can be said that Anatolia is a part of Ancient Greece.

But this approach makes you blind because the time we should discuss 15.000 years or so. Only 1.000 years of Greek culture is valid for some parts Anatolia. (Never at all)

So the real answer is "No. Anatolia is a very seperate from Ancient Greece but it is affected by Ancient Greece for a time"

Anatolia is a part of Asia as geographic understanding and the culture is really still close to asian side. But day by day it is getting Europian so we can answer your question 30 years later "Yes it is Ancient Greece".

How is answer?

Answer 4

Hi Tom,

Something About Anatolia,

ANCIENT ANATOLIA
Anatolia is the Asiatic portion of contemporary Turkey, extending from the Bosporus and Aegean coast eastward to the borders of the Soviet Union, Iran, and Iraq. The Greeks and Romans called western Anatolia "Asia." Later the name "Asia Minor," or "Little Asia," was used to distinguish Anatolia from the land mass of the greater Asian continent.

Already in late prehistoric times, occupation by cave dwellers in various subregions set the stage for Anatolia's emergence as a center of the agricultural revolution identified with the NEOLITHIC PERIOD. Villages and towns of this era appear at Siirt, Diyarbaker, and Urfa (southeastern Anatolia); Tarsus and Mersin in the Cicilian Plain; the Amuq Plain; at CATAL HUYUK (southeast of Konya); Hacilar (southwestern Anatolia); and Suberde (southwest of Konya). The 13-ha (32-acre) site at Catal Huyuk (c. 7000-5600 BC) has produced outstanding artifacts revealing it as a metalworking, specialized-craft, and religious center. Individual city-states abound during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages (3d to early 2d millennium BC). Between 1940 and 1780 BC, Assyrian merchants from Mesopotamia peacefully established a score of trading colonies in central and eastern Anatolian cities, thereby drawing the region into wider politico-economic focus.

Ref: http://www.turkishnews.com/DiscoverTurkey/anatolia/history.html

(I just only copied first paragraph, Would you please read another paragraphs ? )

Regards

Answer 5

Anatolia was a part of the Greek Empire, the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire at different times, and all of these empires left their traces here. Being on trade routes, empires just had to have the region.

Answer 6

Turkey was not turkey
also greece was nto greece
that is life
changing
amerca was not amerca
spain was not spain
italy was not italy
australia was not australia
france was not france
in that idea youa re saying we will consider the warld all as adam son republic

do you agree?

That is life and God created it like that ,,,nations and changing nations

best for all

Answer 7

Troy was in Turkey.
That should tell you the ancient Greeks went into Turkey with a vengeance.

Answer 8

Partially. Trojans were ancient turks, fathers of today's turks.