Greece and Türkiye compared

Entangled histories

8 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

1. 29 May 1453

   Fall of Constantinople

   Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire and clearing the way for Ottoman rule over the Greek lands.

   War & Rupture · from the Greece chronicle · Roman and Byzantine Greece · Fall of Constantinople (1453), Byzantine Empire

2. 1460

   Ottoman conquest of the Morea

   The Ottomans completed their conquest of the Greek mainland with the fall of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea, including Mystras, bringing the Greek lands under Ottoman rule.

   War & Rupture · from the Greece chronicle · Ottoman Rule and the War of Independence · Greece under Ottoman rule, Ottoman conquest of the Morea

3. 25 March 1821 (traditional)

   Outbreak of the Greek War of Independence

   Revolution against Ottoman rule erupted across the Peloponnese and beyond, beginning the war that would create an independent Greek state and inspiring philhellenes across Europe.

   Independence · from the Greece chronicle · Ottoman Rule and the War of Independence · War of Greek Independence, Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire

4. 20 October 1827

   Battle of Navarino

   A combined British, French and Russian fleet destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian navy at Navarino, a decisive intervention by the Great Powers that turned the war in Greece's favour.

   War & Rupture · from the Greece chronicle · Ottoman Rule and the War of Independence · War of Greek Independence, Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire

5. July 1832

   Treaty of Constantinople and the Kingdom of Greece

   The Ottoman sultan recognized Greek independence and the new state's frontiers in the Treaty of Constantinople; the Bavarian prince Otto was chosen as the first king of Greece.

   Independence · from the Greece chronicle · Ottoman Rule and the War of Independence · War of Greek Independence, Otto, king of Greece

6. 1919–1922

   Turkish War of Independence

   Mustafa Kemal led a national resistance and a new Grand National Assembly in Ankara, defeating Greek, Armenian and French forces and ending the Allied occupation of Anatolia.

   Independence · from the Türkiye chronicle · World War I, the Armenian Genocide and the War of Independence · Kemal Atatürk

7. 10 August 1920

   Treaty of Sèvres

   The Allied treaty with the defeated Ottoman government proposed partitioning Anatolia among Greece, Armenia, Italy, France and others; rejected by the nationalists, it triggered the War of Independence.

   Politics & Power · from the Türkiye chronicle · World War I, the Armenian Genocide and the War of Independence · Kemal Atatürk, Ottoman Empire

8. 1919–1922

   Asia Minor Catastrophe

   The Greco-Turkish War ended in the rout of Greek forces and the destruction of Smyrna in 1922; the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne mandated a population exchange that brought over a million refugees into Greece.

   War & Rupture · from the Greece chronicle · The Modern Greek State · Greece (country overview and history), 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War (Asia Minor Catastrophe)