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History of Turkey

Can you guess these facts about the history of Turkey?
Includes both the modern nation of Turkey and previous people that inhabited the region
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: July 17, 2017
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First submittedJuly 17, 2017
Times taken14,136
Average score70.0%
Rating3.84
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Questio
Answer
Ancient city which was the site of Homer's "Iliad"
Troy
Former name of Istanbul
Constantinople
The father of the modern Republic of Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Title of the leader of the Ottoman Empire
Sultan
Title of that leader's chief advisor
Grand Vizier
Tassled red hat which was part of the official Ottoman army uniform in the 1800s
Fez
War which caused the downfall of the Ottoman Empire
World War I
Country which invited Turkish workers to immigrate in 1960 due to a labor shortage
West Germany
Military alliance which Turkey joined in 1952
NATO
Controversial President who has been accused of eroding democracy
since his election in 2014
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Offshoot of the Roman empire which survived in Turkey until the 1400s
Byzantine Empire
Island country which Turkey invaded in 1974
Cyprus
Greek leader who conquered most of Turkey in the 300s BC
Alexander the Great
Empire which controlled Turkey before the above conquest
Achaemenid Empire (Persia)
Group of people who were the victims of a genocide from 1915–1917
Armenians /
Assyrians / Greeks
Language, spoken by 12% of the population, which was banned from 1980–1991?
Kurdish
Train route which connected Paris and Istanbul
Orient Express
Roman city which had a population of around 500,000 at the time of Jesus
Antioch
Group of people who wanted to modernize and democratize the
Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s?
Young Turks
City, formerly known as Smyrna, which is currently the third most populous in Turkey
Izmir
PantsLobbyist
+10
Level 95
Jul 17, 2017
It's Istanbul not Constantinople,

Why did Constantinople get the works?

buck1017
+15
Level 77
Jul 17, 2017
That's nobody's business but the Turks
mikeb
+5
Level 66
Mar 9, 2018
People just liked it better that way.
sneakattack6254
+3
Level 52
Mar 9, 2018
If you have a date in Constantinople she'll be waiting in Istanbull
Zefyrinus
+9
Level 71
Jul 18, 2017
Istanbul was formerly formerly known as Byzantium.
tschutzer
+12
Level 91
Jul 19, 2017
Constantinople was formerly known as Byzantium. Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople.
ruftytufty
+3
Level 79
Mar 9, 2018
No, Istanbul was formerly known as Konstantiniyye.
kalbahamut
+20
Level 82
Mar 9, 2018
Constantinople was formerly known as Byzantium. Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople and was also formerly known as Byzantium. "Formerly" does not mean "immediately preceding." Both answers ought to be accepted if the clue remains as worded.
Maladroit
+3
Level 51
Mar 9, 2018
And technically, it was also 'New Rome' for a bit.
Nerd0921
+1
Level 73
Nov 10, 2022
Actually "Kostantiniyye" without the first n. But still, I think this should be the answer and constantinople should be a mere type-in.
sulfuratus
+5
Level 66
Mar 9, 2018
Yes. Please change the clue or add Byzantium as an answer.
redsplat
+24
Level 74
Oct 25, 2017
Thank you for including questions about the Armenians and the Kurds. Important in the history of Turkey.
BlackJohn
+1
Level 75
Dec 9, 2022
Lol he is about to make enemies of all Turks, nobody in that country recognises that the genocide took place.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Mar 9, 2018
Found this easy but I obsess about the history of the region.
redhead24
+5
Level 62
Mar 9, 2018
When you find yourself thinking that a small war caused the downfall of the ottoman empire only to feel stupid after the quiz ends and you see the answer.
PacoGee
+2
Level 44
Mar 9, 2018
lol you don't remember how that war started haha
Halebopp
+5
Level 58
Mar 9, 2018
Please accept The Great War for World War I.
mikeb
+4
Level 66
Mar 9, 2018
I think that designation became obsolete some time between '39 and '41.
MasterKenobi
+1
Level 60
Mar 24, 2018
You're right, it became obsolete, but not until 1945. FDR never called it World War II, he always said "the War for Survival." He did help popularize "Second World War" but didn't like the term and asked the public in 1942 to submit alternate names. Eventually World War II became the popular term, but not until about 1943.
boltok
+8
Level 68
Mar 9, 2018
Byzantium should be a perfectly acceptable answer for Istanbul's former name.
dirtylenzes
+7
Level 50
Mar 9, 2018
Please accept Byzantium as an alternative to Constantinople
komradtombstone
+13
Level 57
Mar 9, 2018
Regardless of whether Byzantium is technically right or not, Constantinople is the answer the quiz author was looking for. If you know the name "Byzantium," you probably also know the much more famous "Constantinople." When Byzantium doesn't work, just type in Constantinople, and move on. Easy, and no fuss!
jsmash
+2
Level 28
Mar 9, 2018
They're surely making as much fuss as you are, the only difference being they have a legitimate reason.
PlaceQuizzes
+1
Level 43
Jul 24, 2021
*probably* - I only know Constantinople because of thesong.
JonOfKent
+1
Level 56
Nov 11, 2022
The amount of fuss probably depends on whether you're typing on your phone one-handed or not... I do like short answers! Not that "Byzantium" is by any stretch short. If those ancient eastern Romans had had any consideration for my left thumb they would have called it "Biz" or something and left it at that.
MikesBrain
+2
Level 77
Mar 9, 2018
Will you accept Eastern Roman Empire as well as Byzantine Empire please?
jellyperson
+7
Level 56
Mar 9, 2018
This should also accept "Assyrians" and "Greeks" (or "Pontic Greeks") for genocide victims.
Devo31
+1
Level 36
Feb 20, 2022
:D
mikeyp
+2
Level 60
Mar 9, 2018
Thought this quiz was gonna be about the popular animal.
kalbahamut
+4
Level 82
Mar 22, 2018
Interesting (to me) bit of trivia: the American bird actually gets its name, in a roundabout way, from Turkey the country.

When Anatolia was overrun by various Muslim Central Asian Turkic peoples it eventually became the center of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire grew to control most of SW Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The Empire was always multiethnic and multilingual but Arab culture, religion, and language played an important role. In Arabic it is common to take the root name for a place, add an "y" to make a new word referring to people from that place, or "ia" to refer to the place itself. i.e. "Saudia" is the place and "Saudi" are the people from that place. Rusis are from Rusia. "Turkia" is the place and "Turki" refers to people from that place. Cross-cultural mistranslation led to English people referring to the land as "Turkey" instead of "Turkia."

Yeoryios
+2
Level 73
Sep 28, 2020
SE Europe*
kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Nov 10, 2022
yes, thanks
kalbahamut
+2
Level 82
Mar 22, 2018
For centuries the Ottoman Empire existed alongside and traded extensively with Europe. One of the commodities delivered to Europeans by the Turks was the African Guinea Hen.

When English-speakers arrived in the New World, they saw the very similar-looking American turkey and thought: "hey look! It's a Turkey bird!" (a.k.a. the popular bird that the Europeans got through trade from Turkey... even though they are actually from Africa.) That's how the American bird ended up being called a turkey.

EcceHomo
+1
Level 79
Nov 10, 2022
Unless you're Spanish speaking, in which case it is 'perú'.

Or French speaking in which case it is 'dinde', possibly (although unlikely) from d'inde, which means 'from India'.

kalbahamut
+1
Level 82
Nov 10, 2022
I did say English-speakers... but... what are you even talking about? Spanish for turkey the bird is pavo, and the country is Turquía. Perú is Spanish for.... Peru.
JonOfKent
+1
Level 56
Nov 11, 2022
I believe dinde does actually mean d'Inde. Wikipedia seems to think it's an abbreviation of coq d'Inde, which again originally referred to the guinea fowl.

Considering the original bird is African, neither the French nor the English seem to have done very well in naming it

SouthwestChief
+2
Level 72
Aug 15, 2020
Wasn't there also a genocide against the Assyrians around that time?
Yeoryios
+1
Level 73
Sep 28, 2020
Yep. And Pontic Greeks.
Afghabwe
+1
Level 39
Apr 10, 2021
Nice quiz! Greetings from Turkey!
DizzyTiger
+1
Level 66
Jun 28, 2022
"What offshoot of the Roman empire survived in Turkey until the 1400s?": Turkey did not exist by that time. It was not named Turkey by then, neither when Alexander invaded it, etc. Turkey is not the name of the area, but of the country that sits on Anatolia and was formed long after those events.

Please correct this in 3 questions, it is very wrong and misleading.

Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Aug 29, 2022
Read the caveat.
efercan
+6
Level 44
Oct 27, 2022
misleading facts. genocide never happened. where is your source?
giommaso
+12
Level 72
Nov 10, 2022
You're not serious, are you?
alpkagan55
+4
Level 54
Nov 10, 2022
he is right
stusum
+4
Level 64
Nov 10, 2022
The source is the hundreds and thousands of dead Armenians...
alpkagan55
+3
Level 54
Nov 11, 2022
so where is that source?
woshiwaiguoren
+3
Level 70
Nov 10, 2022
Erdogan has led Turkey since 2003, first as Prime Minister and then as President. They changed the constitution to give the presidency more power. more accurate to use the 2003 date and say "leader" instead of "President."
giommaso
+1
Level 72
Nov 10, 2022
- Offshoot of the Roman Empire: "Eastern Roman Empire" should be accepted. And calling them Byzantine is OK, but also diminishing, because they were fully continuous with the Roman Empire, while - for instance - HRE wasn't.

- "Roman city with 500000 inhabitants..." is misleading - because it's a Hellenic city, founded by Antiochus, one of Alexander's lieutenants. Back in the day it was held by Romans, but so was all the rest of Turkey, so it doesn't make sense to write it.

pizza565
+1
Level 64
Nov 10, 2022
Byzantium should be accepted for Constantinople
MavsFanForLife25
+1
Level 73
Nov 10, 2022
I think you accidentally put Questio, not Question at the top.
Jacktheguy
+1
Level 89
Nov 10, 2022
Questio sounds like a generic map quest name.

Edit: Looked it up and apparently it's some data analysis company.

JetPunker180
+1
Level 54
Nov 11, 2022
Can u accept. Vezier for vizier
JetPunker180
+1
Level 54
Nov 11, 2022
And please correct spelling of "question" in heading
Wiseman01
+3
Level 14
Nov 11, 2022
The Turks did not commit genocide. Armenians massacred Turkish, Kurdish and Muslim Armenians with terror gangs.
joedimaggio
+1
Level 72
May 3, 2023
Man that must be the most toxic comment I have seen on JetPunk.
MarcellDAvis
+1
Level 75
Jan 25, 2024
That West Germany invited Turkish workers due to a labor shortage is actually only half the truth. The other, often neglected half is that Turkey had suffered from high unemployment for several years at the time and actively pursued an agreement with Germany to send its unemployed abroad. One might also argue that there wasn't acutally a labor shortage but that employers had an interest in keeping the price of labor low by artificially increasing supply.
GokturkWarrior
+1
Level 32
Mar 9, 2024
As a Turkish there are some mistakes.

-Kurdish never banned in Turkey.Our official language is Turkish but Kurds can speak their own language in our country.

-Armenian genocide is just a political lie.The Ottoman government, at its weakest, did not even have weapons and was not strong enough to destroy a minority group.

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