<P> The Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 marked the beginning of Ottoman territorial retreat; some territories were lost by the treaty: Austria received all of Hungary and Transylvania except the Banat; Venice obtained most of Dalmatia along with the Morea (the Peloponnesus peninsula in southern Greece); Poland recovered Podolia . Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire continued losing its territories, including Greece, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and the Balkans in the 1912--1913 Balkan Wars . Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century (see Rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). Its inhabitants were of varied ethnicities, including Turks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks, Frenchs, and Italians (particularly from Genoa and Venice). Faced with territorial losses on all sides the Ottoman Empire under the rule of the Three Pashas forged an alliance with Germany who supported it with troops and equipment . The Ottoman Empire entered World War I (1914--1918) on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated . During the war, major atrocities were committed such as Genocide, mass murder and death marches intentionally denying food and water to the deportees by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks causing millions of deaths and resulting in the Armenian Genocide of 1915 . Following World War I, the huge conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new states . </P> <P> On October 30, 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed, followed by the imposition of Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920 by Allied Powers, which was never ratified . The Treaty of Sèvres would break up the Ottoman Empire and force large concessions on territories of the Empire in favour of Greece, Italy, Britain and France . </P> <P> The occupation of some parts of the country by the Allies in the aftermath of World War I prompted the establishment of the Turkish national movement . Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres . By September 18, 1922, the occupying armies were expelled . On November 1, the newly founded parliament formally abolished the Sultanate, thus ending 623 years of Ottoman rule . The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923, led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the newly formed "Republic of Turkey" as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, and the republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, in the new capital of Ankara . Mustafa Kemal became the republic's first President of Turkey and subsequently introduced many radical reforms with the aim of founding a new secular republic from the remnants of its Ottoman past . The Ottoman fez was abolished, full rights for women politically were established, and new writing system for Turkish based upon the Latin alphabet was created . According to the Law on Family Names, the Turkish parliament presented Mustafa Kemal with the honorific surname "Atatürk" (Father of the Turks) in 1934 . </P> <P> Turkey was neutral in World War II (1939--45) but signed a treaty with Britain in October 1939 that said Britain would defend Turkey if Germany attacked it . An invasion was threatened in 1941 but did not happen and Ankara refused German requests to allow troops to cross its borders into Syria or the USSR . Germany had been its largest trading partner before the war, and Turkey continued to do business with both sides . It purchased arms from both sides . The Allies tried to stop German purchases of chrome (used in making better steel). Starting in 1942 the Allies provided military aid . The Turkish leaders conferred with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in November, 1943, and promised to enter the war . By August 1944, with Germany nearing defeat, Turkey broke off relations . In February 1945, it declared war on Germany and Japan, a symbolic move that allowed Turkey to join the nascent United Nations . </P>

The turks first appeared as part of what empire on the silk road