Explanatory Notes

The Chronology of Events (1839–1939) was compiled by the Editor by comparison of several chronologies. These were: a chronology presented at the Australian National University Conference on ‘Atatürk and the Turkish Revolution’, Canberra, August 1981, and the chronologies given in ‘Atatürk’ by Jorge B. Villalta (Turkish Historical Society Publications, Series XVI, No. 39-1, Ankara, 1982) and in ‘Turkey 1983 Almanac’ (İlnur Çevik, Ed., A Turkish Daily News Publication, Ankara).

A Note on the Pronunciation of Turkish Words

The modern Turkish alphabet is phonetic, i.e. each letter represents one sound. While there is no q, w, x in the Turkish alphabet, there are six letters which are not found in the English alphabet: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. The following guide is hoped to help the reader in the pronunciation of the Turkish words used in this publication.

c, C — as j in jam (e.g. can)

ç, Ç — as ch in chess (e.g. çanak)

ğ, G — roughly as y in saying, after e or i (e.g. eğik); roughly as w in sowing, after o, ö, u or ü (e.g. göle); hardly sounded but lengthens the preceding vowel after a or ı (e.g. ağrı)

ı, I — as i in cousin (lower case is always undotted) (e.g. arız)

i, İ — as i in bit (capital is always dotted) (e.g. İzmir)

o, O — as o in form (e.g. oyma)

ö, Ö — as i in bird (as the German ö) (e.g. döver)

ş, Ş — as sh in shut (e.g. şal)

u, U — as oo in loot (e.g. unut)

ü, Ü — as the German ü (e.g. Türk)