Anatolia (the Turkish peninsula) is one of those few places which seem especially bloody in a world map for some odd reason. Places like Northern India, Central Europe & Africa not forgetting Eastern Asia have seen some of history's worst bloodletting and Anatolia is no different.
Around 2000 BC or so the Hittites, a iron welding charioteer group of people controlled Anatolia. As they expanded their Empire they clashed with their greatest enemy, the Egyptians who ruled Canaan. After biting off a piece of Canaan the Egyptians attacked and had a massive battle at Kadesh ending in a draw. After signing a peace treaty with the Egyptians the Hittites started to decline and eventually collapsed when the Achaean Greeks were besieging places like Wilusa aka Troy. By 1200 BC it was all over.Soon Greek speaking peoples began settling Anatolia, they settled over all over the Mediterrenean. From Egypt to Southern France. The Greek archipelago during that period of time had very little farmland (especially for a growing population) for new farmers. Greek settlers and traders set up in the Black Sea as well. Soon kingdoms developed like Lydia which were smart enough to develop the beginnings of Greek philosophy...but not smart enough to ignore the Oracle at Delphi. King Croesus of Lydia offered the usual sacrifice at Croesus using his kindgoms' riches and in return he was told to attack the Medes (Persians). Baaaad move. The Persians were on the move. They surprised attack the Lydians on camels and killed Croesus sons on a pyre. The Persians were a people on the move. Just right after that, they conquered Babylon.
Ever since the Persians conquered their tribal cousins the Medes, they'd been hacking people in the Middle East right and left. Conquering down the Nile Egyptians and chasing Scythians in the steppes and then of course they made the massive mistake of conquering Anatolia, which brought the ire of the cousins of the Lydians and Ionians in that region - the Greeks. The Ionians kept getting drafted into Persian imperial conquests and revolted in part of the governor of the city of Miletos, Aristagoras. Athens sent 1000 hoplites to Ionia and it burned down the seat of the Persian regional capital or satrap named Sardis. This obviously meant war. At 490 B.C., Sparta sent its navy to crush Athens. Unfortunately, the Persians were crushed at the battle of Marathon though they outnumbered the Greeks 3 to 1. Let's just say, the Emperor Darius was not happy. He found out the hard way there was only so much you can control beyond the Bosphorus. Futhermore, he had to deal with a revolt in Egypt.His son Xerxes had even less success against the Greeks. He invaded Greece with probably over 100,000 troops and camp followers by constructing an artificial bridge over the Dardanelles strait and yet - 300 Spartans and hundreds of more Thebans held them back at Thermopylae to a devastating cost. Though Athens itself was razed and Athenian victory at the Battle of Salamis cemented Persia's retreat from the Greek world and the rise of the Athenian Empire.
Skip ahead a few years and Alexander conquers Anatolia en route to a final show down with the Persian Empire. After his death Macedonian and Seluecid warlords battle over control of the peninsula along with other minor Greek kings and soon Rome slowly but surely extended it's imperial shackles onto Asia Minor after conquering Greece due to the the meddlesome Hannibal. But soon, the region was a province of the Roman Empire and as usual the region flourished despite barbarian invasions when the Roman Empire was crumbling apart. Around 330 AD, the Emperor Constantine turned the city of Byzantium into a new capital named himself called Constantinople. He was also Christian and it's interesting to note that the growth of Christianity into a global faith was because of the efforts of Paul of Tarsus - an Anatolian. Constantine and Christ laid the foundations of a new Eastern Roman Empire which under Emperor Justinian and his General Belisarius conquered North Africa and other lost Roman provinces and was about seize all of Italy when a lack of resources for his hand. Also, the fact that the Persians had become newly resurgent and needed to be fight to a draw every ten years or so. It's the problem with Anatolia - threats from the both West and East are overwhelming. Eventually after dozens of battles and the massacre of Palestine's Jews on a scale not seen since the Great Jewish Revolt, the Byzantines managed to secure a weak control over the Levant under Emperor Heraclius.
Of course, things were not meant to be. The Arab tribes had just been united under the Prophet Muhammad and armies led by Caliph Umar invaded both Byzantium and Persia at the same time. Persia fell so fast that an army doubled pack to help the Arab conquest of Palestine and later Egypt. In one battle, the Byzantines lost 50,000 men in an afternoon and soon the Arabs were besieging Constantinople. It was an ominous beginning of what would later culminate in the destruction of the Greeks in Anatolia more than 1400 years later...
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