1914—World War I begins. The Ottoman Empire allies with Germany.
1919—World War I ends, the Ottoman Empire is defeated.
1923—Foundation of the Republic of Turkey.
1923–1950—The CHP holds power.
1950–1960—The DP holds power.
May 27, 1960—Military coup.
1961—Execution of deposed prime minister Adnan Menderes at the prison on İmralı Island.
1965–1971, 1975–1977, 1979–1980—The AP holds power during these three periods.
March 12, 1971—Military coup.
May 6, 1972—Execution of the Turkish revolutionaries Deniz Gezmiş, Hüseyin İnan, and Yusuf Aslan. Öcalan himself was imprisoned on April 7, 1972, for a short time, and, thus, followed these developments closely.
September 12, 1980—Military coup.
1982—The constitution resulting from the coup, which remains in force, and which declares all people in Turkey to be Turks and prohibits the use of any language except Turkish, comes in to effect.
1983—Turgut Özal becomes prime minister when his ANAP wins the first elections following the coup.
1989—Turgut Özal becomes state president.
1993—The first unilateral ceasefire is declared by the PKK, and at a press conference in Lebanon Öcalan declares the movement’s intention to resolve the Kurdish question within the borders of Turkey. Turgut Özal responds favorably but then dies under unclear circumstances later that year.
November 3, 1996—In the aftermath of a traffic accident near the village of Susurluk, the entanglement of politics, security agencies, the fascist mafia, and Kurdish village guards becomes broader public knowledge for the first time, in what is known as the Susurluk scandal.
April 1999—Bülent Ecevit is reelected, having previously been elected in 1974, 1977, and 1978, and leads a coalition government made up of the of the DSP, the ANAP, and the MHP.
2001—Abolition of the death penalty in peace time.
November 2, 2002—The AKP wins the parliamentary elections, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan becomes prime minister, with the CHP as the only parliamentary opposition.