In 1913 , a coup d'état effectively put the country under the control of the Three Pashas . During World War I , the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian , Assyrian and Pontic Greek subjects . Following the war , the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states . The Turkish War of Independence , initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues against occupying Allied Powers , resulted in the abolition of monarchy in 1922 and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 , with Atatürk as its first president . Atatürk enacted numerous reforms , many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought , philosophy , and customs into the new form of Turkish government . The Kurdish – Turkish conflict , an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and Kurdish insurgents , has been active since 1984 primarily in the southeast of the country . Various Kurdish groups demand separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey
Armenian
Armenian Genocide
Turkey