Formerly Ottoman Empire controlling much of the Middle East. 1912-1913 involved in Balkan wars. 1914-1918 operated against the Allies in the Middle East. 1919-1922 war with Greece. 29 October 1923 Turkish Republic founded. National institutions modernised and westernised. 1939 neutral on outbreak of World War Two. 18 January 1941 signed non-agression pact with Germany. 2 August 1944 broke diplomatic relations with Germany. February 1945 declared war on Germany. 1952 joined NATO. Founder member of CENTO. 1960 military coup. 1961 return to civilian rule. Summer 1974 invaded Northern Cyprus, conflict with Greece. 1980 military rule. 1983 return to civilian rule. From about 1982, guerrilla forces seeking an independent Kurdish homeland began to cause security problems for Turkey. The ethnic Kurdish population resides in what are now parts of south-eastern Turkey, Northern Iraq and North-West Iran. The most prominent of the separatist Kurd forces was the PKK terrorist group. After 1984, the Turkish armed forces were drawn into a continuing counter-insurgency operation, during which a state of emergency was declared in Kurdish areas. In 1990-91 Turkey provided bases for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. The weakened state of the Iraqi army after the 1991 war allowed the Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq to build-up their forces relatively unhindered, and conduct cross-border raids into Turkey. In 1994 the Turkish Air Force launched a major bombing offensive against PKK guerilla bases in northern Iraq. Since the mid-1990s, further anti-guerrilla operations have been carried out against PKK forces.