Learning a language's history is essential to grasping the meaning behind certain nuances and words that may have cultural connotations or some sort of historically significant origin. I did some research on the Turkish alphabet's history
During the Ottoman Empire, which existed not too long ago, Turkish used the Arabic alphabet. However, after the collapse of the Empire and the creation of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk enlisted a new alphabet (using the Roman alphabet as guidance) and mandated everyone to use it. Ataturk also was instrumental in the part that Islam would play in the Republic. He believed that religion's heavy hand had a lot to do with why the Ottoman Empire did not succeed and he wanted to create a secular state that was not threatened by a doctrine of faith, which is why he switched the alphabet to Latin, instead of keeping it Arabic. He also wanted to make the country more appealing to the EU and the rest of the world, instead of not really fitting in with the Middle East.
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