Guide

Most museums of the Turkish War of Independence are about the leadership. This one, run by Keçiören municipality, is about the people of Ankara: the municipality presents it as the first museum devoted to the city's own experience of those years, told from beginning to end through its inhabitants.

The building came first. It was planned in 1889, under Abdülhamid II, as a shepherds' school meant to improve agriculture in the empire, and took its first students in 1908. After Mustafa Kemal reached Ankara on 27 December 1919 it became a place where the civilian figures and intellectuals of the movement lodged and worked. Halide Edip and Adnan Adıvar, Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver, Cami Baykurt, Refik Saydam, Yunus Nadi and Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu all stayed here, and Mehmet Akif Ersoy briefly; Mustafa Kemal himself came from time to time for conversation and meetings. Halide Edip wrote about her days at the shepherds' school and in Keçiören in her book on the ordeal of the Turkish people, and it was here that she and Yunus Nadi drafted the first Anatolian Agency bulletins announcing the struggle to the world.

The display runs over two floors. The first sets Ankara in the long view — the changes in its name, its position at the crossroads of the Anatolian civilisations, and the Seljuk, Ahi and Ottoman town — before turning to the occupation that began with the Armistice of Mudros, the first civilian organising, and the resistance of the townspeople under figures such as Hoca Sadullah Efendi, Hoca Atıf Efendi and Rıfat Borekci. The large hall on the second floor carries the story forward: Mustafa Kemal's arrival, the preparations for war, the Imalat-i Harbiye works making and moving weapons to the front, the Battle of Sakarya and on to 30 August, and the founding of the Republic.

Other rooms are thematic. The room with the balcony is set out as the one Halide Edip and Adnan Adıvar occupied, and separate rooms deal with the women of Ankara, its tradesmen and its notables, each treated on its own terms. The museum stands at Kavacık Subayevleri, beside the Meteoroloji metro station, and is open every day of the week from 08:30 to 19:00.

Visit status for this record: open to visitors.