The monument in Ulus Square was raised in 1927 as the Turkish nation's gift to the heroes of the War of Independence, and it repays walking around. On the front are two soldiers, one calling his comrades to battle with a hand raised, the other watching the horizon. Two stylised wolf heads are carved on the side.
The reliefs on the body carry the story round: on the right Atatürk and his companions at the Battle of the Commander-in-Chief, on the left the invading army saluting the Turkish flag, and on the back a woman carrying shells, set there in memory of what Turkish women did in the war. Across the upper part of the body runs the order given at Dumlupınar in 1922 — armies, your first objective is the Mediterranean, forward. Behind stands a felled plane tree for the Ottoman Empire, with a young sapling springing from its trunk for the new republic. At the very top Atatürk sits mounted, in the uniform of commander-in-chief. The square is on Anafartalar Caddesi in Altındağ and is served by public transport.
Getting there
- Access
- Reached by public transport.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Ankara as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.4 °C in January to 23.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (52 mm) and lightest in August (13 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
