Ankara, Turkey

The ancient city of Ankara has been the capital of Turkey since 1923. The center of the Turkish government and a national transportation hub, Ankara is a sprawling, austere metropolis. Ancient and medieval ruins attract tourists from around the world. Due to the city’s rapid growth in recent years, traffic and overcrowding have begun to cause problems in Ankara.

Landscape

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president of the Republic of Turkey, chose the small town of Ankara as the capital because he believed that the capital should be in the center of the country. Atatürk planned a secular, modern nation, and he made sure that Ankara represented that ideal, with functional buildings, good transportation facilities, and wide boulevards.

Ankara is located on the eastern edge of the great Anatolian plateau, which forms most of Turkey. Centered in a high valley of the Ak Mountains, the modern metropolis sprawls through valleys and over hills near the confluence of the Hatip, Cubek, and Ince Su Rivers, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the Black Sea.

The city’s altitude is 938 meters (3,077 feet) above sea level. It has a continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers. January temperatures usually average from –4 to 4 degrees Celsius (25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit), but can fall to a frigid –25 degrees Celsius (–13 degrees Fahrenheit). High summer temperatures occur in July and August, when the thermometer can top out at 38 degrees Celsius (just above 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Temperatures in August range from an average high of 31 degrees Celsius (89 degrees Fahrenheit) to an average low of 15 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit). The average annual rainfall amounts to about 35 centimeters (less than 14 inches), most of it occurring in May and December.

People

The population of Ankara has grown rapidly and numbers over 5.310 million (2022). Since 1950, Ankara, like other cities in Turkey, has experienced a steady influx of people from rural areas who come to the city looking for work. In addition, immigrants and refugees continue to change the demographics. Many Bosnian Muslims, for instance, immigrated to Turkey in the 1990s.

Ethnic Turks represent the majority of Turkey’s population, while Kurds represent the largest minority at 19 percent of the total population. There are also large numbers of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews in Turkey. The country and its capital are predominantly Muslim.

Both the culture and cuisine of Ankara embraces a mixture of West and East, modern and traditional. Western food, including fast food, exists alongside traditional dishes that date to the Ottoman Empire. Kebabs are the national dish. A flat, disk-shaped Turkish bread, called pide, is sold widely by street vendors. Turkish coffee is strong and sweet. Raki, an anise-flavored beverage, is the most common alcoholic drink. The national drink, however, is sweet tea.

Economy

The government and the military are the largest employers in Ankara. The capital is also home to a wide variety of industries. Ankara produces flour, sugar, cement, wine and beer, construction materials, and tractors. Turkey’s famous Angora goats, producers of fine mohair wool, are raised outside the city, and Ankara has long been a wool-trading center.

In addition, Ankara is the national transportation hub. The main east-west rail line across the province of Anatolia passes through Ankara. The city also boasts several main highways. Buses leave the otogar (central bus station) for Istanbul, the country’s largest city, every fifteen minutes. Esenboga International Airport offers regular domestic flights as well as international travel.

Tourism provided significant income for Ankara in the late twentieth century. However, political and environmental issues plagued the tourist business in the early twenty-first century. Earthquakes, fear of terrorism, and an increase in violent crime were among the factors that contributed to a decline in the Turkish tourism industry.

Three of Turkey’s major universities are located in Ankara: Hacettepe University, established in 1206; the Ankara University, established in 1946; and the Middle East Technical University, established in 1956.

Landmarks

The history of Turkey is visible in Ankara’s ruins and architecture. The Romans are represented by a bath, the Column of Julian, and the Temple of Rome and Augustus. The Byzantines left the walled citadel (the old city, dating to the three-thousand-year-old Hittite occupation of the site), Kalesi Castle, and a cemetery. The Alaeddin Mosque is from the Seljuk era.

Ottoman buildings are numerous, including the Haci Bayram Câmii, a dervish sect mosque established in 1429; the Mahmud Pasha market, dating to 1464; and a bazaar and caravanserai from the same century, which now house the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and its world-renowned collection of Hittite antiquities.

The Anitkabir, Atatürk’s mausoleum, monument, and museum, is the most-visited site in the city. The huge complex is the greatest example of modern Turkish architecture. Nearby, a statue of Atatürk on horseback can be found in Ulus Meydani Square.

The Presidential Palace and Grand National Assembly are open for public tours. Turkey’s National Library, State Theatre, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra are also located in Ankara.

History

According to archaeologists, Ankara’s history begins in 6500 BCE, in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) Period. Three thousand years later, the Hittite Empire, which controlled the area until 1200 BCE, left the first written records. The regional kingdom of Phrygia supplanted the Hittites in Ankara in the tenth century BCE. Phrygia, in turn, was followed by another regional kingdom, Lydia, under King Croesus. The Persians conquered the Lydians in 546 BCE.

Alexander the Great and the Greek Empire defeated the Persians in 334 BCE and took over Ankara. The Greeks were followed by the Tectosages, a tribe of Galatians. Galatia was one of the many names of the area that is now Ankara. In the third century BCE, the Tectosages made Ankara their capital, calling it Ancyra, or “anchor.” In 25 BCE, Ankara became part of the Roman Empire of Augustus Caesar.

In 326 CE, Constantine I, the Roman emperor, moved his capital to Byzantium (Istanbul), and Ankara was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. During a period of unrest, Ankara was attacked by both Arabs and Seljuks, a nomadic Turkish people who had originated in central Asia. In 1073, Alparslan, a Seljuk ruler, took control of the area. The following century saw much strife between the Seljuks and other Turks. Power struggles between the Seljuk lords themselves were not uncommon. After the Seljuks established the Sultanate of Rum in 1143, Ankara declined in importance.

As the Ottoman Turks grew more powerful and challenged the Seljuks, the ownership of Ankara again became a source of contention. The city was besieged by Timur (Tamerlane) during his Anatolian campaign. In 1403, the Ottoman Turks seized control of Ankara and held it until World War I. During much of this time, Ankara served as a center of trade and commerce.

After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was divided and different European nations were given control of various regions. Mustafa Kemal, the Turkish hero of the Gallipoli campaign, was among those who refused to accept the agreement. Taking the name Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, he fought during the War of Independence against both the Ottomans and the Europeans. In 1923, Atatürk declared Ankara the capital of the independent Republic of Turkey.

Atatürk was mindful of the violent backlash against nearly one million Christian Armenians during the War of Independence. Atatürk determined that the new Turkish state would be secular and that its citizens would be given religious liberty. He also believed in the equality of women. He forbade polygamy and gave women the right to vote. Atatürk established a secular legal system, replacing the Islamic code with one patterned after Swiss legal system. In 1945, Turkey became a member of the United Nations. In 1952, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Modernization continued, and in 1996, Tansu Ciller became the first female prime minister of Turkey.

Turkey submitted an application for membership in the European Union (EU) in 1987 and began accession membership talks with the European Union in 2005. Several issues, including the physical geography of Turkey, have resulted in contention among member states regarding Turkey’s admission. In 2010, the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks published confidential cables revealing that France and Austria were deliberately blocking Turkey’s EU membership negotiations.

In 2015 and 2016, several terrorist attacks, including car bombings and gun attacks, took place in Ankara. On July 15, 2016, members of the Turkish Armed forces attempted a government coup in Ankara and Istanbul. When citizens took to the streets in a mass confrontation against coup forces, violence resulted in three hundred deaths and more than two thousand casualties. The Turkish government retook control and arrested several thousand people, including members of the military, judges, and journalists for their alleged connections to the coup. One of those arrested in connection with the coup was a US citizen, Evangelical Christian pastor Andrew Brunson, leading to strained relations between Turkey and the United States. In 2018, two men were arrested in Ankara for firing shots at the city's US embassy.

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