ANKARA

Capital of Ankara province and of the Republic of Turkey.

Ankara (formerly Angora) originally was a Hittite settlement and remained a provincial city throughout its history, except when it was made capital of the Celtic kingdom of Galatia (284 b.c.e.–17 c.e.). Subsequently, Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks, and Crusaders conquered the city. The Ottoman Turks conquered it in 1360 and since then Ankara has been a Turkish city. However, it remained a minor provincial center of the Ottoman Empire until the late nineteenth century, when it received a spur of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway. In December 1919, after the Ottoman defeat in World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk chose Ankara as headquarters of the nationalist resistance because of its transportation links with the capital, Istanbul, which was occupied by foreign forces. Subsequently, the new Turkish Grand National Assembly met in Ankara (1920) and voted to move the national capital there in 1923.

The modern city initially was built between the medieval citadel and the railroad station to its west. In 1932, architects began laying out a new city based on a plan by Austrian architect Hermann Jansen. The plan provided only for the upper and middle classes, not for the masses of villagers who came to Ankara to become tradesmen and artisans. To avoid the authorities, the migrants built houses, known as gecekondu, by night, which now ring the planned city and contain the majority of Ankara's inhabitants. The plan envisioned a population of 335,000 by 1985; in that year the population had reached 2,300,000, By 2000, Ankara's population was 3,540,522.

Ankara is the economic and transport center of Anatolia. Railroads were extended eastward to Kayseri, Sivas, Erzurum, and Diyarbakir in the 1920s and 1930s, and a network of paved roads connecting Ankara to all parts of the interior was built in the 1950s. The airport at Esenboğa has become the hub of Turkey's domestic air network. The government and the military are Ankara's major employers. Most service employment is directly related to government (education, legal services, support of the foreign community) or to the needs of running the metropolis (transportation, construction, and general services). Industry also is concentrated in the government sector (armaments, official publishing). The burgeoning of ministerial bureaucracies has fueled the city's rapid growth, which has led to problems other than gecekondu slums. These include serious air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels; severe traffic congestion; and respiratory ailments and other health conditions aggravated by the degraded urban environment.

see also anatolia; atatÜrk, mustafa kemal; berlin–baghdad railway; gecekondu.

Bibliography

Ahmad, Feroz. The Making of Modern Turkey. New York; London: Routledge, 1993.

John R. Clark

Updated by Eric Hooglund

Ankara , city (1990 pop. 2,533,209), capital of Turkey and Ankara prov., W central Turkey, at an elevation of c.3,000 ft (910 m). Turkey's largest city after Istanbul , Ankara is primarily an administrative city, but it is also an important commercial, industrial, and cultural center. Grains, vegetables, and fruit are grown nearby. Manufactures include food products, wine, farm machinery, iron and steel, textiles, and cement. Angoran goats bred there are famous for the mohair made from their coats. Tourism is increasingly important, and the service sector is expanding.

Known in ancient times as Ancyra and later as Angora, the city was an important commercial center at least as early as Hittite times (18th cent. BC). in the 1st cent. AD it became the capital of a Roman province. It flourished under Augustus; in the ruins of a marble temple dating from his reign (31 BC-AD 14) was found the Monumentum Ancyranum, a set of inscribed tablets valuable as a record of Augustan history. The city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the mid-14th cent., and in 1402 Timur defeated and captured Sultan Beyazid I there.

In the late 19th cent. Ankara declined and by the early 20th cent. was a small town known only for the production of mohair. In 1920, Kemal Atatürk made the city the seat of his Turkish nationalist government with a commitment to modernization. In 1923 it replaced Istanbul as the capital of all Turkey, partly to break with tradition and partly to take advantage of its central location. The city grew rapidly from the 1920s; in the 1960s its population almost doubled.

There are few historic remains. Ankara's leading modern monument is the Atatürk mausoleum, completed in 1953. The huge Kocatepe Mosque opened in 1987. The city has numerous museums, including the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and is the seat of the Ankara, Hacettepe, and Middle East Technical universities.

Ankara, Turkey Ankuwash, Ankyra, Angora Situated in a winding corridor called the Halys Gates, the city may take its name from the Indo‐European root word ang ‘bend’. The Hittites were the first to build a city here in the 2nd millennium bc, calling it Ankuwash. Alexander III the Great^† conquered it in 334bc and the Romans, who changed the name to Ankyra, absorbed it into their empire in 25 bc. Later it became part of the Byzantine Empire, but fell to the Seljuk Turks in about 1075. After being occupied by the Ottoman Turks in 1356, the city became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1360. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (c.1360–1403) was defeated at the Battle of Angora in 1402 by Tamerlane^†, the Tatar conqueror. Angora then declined to little more than a village before Kemal Atatürk^† chose it for his headquarters in 1919 because of its central location. On Turkish independence in 1923, it became the capital of Turkey. In 1930 the name was formally changed from Angora, its Europeanized version, to Ankara. Angora gave its name to a breed of goat and rabbit.

Ankara Capital of Turkey, at the confluence of the Cubuk and Ankara rivers. In ancient times it was known as Ancyra, and was an important commercial centre as early as the 8th century bc. It was a Roman provincial capital and flourished under Augustus. Tamerlane took the city in 1402. In the late 19th century it declined in importance, until Kemal Atatürk set up a provisional government here in 1920. It replaced Istanbul as the capital in 1923, changing its name to Ankara in 1930. It is noted for its angora wool (a mixture of sheep's wool and rabbit hair) and mohair. Pop. (1997) 3,693,390.

Ankara •Altamira, chimera, clearer, Elvira, era, hearer, Hera, hetaera, interferer, lempira, lira, lire, Madeira, Megaera, monstera, rangatira, rearer, scorzonera, sera, shearer, smearer, sneerer, steerer, Thera, Utsire, Vera •acquirer, admirer, enquirer, firer, hirer, inquirer, requirer, wirer •devourer, flowerer, scourer •Angostura, Bonaventura, bravura, Bujumbura, caesura, camera obscura, coloratura, curer, Dürer, durra, Estremadura, figura, fioritura, Führer, insurer, Jura, juror, Madura, nomenklatura, procurer, sura, surah, tamboura, tempura, tourer •labourer (US laborer) • Canberra •Attenborough •Barbara, Scarborough •Marlborough • Farnborough •Deborah • rememberer •Gainsborough • Edinburgh •Aldeburgh • blubberer •Loughborough •lumberer, slumberer •Peterborough •Berbera, gerbera •manufacturer • capturer • lecturer •posturer • torturer • nurturer •philanderer • gerrymanderer •slanderer •renderer, tenderer •dodderer •squanderer, wanderer •borderer • launderer • flounderer •embroiderer • Kundera •blunderer, plunderer, thunderer, wonderer •murderer • amphora • pilferer •offerer • sufferer •staggerer, swaggerer •sniggerer •lingerer, malingerer •treasurer • usurer • injurer • conjuror •perjurer • lacquerer •Ankara, hankerer •bickerer, dickerer •tinkerer • conqueror • heuchera •cellarer • cholera •camera, stammerer •armourer (US armorer) •ephemera, remora •kumara • woomera • murmurer •Tanagra • genera • gunnera •Tampere, tamperer •Diaspora •emperor, Klemperer, tempera, temperer •caperer, paperer •whimperer • whisperer • opera •corpora • tessera • viscera • sorcerer •adventurer, venturer •batterer, chatterer, flatterer, natterer, scatterer, shatterer •banterer •barterer, charterer •plasterer • shelterer • pesterer •et cetera • caterer •titterer, twitterer •potterer, totterer •fosterer •slaughterer, waterer •falterer, palterer •saunterer • poulterer •bolsterer, upholsterer •loiterer • roisterer • fruiterer •flutterer, mutterer, splutterer, stutterer, utterer •adulterer • musterer • plethora •gatherer • ditherer • furtherer •favourer (US favorer), waverer •deliverer, shiverer •hoverer •manoeuvrer (US maneuverer) •discoverer, recoverer