Day 92: Ankara

This was the last real day of my tour, and it was spent on the way to and in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Since the tour was down to just me my guide felt comfortable to deviate from the itinerary a bit and stop off at some random towns along the way to check out things he'd never had a chance to see and thought I'd be interested in. We stopped at a museum of discoveries from an ongoing Hittite excavation and in another small town named after the mystic Haji Bektash Veli (who, among other things, was said to be able to speak to animals) to visit his mausoleum/museum.


Once in Ankara we had two major places to visit. The first we went to was the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. It's a pretty small museum, but the only real history museum I'd been to in Turkey, so it was a nice change from all the excavations.




The next stop was the tomb/museum for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. I'm not sure how familiar people are with Ataturk. Before visiting, I certainly knew the name and that he was the founder of modern Turkey, but not much else. How he is treated in Turkey is the closest thing I've ever seen to the ancient greek hero-worship, and he really is a fascinating and incredibly important person, so I'm going to spend a bit of time talking about him and what he did.

Ataturk began in the military and gained popularity after his tactics and leadership led to great success in WW1 and the Turkish War of Independence. After the war he ultimately became the first president and almost single handed created a modern, progressive, secular state. A lot of people in the western world think of muslim countries as old-fashioned, unfair to women, and with governments dominated by religion, and I think it's important to highlight what was done in Turkey as a counter-example to that view. With the founding of the new republic, Ataturk explicitly declared a secular government. Women were give equal rights in all things to men, which in the 1920s/30s was revolutionary even in the western world. This included giving the right for women to vote, but also opening up all schools, all professions, all political office to women as well. He discarded the Muslim law of the Ottomans and created a new legal system of secular law. Education was also redone to combat high illiteracy and to bring a fragmented country together by promoting a common language and shared history. I highly recommend looking up Ataturk's Reforms, since I can only cover a fraction here, and it really is amazing how he transformed the country with his vision.

In every town I've been in Turkey, no matter how small, there is a monument in honour of Ataturk. As expected, his tomb/memorial/museum is an especially respected place.