Atatürk and the War of Independence Museum

Atatürk and the War of Independence Museum is the museum, which was opened to visitors on June 3, 21, located in the 1960 thousand square meter colonnaded area under the Hall of Honor, where Atatürk's mausoleum is located in Anıtkabir.

The part of the museum between the Misak-ı Milli Tower and the Revolution Tower has been serving as the “Atatürk Museum” since 1960. This episode was combined with new chapters at the end of a 2001-month study that started in November 9 and was opened to visitors by then-President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit on August 80, 26, the 2002th anniversary of the Great Offensive. The museum was built upon the order of Chief of General Staff Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu and was prepared under the coordination of Mehmet Özel, the art consultant of the General Staff.

Divisions

Atatürk and the War of Independence Museum consists of four sections: In the first section, Atatürk's personal belongings; in the second part, the panorama of Çanakkale Land and Sea Wars; in the third part, the Sakarya Pitched Battle and the Great Attack panorama; In the fourth section, there is a vaulted corridor enriched with reliefs, where Atatürk's revolutions are introduced with photographs and explanations.

Some of the interesting pieces in the first part are the wax statue of Atatürk and the body of Foks, his dog, which is stored and filled.

The panoramas in the second and third sections portray the events of the Çanakkale War and the Turkish War of Independence by using the paintings of the period. A battlefield was arranged with models in front of the panoramas and a three-dimensional effect was achieved. In front of the panorama of the Battle of Çanakkale, the bullets, guns, cannons, burnt wheels and oxks used in this war are exhibited. While watching the 40-meter-long billboards written by Turgut Özakman, the visitors are listened to war effects such as music composed by Muammer Sun, gun sounds, ship whistles, sword bangs, horseshoes and shouts of "Allah Allah".

In the middle of the second and third sections, the portraits of the commanders who participated in the War of Independence and large size paintings showing the War of Independence are displayed. These works were carried out by Russian artists in a studio in Moscow.

The fourth section consists of thematic exhibition areas located in 18 vaults in the corridor surrounding the panorama section. In the Vault Museum, the events that took place from Mustafa Kemal's arrival in Samsun to his death are described with about 3 thousand photographs. A revolution is described in each vault. Throughout the gallery where the vault museums are located, busts and resumes of 20 military and civilian heroes from Kara Fatma to Şahin Bey are displayed. The area where the fourth section of the museum is located is the section between the pillared hall that keeps the Hall of Honor, where the Atatürk mausoleum is located, and the foundation walls of Anıtkabir. Vaulted chambers, Presidents of the Republic of Turkey prepared to be buried, but were included in the museum and by use.

At the exit of the museum, there are models of the house where Atatürk was born, the first parliament building, the Military Academy, Turan Erol's large painting depicting a section from the Çanakkale Wars and various Atatürk photographs.

Panoramas in the museum

Three panoramas, unique in the world, are exhibited in the museum: the Çanakkale Land and Sea Wars panorama of 6 × 40 meters, the panorama of the Sakarya Pitched Battle of 7 × 30 meters and the Grand Attack panorama of 7 × 30 meters. These panoramas and the giant paintings in the museum were made by 12 Russian painters directed by Aydın Erkmen.

Based on the scenario written by Turgut Özakman in order to create the panoramas, 14 thousand square photographs were taken by using extras in the areas where the battles of the War of Independence took place and sketches were prepared using these photographs. The sketches of the panoramas were drawn by Aydın Erkmen; colored sketches made in Russia. In large painting studios in Russia and the Netherlands, giant panoramas were made as a whole and a machine was built to wrap them; Thus, the panoramas were turned into cylinders and transported to Ankara by plane, then they were brought to Anıtkabir from the airport by trucks. The cylinders were opened with a special machine and connected to the base, the damaged parts of the works were renewed by the artists over 20 days.

Atatürk Private Library

Atatürk Private Library, which was created within the museum, was opened with a ceremony held on June 26, 2005. The library, where 3 thousand 123 books belonging to Atatürk are exhibited, is designed to allow visitors to access the books on a computer. Visitors can access information about books from touch screen information devices. The library also provides visitors with the opportunity to get information about the books that constitute Atatürk's intellectual life, and especially the books he read and highlighted.