Ankara became Turkey's capital on October 13, 1923 — a deliberate rebuke to Istanbul, which the Allied powers had occupied following World War I. Mustafa Kemal chose the Anatolian city precisely because it was inland, defensible, and untainted by the Ottoman court's capitulation to foreign control. The centennial of that declaration falls in 2023, prompting this issue.
Ankara became Turkey's capital on October 13, 1923 — a deliberate rebuke to Istanbul, which the Allied powers had occupied following World War I. Mustafa Kemal chose the Anatolian city precisely because it was inland, defensible, and untainted by the Ottoman court's capitulation to foreign control. The centennial of that declaration falls in 2023, prompting this issue.