Balâ, Ankara Balâ, Ankara Bala is a town and district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, 67 km south-east of the city of Ankara. According to 2000 census, population of the district is 19,426 of which 8,506 live in the urban center of Bala. The district covers an area of , and the average elevation is . Bala stands on a high plain, summers are hot, winters are cold and snowy. The town of Bala is small but busy with shops and light manufacturing workshops, the surrounding countryside is used for farming, especially grains and sunflower seeds. Recently
History of Ankara in 1356. Another Turkic ruler, Timur, defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and captured the city, but in 1403 Ankara was again under Ottoman control. Following the Ottoman defeat during World War I, the Ottoman capital Constantinople was occupied by the Allies. The Turkish nationalist movement, under Kemal Atatürk, established its headquarters in Ankara in 1920 (see Turkish War of Independence). After the War of Independence was won, the Turkish nationalists abolished the Ottoman Empire on October 29, 1923. A few days earlier, on October 13, 1923, Ankara had replaced Constantinople as its capital, and it