Economy of Ankara Turkey and Central Anatolia. The population is around 4.5 million. Ankara is the administrative center of Turkey and a huge university town, so it has a large population of government workers and university students. As the national capital, Ankara is home to a large population of foreign diplomats and embassy staff, so it offers goods and services that might be more difficult to find in other Turkish cities. Ankara is a sprawling, modern city which can appear as little more than a dull, concrete jungle at first glance. As a result, many tourists tend to use it merely as a
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