T here is a body of opinion in Turkey that Ankara, the country’s political capital, is a place where strange things happen. It is where politicians scheme and bureaucrats obstruct, and where people live regimented lives in thrall to the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the republic, whose mausoleum is unquestionably the city’s finest monument.
This opinion is held mostly, unsurprisingly, by the people of Istanbul, many of whom have never set foot in their own capital city. It is not entirely inaccurate. Ankara really is the place where the politicians, the bureaucracy, the military and the state establishment are entrenched. The city reflects this sometimes oppressive reality, too; it is ordered, carefully but unimaginatively planned, and lacks the energy of the metropolis 450km to the west.
