The oldest settlements in and around the city center of Ankara belonged to the Hattic civilization which existed during the Bronze Age and was gradually absorbed c. 2000–1700 BC by the Indo-European Hittites. The city grew significantly in size and importance under the Phrygians starting around 1000 BC, and experienced a large expansion following the mass migration from Gordion, (the capital of Phrygia), after an earthquake which severely damaged that city around that time. In Phrygian tradition, King Midas was venerated as the founder of Ancyra, but Pausanias mentions that the city was actually far older, which accords with present archaeological knowledge.^[17]

On 23 April 1920, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was established in Ankara, which became the headquarters of the Turkish National Movement during the Turkish War of Independence. Ankara became the new Turkish capital upon the establishment of the Republic on 29 October 1923, succeeding in this role the former Turkish capital Istanbul (Constantinople) following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The government is a prominent employer, but Ankara is also an important commercial and industrial city, located at the center of Turkey’s road and railway networks.

The works to build the Nation’s Library started in 2015 with the support and the leadership of President Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN. The library serves users within an area of 125,000  m² and with a seating capacity of 5,500 people.

In the collection, there are nearly 2,000,000 printed books and 2,000,000 issues from 12,500 printed magazines. In addition, there are 550,000 e-books, 6,500,000 electronic theses and 120,000,000 articles, reports, etc. belonging to nearly 60,000 e-journals in 56 databases. Presentation services of these information sources to the users are provided with a modern librarianship approach. The Nation’s Library is the largest library of our country and aims to become one of the leading libraries in the world in terms of both collections and services.

Presidential Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest orchestras in the world that has been able to operate without any interruptions. In 1828, reformist sultan, Mahmud II invited Giuseppe Donizetti (brother of the Gaetano Donizetti) to come to Istanbul from the imperial palace of Austria-Hungary to lead the band. The band was called Muzika-i Humayun (the Imperial Band) and it has been performing solely in the palace.

In 1934 Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun and a year after well-known German composer Paul Hindemith were in charge of organizing the programs of the music schools in Turkey. At the suggestion of composer Paul Hindemith, Maestro Dr. Ernst Praetorius was appointed as the new Music Director and he elevated the orchestra to new artistic levels. Please click here to read more.