Rock Art have been studied by scientists in various research institutions for many years, and studies on this subject, as well as the publishing of papers, have occurred in Türkiye in recent years. The Yandaklıdere petroglyphs that can be found within the borders of Çağa village in the Güdül district of Ankara, constitute the main theme of the study. While the Yandaklıdere petroglyphs have been mentioned in other publications, no scale drawings and individual explanations of the depictions in the petroglyphs are available, and current comparative evaluations of the inscriptions are also limited. This study serves to address that lack with scale drawings of the panels and depictions of the Yandaklıdere petroglyphs. Necessary explanations for identifying the figures are provided by assigning a unique number to each figure. Relevant explanations of the character of the figures are also included in the text. Depictions of similar forms and body shapes are examined under the following categories: Shamans, Riders, Horses, Goats, Deers, Plants/Trees, Nets/Cages/ Traps, Tamgas and Inscriptions. Depictions which are not in these groups are included in the category of Unidentified Depictions. Other examples similar to the Yandaklıdere petroglyphs were first looked for in Central Asia, then in regions where Turkish tribes migrated, and finally in Türkiye. Yandaklıdere petroglyphs, such as the petroglyphs with period names such as Proto-Turk, Saka, Hun, Taştik, Göktürk, Akhun, etc. in the geography of Central Asia, were also examined, and yielded data that indicated that the Turks were very early arrivals in Anatolia. Techniques used in the drawings are presented, as well as their estimated production dates, and the study also examines findings that show that the Turks continued their rock drawing traditions under Shamanism and Tengrism by discussing the meaning of petroglyphs for Turkish tribes separately for each depiction. As a result of these examinations, which contain examples from possibly the Bronze or Iron Age, it can be seen that the petroglyphs were made by using pecking and engraving techniques. It is suggested that the petroglyphs were made in different periods, but mainly in the Middle Ages. These dating suggestions, based on similar examples, are also explained in the study within the chronicles and the illustrated examples included in the depictions.

From the middle of the 19th century, Ankara, and Anatolia generally, became important locations for settlement following the loss of various territories by the Ottoman Empire. This immigration continued after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, although at a reduced level. Many small groups settled in the city during the first years of the Republican era, including some immigrants from Greece who settled in Ankara after the population exchange between Turkey and Greece. Significant measures were taken to support immigration in Ankara after 1926 when separate living areas were established for immigrants. These areas included the Nogai and Circassian villages constructed and improved during the Ottoman period for previous immigrants. It is of particular note that sample villages, similar to the ones established in certain other provinces of Anatolia, were constructed during the rule of Atatürk for the settlement of immigrants as examples to the Anatolian people and surrounding villages. It is therefore possible to argue that the project was not only an attempt to settle immigrants, but constitutes a zoning plan. The aim of this study, which is based on archival sources, newspapers of the period and field research studies, illuminates the issue of migration to Ankara, as well as various forms of the settlement of immigrants during the rule of Atatürk.

The Çubuk district of Ankara contains several examples of traditional 17th and 18th centuries Turkish houses. While these examples of traditional civil architecture were constructed according to the geographical and topographic characteristics of the region, climate, features of the building material used, needs of the users, as well as the economic, social, and cultural situation, they also share common features. These three-storey buildings, which usually have basic facades, are designed for the requirements of rural life with a more inward-looking inner and middle anterooms that occupy two-stories or feature cihannüma (dormers). Most of the traditional architectural examples in Çubuk district that were examined between 2010-2011 only remain due to having been preserved through reconstruction. Most examples of traditional architecture of this type largely disappeared during the last century, and very few unregistered examples survive. This study aims to contribute to conservation efforts by conducting an evaluation, in terms of contemporary conservation principles, of the architectural features and conservation status of a group of unregistered traditional houses and registered civil architecture examples in the district of Çubuk. During the last 10 years, the district has become accepted as containing important examples of rural Ankara architecture.

Ankara, the capital city in which the foundations of the republican ideology were laid, has exhibited the cultural identity of the contemporary Turkey through many artistic and other cultural events. Although there was reduced support for arts and culture during the multi-party period in 1946, artistic activities continued through the work of non-governmental organizations and individuals. A number of periodical publications, an analysis of personal archives of Ankara artists, and the study of oral history with gallery exhibitors, are all used in this study to identify the places in which exhibition activities were held between the years of 1950-2000. A total of 272 exhibition spaces and galleries in Ankara are considered in the study. There are 75 exhibition spaces and galleries which opened before 2000 and are still in operation. 15 of these operate as private galleries, while others are under the ownership of educational inceleninstitutions, banks, foreign cultural centers, official institutions, museums, embassies, hotels, cultural centers of municipalities and other organizations. As a result of the decrease in state support since the 1950s, the number of galleries has increased due to the initiatives gaining momentum in the 1970s, as well as the political developments and liberal economic policies of the 1980s. As artistic support and records of the formation of artistic bodies, rather than the announcing of artistic productions, only began in the 1990s, this study serves as a comprehensive reminder of the exhibition spaces and galleries whose traces have been erased from the cultural and artistic memory of Ankara.

This study reviews observations on Ankara made by Antonio Baldini, the 20th century Italian writer, traveler, and journalist. Baldini visited Ankara and travelled in the newly established Republic of Turkey in 1930 upon the request of the newspaper “Corriere Della Sera”, and published his observations in a work entitled Diagonale 1930, Parigi-Ankara. It can be said that the observations of Baldini, and other Italians who witnessed the transformation of Ankara, have not been as closely studied as the works of other travelers and scholars. One of the most remarkable elements of Baldini’s multi-linguistic and multicultural story is how it describes the transformation of Ankara into a modern capital. The work “L’Odeporica/Hodoeporics”, which a foundational travel literature text containing the works of Luigi Monga and Franco Cambi, is used in the examination of Baldini’s travel notes and observations.

This study investigates the oral history and collective memory of locals in terms of the transformation of daily practices, social relations, and the space of Ankara from the late 1940s to the present. The research mainly focuses on the changes that have occurred in the main memory spaces of Ankara, and how these changes are perceived and evaluated by residents of the Çankaya district aged over 60. In this study, which aims to analyze how spaces, and therefore collective memory, have been transformed in Ankara and how this transformation is reflected in daily life, it is seen that the city planning that has attempted to use squares, parks, and architecture to reflect the Republic has actually moved away from those ideals over the years. This is especially true with the strengthening of modernization and capitalist production relations since the beginning of the serious urban and social transformation of the 1970s. The initial manifestations of this transformation were in the set up of locations. The background economic and political factors in this transformation have had major effects on the shaping of spaces, as well as on social and cultural structures, and this process of change has been reflected in daily life. The changes have been so dramatic that it can be said that Ankara’s memory spaces have been completely transformed in historical process, and are now faced with extinction. The regions of Kızılay and Ulus, which we can define as being the center of the city, have gradually begun to lose their distinctive character.

The hat has great symbolic importance in Turkey and the most significant manifestation of this importance is the hat law. The introduction of the law lead to widespread hat production in the country and the intensification of spatial formations. In this study, the historical process of hat making in Ankara is examined in terms of its socio-spatial content.
With the proclamation of the Republic, the fedora was used by urban residents, and the cap by rural residents, as symbols of modernization. This representation has visual, textual, and verbal sources which are used in this work to consider the symbolic and semantic value of the hat. The aim is to evaluate the hat as an object, as well as the spaces where it was produced with their subjects and their own time periods.
The period covered in the research was during a marked change in clothing habits, as determined by Ankara hat makers, with the proclamation of the Republic. There were two stages to the research: to consider the symbolic and semantic meaning of the hat through visual and textual materials; and to examine the socio-spatial development processes of the Bozdağ Kasket and Ankara Şapka, selected as samples, with their context and subjects. This review also includes oral history interviews in terms of scanning archive documents and producing new documents. This work is considered important in the context of producing visual and technical material, and then sharing such material by creating oral testimony. The research was carried out qualitatively and utilized the method of oral history. Oral, written and visual documents included in the mixed methodology were evaluated, and then a spatial analysis of the case study was implemented. Data was collected on a voluntary basis after consent forms were obtained.