MKE Sanayi ve Teknoloji Müzesi

MKE Industry and Technology Museum; it is a museum located in the Emniyet Neighborhood of the Yenimahalle district of Ankara. It was established on 22 May 2013 as part of the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Institution. The museum exhibits documents and materials, numbering over 1000, that reveal the development stages of the Turkish weapons and defense industry, as well as Ottoman-made weapons, production equipment, and military tools and devices developed and produced by MKE, many of which were also used during the War of Independence. In addition, items belonging to individuals who contributed to and guided the development of the national industry, their portraits, and engineering-related objects are also on display. The museum can be visited in three dimensions.

Museum building

Previously, at the present location of the museum, there was an old building constructed during the reign of Abdul Hamid II. The building was used as a cavalry barracks where military equipment seized from Istanbul and brought to Anatolia during the years of the independence struggle was stored, but it was completely reduced to ashes by a fire on 20 November 1922. After this disaster, which was visible from all over Ankara, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk visited the site with his wife Latife Hanım and stated that this should not sadden the Turkish people, that a better building should be erected immediately, and he uttered the famous phrase "Turk; be proud, work, trust!" there. The museum was established in the building rebuilt after the fire; it has a total of 4,500 square metres of closed space and 10,000 square metres of open usage area.

Gazi Kovan

The "Gazi Kovan", the work with the highest spiritual value and the most striking piece among the exhibits in the museum, was filled a total of 8 times within 1.5 years during the Turkish War of Independence and was repeatedly used on 9 different fronts. After the proclamation of the Republic, in the 101st artillery firing, the last shot was made with the Gazi Kovan.