Alagöz Karargâh Müzesi

About Alagöz Karargâh Müzesi

The Alagöz Headquarters Museum preserves the farmhouse from which Mustafa Kemal, as commander-in-chief, directed much of the Battle of Sakarya in 1921. After the Kütahya-Eskişehir battles, as the Turkish army fell back to the Sakarya line in August 1921, both the commander-in-chief's headquarters and the Western Front headquarters moved into farm buildings at Alagöz. The house belonged to Türkoğlu Ali Ağa, and it was here that Atatürk ran most of the 22-day battle, fought from 23 August to 13 September 1921, preparing plans and taking key decisions. The family lived in the house until 1965, when the heirs handed it to the Ministry of Education. It was restored and opened as a museum on 10 November 1968, and since 1982 it has been run by the Anıtkabir Command. The two-storey building has 12 rooms, with stone and mud-brick walls, a tiled roof, carved wooden ceilings in the upper hall and some rooms, and a wooden peacock figure in the pediment over the entrance. Downstairs are rooms for uniforms of the War of Independence, a medical room, an officers' dining room, the kitchen, a communications room and a weapons case with pistols, rifles, swords and two machine guns. Upstairs, the commander-in-chief's room, the staff officers' room, Atatürk's rest room, bedroom (with some of his original belongings) and dining room are arranged as they might have looked during the battle, with sketches of the fighting on the hall walls. According to the Anıtkabir Command, the museum is open every day except Monday from 09:00 to 17:00. The village lies off the Ankara-Polatlı road, about 36 km from Ankara.