MKE İmalât-ı Harbiye Müzesi

About MKE İmalât-ı Harbiye Müzesi

The MKE Imalat-i Harbiye Museum, opened on 22 May 2013 as the MKE Industry and Technology Museum (MKE Sanayi ve Teknoloji Müzesi), is the museum of the state defence manufacturer Makina ve Kimya Endüstrisi (MKE) at its headquarters campus on Anadolu Meydanı in Tandoğan. MKE now presents it under the name İmalât-ı Harbiye and describes it as the meeting point of Türkiye's military and defence industry history. The museum was set up to show MKE's part in Turkish industrial history, in the founding of many other institutions and in shaping the country's manufacturing culture, collecting and displaying objects and documents of the people and organisations that steered Turkish industry. According to Turkish Wikipedia, more than 1,000 documents and objects trace the development of the Turkish arms and defence industry, including Ottoman-made weapons, many of them used in the War of Independence, production machinery and military equipment that MKE developed and built, along with personal belongings and portraits of figures who shaped Turkish industry. A highlight is the Gazi Kovan, a shell casing said to have been refilled eight times in a year and a half and used on nine fronts during the War of Independence. The museum stands on the site of an Abdülhamid II-era cavalry barracks that stored arms smuggled from İstanbul during the independence struggle and burned down on 20 November 1922; the museum was set up in the building rebuilt afterwards, with about 4,500 square metres of indoor and 10,000 square metres of open space. MKE reports that the museum hosts events through the year, and as part of the Ankara Culture Route Festival it welcomed thousands of visitors with a painting exhibition, model-making activities, shooting simulations and history talks. Entry has been listed as free by Kültür Portalı; check current opening days with MKE before visiting.