Ankara Turkish Natural History Museum
The Turkish Natural History Museum was founded in 1968 by the Institute of Mineral Research in Ankara. The ground floor of the museum contains items of paleontology, while the upper floor concerns miner-ology and petrography. In the paleontology section, there are plant and animal fossils, skeletons, pre-historical finds, and in the mineralogy section examples of Anatolian minerals.
The First Turkish Grand National Assembly Museum in Ankara:
The First Turkish Grand National Assembly Museum is located in the old Parliament building in Ulus Square in Ankara. The First Turkish Grand National Assembly building was begun as the Union and Development Society building in 1915 and completed in 1920. It is a two-story building made of Ankara stone, built by the architect, Hasip Beydir, who fell as a martyr in the Liberation War. The First Grand National Assembly met in this building, attended by 120 members chosen from various provinces. The Republic was announced here and the Grand National Assembly continued to use this building until October 15, 1925, when the Assembly moved to a new building (at present the CENTO building) and it was taken over by the Republican People’s Party, which allowed the newly founded Ankara Law School to use the main hall. The RPP continued to use the building until 1952 when it was turned over to the Ministry of National Education by a Council of Ministers’ decision.
The Ministry of Education repaired the building and established a commission of experts, with the object of converting it into the First Turkish Grand National Assembly Museum. The Commission made very careful studies of the appearance of the building at the time of the First Assembly and exhibited only those furnishings which had been in use at that time. As well as this, documents and photographs concerning the First Assembly were selected and put on exhibit in showcases and on the walls. The museum was opened to the public with a ceremony on April 23 1961.
