Ankara, not Istanbul. Ankara has been the capital since 13 October 1923, sixteen days before the republic was proclaimed. Istanbul is far larger and was the Ottoman capital for nearly five centuries.
Istanbul is the largest city in Europe and was an imperial capital for sixteen centuries. It is not the capital of Türkiye, and the decision to make Ankara the capital was the point.
In 1920 the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara, in central Anatolia, while Istanbul was under Allied occupation. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's government was already there, and keeping it there said several things at once: the new state was Anatolian rather than Ottoman, it was defensible from the interior rather than exposed on the straits, and it was not the city of the sultanate. The assembly made it official on 13 October 1923, and the republic was proclaimed on 29 October.
Ankara was a town of around 25,000 people at the time. It has about 5.8 million today.
| Ankara | Istanbul |
|---|---|
| The Grand National Assembly | The largest population, about 15.8 million |
| The president, at the Presidential Complex | The Ottoman capital from 1453 to 1922 |
| The Constitutional Court and the ministries | The Byzantine capital before that, as Constantinople |
| The embassies | The economic and cultural centre |
The country registered Türkiye as its name in every language with the United Nations in 2022, and that is the form this site uses for the country's own name. "Turkey" remains common in English and is what most people search for.
The places above come from GeoNames, reconciled against Wikidata. Last checked 21 September 2026. How we know · Suggest a correction