Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This week, just before Oct. 13 — the date Ankara became the capital of Turkey more than a century ago — we revisit the century-long dialogue between Ankara and Istanbul, from the young republic’s austere new capital to the empire’s enduring seat of power.

Our story begins with an exhibition that revisits how a city was built from scratch, continues with a book on its first First Lady, and concludes with figures from both history and diplomacy.

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Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

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1. Leading the week: 'Constructing a City' in the city that lost the capital

Mud, lots of it. Photos from “Constructing a City: Ankara 1923-1933,” (Photo courtesy of VEKAM)

It takes a special sense of irony to stage an exhibition on Ankara’s founding years in Istanbul, the very city stripped of its capital crown. In 1923, the new republic marched off to Anatolia’s dusty plateau, leaving Istanbul with its palaces, domes and a lingering hope that the government would one day return. A century later, Ankara is still in charge and now parades its origin story in the former imperial seat.

Curators Ali and Muge Cengizkan have spent nearly two decades sifting through archives, blueprints, diaries and city plans to tell a story that redrew Turkey’s geography of power. Their exhibition, “Constructing a City: Ankara 1923-1933,” now at Muze Gazhane, charts how the fledgling republic built itself a capital and, in the process, a new identity.

With more than 350 photographs, models, maps and films, the exhibition reconstructs Ankara’s first decade as a living laboratory of modernity. Visitors trace the birth of Yenisehir,........

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