Bir devrim mekânı: Ankara.

Present study is aimed to reconsider Turkish Revolution and revolution architecture in a more universal point of view. This evaluation takes the idea of universality, Turkish Revolution, Age of Enlightenment, and French Revolution into re-consideration. Two capital cities, Paris and Ankara were selected for the architectural research field. Most studies concerning Turkish Revolution and revolution architecture have an argument based on historical perspective. According to this, the age of Ottoman Empire and consecutive Turkish architecture are labeled Baroque, Rococo, ecclectisist-revivalist, first and second national architecture periods, corresponding to XVIII, XIX and XXth centuries, respectively. This approach tried to keep the historical evaluation of Western civilization in parallel with Turkish architecture. However, one important point is neglected: the intellectual and social background of western civilization does not properly match with Ottoman and Turkish development. Tailoring Turkish Revolution and revolution architecture according to time perspective and estimating it by the developments taking place in Europe lead us to come to inappropriate conclusions. While this point of view calls the improvement efforts of Ottoman Empire in XVIIIth century as "Enlightenment"; it puts also Turkish Revolution on a modernism project which is devoid of strong basis. The unsuitability of the time scale for this kind of comparison shows itself in the example of "printing press". The invention of printing press stands at the beginning of civilization path; besides this facility reaches Ottoman Empire with some delay, approximately 250 years. This delay clarifies the phase shift between Western civilization and Ottoman Empire. However, a universal approach not only evaluates Turkish Revolution and revolution architecture correctly but also it locates Ottoman architecture in its place in history. The criterion derived from the concept of universality makes possible to evaluate the background of architecture as well as it helps to interpret the product with its production process more than its style. Although the concept of universality is described in various ways previously in time, during the age of Enlightenment it gained another meaning: "absolute independence". This meaning expressed itself in concepts of "universal human" and "universal science". Enlightenment struggled with three main dogmas: monarchy, institutionalized religion and metaphysics to move humankind forward in the way of absolute independence. The struggle between Enlightenment and these dogmas described the concept of universality and the criterion taken from this is used to evaluate the places where the revolutions took place. Paris and Ankara, two different places in the world, evidenced revolutions in different time periods, XVIIIth and XXth century, respectively. Both French and Turkish Revolutions struggled with monarchy, institutionalized religion and metaphysics. This struggle is reflected in the built environment and can be traced for an architectural comparison devoid of time scale. The struggle with the first dogma, monarchy, shaped the capital city on five stages: new capitol; new administrative and legislative buildings; designing for people; reforming society with architecture; reflecting the revolution idea on the architectural products.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]