ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a historical account and preliminary overview of the museums to be studied, situating them within broader memory cultures that propose contrasting national stories. The Atatürk and War of Independence Museum in Ankara focuses on the early 20th-century achievements of Atatürk, first as a soldier, for example defeating the allies in the Dardanelles, and secondly as founder and president of a secular, modernizing republic. Panorama 1453 Museum in Istanbul, by contrast, presents the story of the Ottoman Conquest of Constantinople of 1453. The two museums are very popular, and both are state-funded, and yet in many ways present contradictory narratives of the nation, propose different national identities and ways of life, closely related to conflicts between secularist and religious politics.
