Istanbul’s Military Museum is located on the Beyoğlu side of the city, in a large square building that was once a military academy. When Mustafa Kemal was preparing to join the army, this is the school he attended. The academy has since been turned into a museum of weaponry and warfare. In 
memory of the school’s most illustrious pupil, a schoolroom where Ataturk studied has been preserved, and it now contains a large bust of Atatürk looking out over the students’ table. The museum is now also the main site of the army’s Mehter band. The Mehter band was used during battle to strike fear into opponents’ hearts. Originally Janissaries, the performers today still don the trademark mustache. Gathering around a huge cannon in front of the building, the standard bearers march, swinging their arms, while the musicians play horns, pipes, and drums and the singers belt out the triumphant words. The music is loud and powerful, and it is certainly worth the trip just to hear the band play their war songs.
Exhibitions
The main exhibit in the museum is a collection of weapons, showing the history of swords, bows and arrows, maces, axes, guns, etc., as well as shields and armor. Although the bulk of the objects are Turkish or Ottoman, there are also many weapons from other cultures, so the museum provides a good representation of the development and evolution of weaponry. One room is dedicated to bows; Turkish bows (as the exhibit proudly states) are generally considered to be some of the best in the world.
Another interesting area holds daggers of interesting shapes and sizes. Many also have elaborate sheaths, jeweled or curved into shapes impossible for a dagger.
Further on in the museum is a large hall for Mehter band performances. Mingled with the benches in this room are old cannons, torpedoes, and even machine guns.
The most impressive exhibit is a representation of the Ottoman siege of Constantinople. On the wall is a large mural of the beleaguered city, done in such excellent perspective that the scenery set up in front seemed to blend perfectly into one vast view of the conquest.
Just in front of the visitor, Ottoman soldiers in trenches look out at the fighting; cannons and projectiles lay stocked nearby to attack the wall of Constantinople. Further away, Ottoman and Byzantine soldiers clash, and many lie injured or dead. My favorite detail in this whole picture is a soldier who fell off his horse, but whose foot is still stuck in the stirrup.
The horse is painted and the soldier is a mannequin, but the two blend together so that it is hard to notice. While visitors survey this important moment in Ottoman history, battle sounds are played in the room, as well as the music of the Mehter band. These further the experience of this exhibit, and make it a worthwhile room in which to stay a while.
The only exhibit which compared stylistically to this was that of an assassination in 1913 of an important Turkish general, Mahmut Şevket Paşa. In the middle of the room was the car in which he was riding at the time of the attack; the car’s left window is splintered by bullet holes.
Mannequins play a part in this display as well, but only showing the positions of those nearby (presumably just before they were hit). Nearby, a glass case displays the shirts worn by the victims (bullet holes clearly marked), the guns used, and even the bullets fired. Although the assassins themselves are depicted and named in this case, I could not find information either here or on my own which explained their motives for this act.
Further down the hall, exhibits go into detail about Turkey’s various campaigns and wars. One such room which is particularly remarkable is the room dealing with terrorists. The main “terrorists” are the Kurdish separatists; however, the Kurds are never mentioned by name. In fact, all the internal opponents Turkey has faced are referred to broadly as “terrorists,” and neither the identities of the groups nor their motives are mentioned. The exhibit itself is made up almost entirely of items taken from “the terrorists,” including items ranging from mines and guns to typewriters and fax machines. The rest of the exhibit shows brutal pictures of bloodied Turkish “martyrs,” including women and children.
One of the most interesting rooms in the museum is that concerning the Armenians. Popular international opinion on this issue is with the Armenians, who claim that between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were either killed outright or died due to conditions imposed on them by the Turks during their forced deportation. The Turks attest that during WWI, the Armenians were aiding the Russian army and murdering innocent Muslims, so the population was deported to safety in Syria; however, some Armenians did die along the way because of cold and sickness. This room at the museum contains evidence (through pictures, reports, and even bloodied clothing) of the atrocities committed by the Armenians against the Turks. A large statement on the wall, in both Turkish and English, goes through the history of the “Armenian issue,” as it is called. This sign recounts numerous treasonous and violent acts committed by the Armenians, and attests that the Armenian accusation of genocide at Turkey’s hands is motivated by Armenia’s desire to weaken Turkey politically and to take Turkish land for their own country. There is no explanation in the room of what evidence the Armenians use to support their claim of genocide; the museum consistently refers to this argument as “so-called genocide.”
Reflections
Often, museums in the United States strive to appear unbiased, so that the information provided will be taken at face value and more readily accepted as true. This museum, like other Turkish museums, has no such compunctions. The Turkish people are presented as a united line reaching from Ottoman times to the present, and suffering no inner strife. All of the enemies presented in these exhibits are non-Turks; this even applies to the Armenians and the Kurds, who are both ethnic groups living inside Turkey, making these people legally Turks. However, this connection is discarded in order to present a nationalist ideal of order and solidarity. For example, in the room concerning terrorism, the exhibit focused on Turkish victories (by showing entirely things Turkish forces had taken) and belittled the status and even organization of the opposing group by not even naming them. Turkish victims are consistently referred to as “martyrs,” no matter which enemy is to blame. Such blatant, unashamed bias is something that is not seen often in museums; the closest similarity I could place is with museums about the Holocaust. Now, obviously, a Turkish military museum and a Holocaust museum are very different, but they have some interesting similarities. First of all, both the Turks and the Jews have such strong faith in their own conviction that they are not afraid of being inflammatory towards their enemies. The difference here is the amount of justification that each group has for this conviction; the international community acknowledges that the Jews were subjected to genocide during the Holocaust, whereas the Turks are actually being accused of genocide of the Armenians by many countries. However , the Turks hold firm to their version of history, which is clear in a place such as this. Furthermore, although Istanbul is a very popular city among tourists, the Military Museum is not one of the larger attractions. Therefore this museum has fewer international guests, and the main audience is probably native Turks. Another similarity to a Holocaust museum, it appears, is that the audience is very intentional. By this I mean that the average person going to either of these museums probably knows what to expect and already agrees with the message. In this way the Turkish government can present exactly the facts that it wishes to, and not encounter any troubles because of it.
Having considered all of this, the Military Museum is still a spectacular place to visit. It is well worth the trip, and is definitely a place worth dedicating a substantial chunk of time to explore.
