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“monumental, classical facades with tall colonnades, and were made even more
imposing in the perspective renderings with sharp shadows, statues, flags, inscriptions
and wall reliefs” (Bozdoğan 2001:279.) It was no coincidence that the submissions were
in harmony with the existing representations of state architecture rather military, solid
and permanent. In the first variation of Holzmeister the sculpture was placed at the
front plate of the building enhancing the centrality of the building and the axial
directionality represented in the rest of the governmental district. The second variation
in 1938 exhibited the monument on an obelisk in the middle of the courtyard in front of
the colonnaded hall of honor. These variations in the place of the monument to be
erected were interpreted by Bernd Nicolai to be the opposite of the variations for the
Soviet Palace project of Boris Iofan in 1930s. According to Nicolai, the Lenin Statue was
first depicted on a tower, than on a stepped circular construction and lastly on a 450
meters high skyscraper tower. For Nicolai the disappearance of the monumental
element could be explained with only speculations however he had found an
observation of Sahip İksan Tansuk most significantly enlightening. Nicolai took the
interpretation of Tansuk soothing since he speculated that the new president of the
Republic, İsmet İnönü preferred to moderate the culture of Atatürk after his death
(Nicolai 2000: 116-135). After the death of Atatürk, not only the Atatürk monument but
also the building of the new parliament building of the new born nation was cancelled
with economic constraints of the Turkish government till 1960’s. From the memoirs of
Ziya Payzın, who was one of the students of Clemens Holzmeister and the commissioned
architect for the detail drawings of the structure and later in 1949 the representative of
Holzmeister as the head of the construction, another story can be formulated. Payzın
moderated the common meetings of Assembly and Senate Presidencies under the title
of Technical Assistant of General Secretary of the Grand National Assembly in 1976.
This means he had quite power and knowledge about the story of the new parliament
house. The start of the common meetings were given by the Senate members Bahriye
Üçok, Hüsamettin Çelebi, Suphi Gürsoytrak and Osman Nuri Canpolat, who proposed a
motion for artworks on Atatürk and his revolutions to be placed in and outside of the
Assembly building.
As a response of the National Assembly to the subject matter, Ziya Payzın was
invited to work with two representatives from the ministry. As a beginning a brochure
on Atatürk monument and a series of monuments on Turkish history was distributed to
all parliament members and to 200-300 recognized specialists such as authors,
scientists, teachers, academicians, architects, sculptors, painters and artists. By this
means the issue of monuments to be erected was opened to public debate. Due to the
lack of interest and approaching election interdictions only two responses could be
achieved. Anyhow the common meetings of the National Assembly and the Republican
Senate resulted with a collection of ideas and a decision of assembling a jury for the
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determination of where to build what. This committee also aimed to open a competition
to achieve monuments in final. The committee determined Tarık Remzi Baltan as the
head of the committee. According to the some of the committee members such as the
senate member Hüsamettin Çelebi, instead of a classical Atatürk statue, the quality of
Atatürk as the founder of the Turkish Grand National Assembly should be depicted in a
composition. He also proposed that a chronological representation of Turkish history
could be depicted with a series of monuments. His idea could well be a representation of
the growing criticism on colossal statues of Atatürk spreading in nearly all cities. These
were generally owned by the municipalities, provincial authorities and state institutions
such as schools, hospitals, and state administrative units. It was no coincidence that
already in 1964 Atatürk statue competition was opened for 11 cities that had no Atatürk
statues by then erected. However the committee had hardship in determining the time
span of the Turkish history of the history to be depicted in the Assembly Building. As a
reflection of this hardship, in a second session, three variations of historical narrative
became dominant. According to Üçok, there were three groups of members supporting
these three variations. The first group determined the point of origin from the first
appearance of Turkish civilizations such as Huns, Göktürks, Kara-Khanid Khanate and
later Anatolian Seljukids. Another group supported that Asian Turks should be out of
context and Anatolian civilization should be taken as the basis. According to this group,
Hittites, Phrygians and Lydians were the beginning of Anatolian culture and civilization.
A third group totally rejected the glorious past to be monumentalized rather than the
memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in his efforts in building the Grand National
Assembly of Turkey. They believed that what to be monumentalized should be the
evolution of the Anatolian Turk via the Republican ideals and cadres, and his struggle,
support and participation in the revolutions in the social, economic and political life.
Bahriye Üçok was also in this third group of supporters with Enver Ziya Karal,
Hikmet Bayur and Çoşkun Üçok. Afet İnan at first acted in the first group but then
changed her mind on the large scope of the representational history of Turkish
civilization and became a supporter of second group, which omitted the history of Asian
Turks in the series of monuments. Bahriye Üçok declared that the building of Grand
National Assembly was already a living monument for celebrating the architect’s
recognition and giving respect for centuries. That is why she found it necessary to give
importance to the monument to be erected. Otherwise any eclectic depiction of the past
could have ruined the dignity of the building. Payzın, the technical advisor of the
General Secretary, proposed a sketch of monuments to be placed in the site of the Grand
National Assembly to the committee. He stated that he envisaged the monument, which
Holzmeister proposed on the roof of the parliament, on the level of the stairs this
time.Apart from the place discussion, the committee members were also not sure if
there should be only one monument or monuments to be placed in the site of the
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