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Atatürk portrait still missing from Foreign Ministry press room 36 days after hall reopened
The renovated hall was unveiled on July 1; the inscription 'Peace at Home, Peace in the World' and the monument to fallen diplomats were also removed.
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Mehmet Yılmaz
· 2 min read
The Foreign Ministry's renovated press conference hall at its Ankara headquarters reopened on July 1, and Cumhuriyet newspaper has been monitoring its new layout ever since. According to the newspaper's findings, the portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk that previously hung in the hall, the inscription 'Peace at Home, Peace in the World,' and the monument to Foreign Ministry martyrs are all absent from the new arrangement.
Ministry officials said on July 1 that 'renovations were still under way and any shortcomings would be addressed.' Yet 36 days later, when journalists entered the hall yesterday for a press conference between Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Syrian Foreign Minister As'ad Hasan al-Shaybani, Atatürk imagery had not been restored.
The Foreign Ministry issued no written statement on the matter throughout those 36 days. The removal of the Atatürk portrait from a state institution — or its relegation to the background — has emerged as the most concrete example of a debate that has periodically surfaced in public discourse since 2023.
Sources — how we know this
- PrimaryCumhuriyet Gazetesi