Ulucanlar Prison operated in Ankara from 1925 to 2006, during which time it held political prisoners from every significant moment in modern Turkish history — the early republican period, the 1960 and 1980 military coups, and the political conflicts of the intervening decades. Converted into a museum in 2011, it preserves the cells, interrogation rooms, execution chamber, and administrative spaces with minimal alteration.
The museum is honest and often uncomfortable. The execution room and the small cells for condemned prisoners are presented without softening. The documentary record of prisoners held here — writers, politicians, military officers, student activists — provides a compact account of Turkey's turbulent 20th century. Not a cheerful visit, but one of the most historically substantive museums in Ankara.