site.btaOne of Ankara's Most Popular Streets Named after Tunali Hilmi from Today's Town of Targovishte

Tunali Hilmi Street is one of Ankara's most popular streets and a landmark of the city. The street in Kavaklidere District in the central Cankaya Municipality is named after Tunali Hilmi (1871-1928), one of Turkiye's most influential politicians.

A diplomat, writer and member of parliament, Tunali Hilmi bequeathed much of his property to the state. A civil servant suggested that one of Ankara's most important streets be named after the generous benefactor.

The politician was born in Bulgaria, at a time when it was still under Ottoman rule. Abdullah Tunali Hilmi was born in Targovishte (then Eski Cuma) in the family of a tobacco factory owner. The family moved to Istanbul in 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War.

Tunali Hilmi studied in a military medical high school and in the pedagogy department of the University of Geneva. He lived in Spain and Egypt, contributed articles to magazines and published a newspaper.

Hilmi was a member of the Chamber of Deputies and later of the Grand National Assembly during its first three terms. He was a leading figure of the Young Turks. As a member of parliament, he proposed progressive bills which were the source of future reforms by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Hilmi also drew attention to the importance of the Turkish language and spoke for the rights of women, peasants and workers.

In Geneva he married a Swiss woman named Juliette and had a daughter and a son.

On account of Hilmi's revolutionary ideas as part of the Young Turks, his father was arrested and exiled and died in Mosul in 1899. One of his brothers was also exiled. To escape the oppression, his eldest brother fled to Bulgaria and then to the United States where he worked on the New York City-Chicago railway before returning to Bulgaria.

After the Sultan Abdul Hamid II was deposed, Tunali Hilmi returned to Istanbul.

Nowadays many different languages can be heard in Tunali Hilmi Street and the mood is almost always positive. A statue of Tunali Hilmi stands in Ankara's Kugulu Park, a popular meeting point. The busy 413 bus route has a stop near the park.

The area is packed with people until late at night. On weekends, the cafes are full of people enjoying the traditional long Turkish breakfast. Some compare Tunali Hilmi Street to Istanbul's Bagdat Avenue and Izmir's Kordon street and promenade.

The street and its intersections are full of restaurants, cafes, pastry shops and bars, some of them with live music. Many people like to go shopping on Tunali, as the locals call it for short. There are many large wedding dress shops, as well as many bookstores where literature lovers can spend hours. There often are great street buskers in the area.

The local shops sell baklava, lokum, nuts and cheese galore; tourists can buy souvenirs, including nazar boncugu, the eye-shaped amulet.

Years ago Tunali Hilmi Street was closed to vehicular traffic. Currently it is a one-way street and is almost always busy. It is closed to cars only during demonstrations, usually organized by NGOs or political parties, most often the main opposition Republican People's Party.