Ankara (Turkey)

Ankara
Name	Ankara
Location Details
Reality	Earth-616
Galaxy	Milky Way
Star System	Sol
Planet	Earth
Continent	Asia
Country	Turkey
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Gardner Fox, Ernie Chua
First	Chamber of Chills #3 (December, 1972)
First	Chamber of Chills #3 (December, 1972)

Ankara, formerly known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of the Republic of Turkey. It is Turkey's second largest city after Istanbul.

History

Ottoman Empire

In 1459, the Ottoman Turkish Empire coveted control of Transylvania, as the territory was in the path of further conquest. To this end, they sent troops from Ankara under the command of Lord Turac, a Turkish warlord who had his own castle in Ankara. Turac's soldiers engaged Prince Dracula, who controlled Wallachia, in brutal battles; Dracula's men, including the so-called Lord Claveling or Clavering, knew that their enemy was coming from Ankara and they were confident that their prince's military capabilities would expel them from their territory.

Turac's Castle, Ankara, 1459.

When Turac captured a badly wounded Dracula and decided to keep him alive to use him as a puppet, a Turkish soldier named Gordo proposed to give him to a gypsy witch, Lianda, who was rumored to have the ability to heal those who already had one foot in the grave. Turac promised Gordo a reward when they returned to Ankara should his plan worked. Lianda turned Dracula into a vampire, but then died at Turac's hands; however, Dracula vampirized Turac and enslaved him. Dracula ordered the warlord to return to Ankara, then kill his family and his people, leaving the castle as a graveyard; but accidentally Turac's daughter, Elianne, managed to kill her father. Turac asked Elianne, by then already a vampire, to get revenge on Dracula, and she tried to do so by learning sorcery in the castle before leaving it to start his plans.

20th century

In recent times, the renowned English archaeologist Sir Edwin Trent, with the help of his daughter Marcia, actively searched for a lost temple to the Assyrian winged god Ningal. After various failures, he made a discovery in Ankara that led him to the temple in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

Contemporary

Currently, there are Kurdish terrorist attacks in Ankara. The authorities react by sending special teams and investigators, but it is rarely useful to mobilize the army.

In recent times a superhero conflict took place that included Wolverine and his allies, the mutant teleporter Cloak and Skaar, son of the Hulk, against Romulus, a man who had manipulated major events in the life of Wolverine, and who also controlled a vast criminal empire. The battle also included Daken, Wolverine's son, who loved Romulus but nonetheless aspired to kill and replace him. To bait Romulus into the open, Wolverine pretended to plot a plan along with Daken, counting on Daken to tell Romulus. Wanting to spoil Wolverine's plan, Romulus traveled to Ankara, but hired Kurdish military forces, armed with semi-automatic weapons and bazookas, as secret backup, to cause civilian casualties, knowing that Wolverine would try to save the innocents.

In Ankara, Daken waited at a cafeteria for Wolverine to show up, to boast that he had sided with Romulus. Wolverine, who had foreseen such a betrayal, reacted by impaling Daken with the Muramasa Blade, a weapon that nullified his healing powers (or more accurately an imitation of the Muramasa, from which Daken would heal in minutes), and then Cloak teleported Wolverine away so he wouldn't be arrested. Romulus was informed by a passerby he had hired. The police arrived, and an ambulance took the body to Gazi; when Romulus learned where Daken was, he had his informant killed, and showed up to check on Daken but was then ambushed by Skaar. To rid himself of the enemy, Romulus signaled the terrorists, who attacked civilians from the roof of a building; and Skaar attacked them. Cloak went to stop Skaar from doing more damage, but the terrorists committed suicide with a bomb vest, blowing up the building. Wolverine joined Skaar and Cloak to help save lives, rather than attempt to intercept Romulus, but this distraction gave Daken time to heal and allowed Daken to engage Romulus. Daken explained Wolverine's supposed plan and said that he would side with Romulus against Wolverine, since the plan was bad for Daken. This led to a fight in the streets, in which Wolverine confronted Daken while Skaar was easily bested by Romulus. Romulus catapulted Skaar away, hurling him near a military convoy awaiting orders and believing the enemy to be Kurdish terrorists; the military officer ordered to open fire on Skaar, although Skaar recommended that they flee. Taking advantage of Skaar's engagement with the army, however, Romulus and Daken escaped by teleporting to Syria. There Daken attempted to kill Romulus again, but soon after Daken and Romulus were defeated and disabled by Wolverine.

Alternate Realities

Earth-1218 (Our Reality)

Marvel artist Yıldıray Çınar was born in Ankara on January 23rd, 1976, as was fellow artist Mahmud Asrar on November 20th, 1976.

Earth-31916 (Supremeverse)

Ankara, Earth-31916

On Earth-31916, Ankara was the base of Gamal Anwar, a young Turk with innate superpowers who initially believed that God had cursed him but, when he saw on the news that a metahuman battle had caused the explosion of the White House and the death of the President of the US, Anwar took it instead as a sign from God that his time had come, and assembled a group of superhuman terrorists to attack the United States.

Points of Interest

• cafeteria
• Gazi
• Haceteppe
• Turac's Castle

Residents

• Turac
• Elianne Turac

Trivia

• In Turac's times, Ankara was not the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but it was an important city. At no point the characters refer to Ankara as a capital city.
• People in Ankara nowadays wear casual style clothing, such as jeans and tank tops that expose skin (shoulders, belly, arms). One person was seen carrying his pet dog in a backpack.
• Although Turkey is a mostly Islamic country, a person in Turkey was seen with a Christian rosary hanging from his car mirror.
• The Turkish army is prepared to deal with terrorist attacks in Ankara, but they are not particularly motivated or trained.

See Also

• 6 appearance(s) of Ankara (Turkey)
• 3 mention(s) of Ankara (Turkey)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Ankara (Turkey)
• 3 image(s) of Ankara (Turkey)

Links and References

• Ankara on Wikipedia.org