Türkiye's next-generation military headquarters to serve from 12M-square-meter site

Türkiye’s Ay Yildiz Joint Headquarters, currently under construction in Ankara, will cover 12 million square meters and bring the National Defense Ministry, the General Staff and the armed forces' commands under one roof, the Defense Ministry said Thursday in a statement.

Inspired by the crescent and star on the Turkish flag, the headquarters will span an area equivalent to about 1,680 football fields, according to the statement.

The project has a total construction area of 2 million square meters, half of which has already been completed. Once finished, the compound will be three times the size of the Pentagon and four times larger than NATO headquarters, the ministry said.

The site will have a 6.5-kilometer perimeter wall, five conference halls with a combined capacity of 3,200 people, the 10,000-square-meter main building, completed in one year, and six indoor parking facilities with capacity for 6,400 vehicles.

The project includes 19 million cubic meters of excavation. By the time it is completed, it will have used 2 million cubic meters of concrete, roughly the volume of the Pyramid of Khufu, and 125,000 tons of steel, equal to 22 times the steel used in the Eiffel Tower.

The compound will also include 25 kilometers of internal roads, 2 million square meters of green space and 1 million plants and trees across an area 1.5 times the size of London’s Hyde Park.

The facility will feature 44,800 kilometers of cable, 168,000 lighting units and capacity for 25,000 fiber-optic cables, the ministry added.