THE BATTLE OF SAKARYA PANAROMIC MUSEUM Panaromic Museum " The Battle of Sakarya, also known as the Battle of the Sangarios a silent monument to the Great Battle . The Battle of Sakarya, was an important engagement in the Greco – Turkish war ( 1919 – 1922 ) and Turkish War of Independence . The battle went on for 21 days from August 23 to September 13, 1921, close to the banks of the Sakarya River in the immediate vicinity of Polatlı ( Gordion ) , which is today a district of the Ankara Province . The battle line stretched over 62 miles (100 km) . The Battle of Sakarya is considered as the turning point of the Turkish War of Independence importance of the battle with the words, "the retreat that started in Vienna on 13 September 1683 stopped 238 years later". The Battle of Sakarya Panaromic Museum is a monumental sculpture featuring a Turkish soldier on Kartaltepe of Polatlı, a rural area of Ankara Province . The sculpture is situated on top of the Kartaltepe hill just 6 km (3.7 mi) west of Polatlı and 75 km (47 mi) west of Ankara . It is to the south of the Turkish state highway D 200, which connects west Anatolia to Ankara. Turkish high speed train railway route passes through a 470 metres (1,540 ft) tunnel under Kartaltepe. Gordion the historical capital of Phrygia is about 12 km (7.5 mi) to the north. Sergey Prisekin, a Russian painter and cultural and artistic adviser to the presidency, has been working on a panorama of the Sakarya Battle from the Turkish War of Independence to be placed on Kartal Hill in Ankara’s Polatlı district. When completed in August 2010, Prisekin claims that it will be the world’s largest panorama. He hopes the project will receive UNESCO recognition. World’s largest panorama Talking about the Sakarya Battle panorama, Prisekin said he conducted long-term research in the northwestern city of Sakarya to truly reflect the atmosphere of the war, and that the 3-D panorama would be 75 meters in length, 10 meters in height and 10 meters in depth. He said they would also add mountain, hill and barricade mockups to the panorama. He said the drawing of the panorama was under construction in Russia, and it would be brought to the Black Sea city of Trabzon via the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol and then to Polatlı. He said the museum would be completed by Aug. 26, 2010 and officially opened on the anniversary of the Sakarya Victory on Sept. 13. “This work will be the world’s largest panorama,” Prisekin claimed. “We will be a candidate to be included in UNESCO’s historic artifacts catalog.” SO WHAT ? Since 2009, the Museum could not be completed. It was left to rot. TL 10 million ( $ 5 million ) for the completion of the required . Nejdet Gurbuz Economist and Journalist POLATLI İSTİKLAL GAZETESİ