Kastamonu
Atatürk launched Turkey's 'hat revolution' here in 1925; during the Independence War, Kastamonu was the ammunition supply corridor to Ankara.
On August 25, 1925, Mustafa Kemal arrived in Kastamonu and launched Turkey's 'dress code revolution'—abolishing the fez in favor of Western hats. The choice of venue was deliberate. During the War of Independence, ammunition smugglers had used the İnebolu-Kastamonu-Ankara corridor to transport weapons by buffalo cart from the Black Sea coast to the nationalist capital. Kastamonu produced among the most martyrs of any Turkish city; its sacrifice had earned the right to host transformation.
The İstiklal Yolu (Independence Way), now a marked trail, traces this route through landscapes where modern Turkey was armed and ideologically remade. The province also hosted Turkey's first women's rally, another milestone in Atatürk's modernization campaign. Kastamonu earned its place in republican mythology not through what it produced, but through what it transmitted.
Beyond national history, the province's economy centers on Taşköprü, famous for kuyu kebabı—whole lamb slow-cooked in sealed wells—and garlic-flavored pastırma produced at 200 tons annually. The town of Tosya adds rice cultivation to the regional economy. Archaeological findings suggest habitation reaching back 100,000 years, with control passing through Seljuks, Danishmends, Byzantines, and various beyliks before Ottoman consolidation in 1461.
For 2026, Kastamonu's value proposition remains primarily memorial and gastronomic. The question is whether cultural tourism around the Independence Way and Republican heritage can develop into a sustainable economic engine, or whether the province remains a symbolic site visited by school trips and patriots, passed through rather than stayed in.