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Devrim (, meaning ''Revolution'' in Turkish) was the first ever automobile designed and produced in Turkey.


Automotive Industry Congress

On 15 May 1961, the ''Otomotiv Endüstri Kongresi'' (Automotive Industry Congress) was opened by President
Cemal Gürsel Cemal Gürsel (; 13 October 1895 – 14 September 1966) was a Turkish army general who became the List of Presidents of Turkey, fourth President of Turkey after a coup. Early life He was born in the city of Erzurum as the son of an Ottoman A ...
. In his inaugural speech, he said: After the congress, Gürsel issued his order to build a prototype engine and car meeting the requirements of the country. These prototypes would be compared with the best cars of the time, the shortcomings would be identified, and project development work would be undertaken in order to produce the best possible car in Turkey.


Design and production of Devrim

In 1961, President
Cemal Gürsel Cemal Gürsel (; 13 October 1895 – 14 September 1966) was a Turkish army general who became the List of Presidents of Turkey, fourth President of Turkey after a coup. Early life He was born in the city of Erzurum as the son of an Ottoman A ...
ordered 24 engineers, working in various companies, to build a car fully designed and produced in Turkey. It was to be demonstrated during the Republic Day celebrations on October 29, 1961. After 130 days of hasty labor at the workshop in Eskişehir, which later became the TÜLOMSAŞ factory, the engineers managed to make four prototypes of the automobile. One was black, and the others were cream coloured. It was named ''Devrim'' (the Turkish word for Revolution.) The schedule was extremely tight; nonetheless, four cars could be completed and two of these cars (cream and black coloured) were shipped to Ankara for the Republic Day celebrations. The polishing paint of the black car was done while it was on the train to Ankara. None of the cars had gasoline in them, as a safety precaution, and the cars were filled with little fuel, only for maneuvering. Since the compression rate had been increased to boost engine performance, high octane fuel was needed to run the engines without engine knock. High octane fuel was only available in Ankara back then. On the day of the celebrations, President Cemal Gürsel got into the black car before it was refuelled for a ceremonial ride. After proceeding approximately a hundred meters, the vehicle came to a halt. Then the President got off from the black car and got onto the cream colored car at the back (which had been filled up earlier) and went to
Anıtkabir Anıtkabir is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence and the founder and the first President of the Republic of Turkey. It is located in Ankara and was designed by architects Professor Emin O ...
with it. The two cars then completed the ceremonial runs without any problem. The newspaper headlines in the following day were, "Devrim went 100 meters and it broke down." The car became the subject of jokes for many years. Devrim was never mass-produced, possibly because the cars were crafted prototypes and the production process was not well-documented, with only a few technical drawings remaining from the production phase. Another possible reason was the limited demand for cars in Turkey back in 1961, which made it difficult to feasibly accomplish the mass production, distribution, dealership services, maintenance services and spare parts production of a new car brand. Conversely, the Otosan factory in Istanbul was established in 1959 as a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and
Koç Holding Koç Holding A.Ş. () is the largest industrial conglomerate in Turkey, and the only company in the country to be listed on the Fortune Global 500 as of 2016. The company, headquartered in Nakkaştepe, Istanbul, is controlled by the Koç family, ...
, and Turkey's first mass-produced automobile brand, Anadol, started the serial production of the
Anadol A1 Anadol was Turkey's first domestic mass-production passenger vehicle company. Its first model, Anadol A1 (1966–1975) was the second Turkish car after the ill-fated Devrim sedan of 1961. Anadol cars and pick-ups were manufactured by Otosan Oto ...
in 1966.


Conspiracy theories

A popular conspiracy theory about the failure of mass production suggests that the American automotive companies, which sold most of the cars in Turkey back in the early 1960s (e.g., the police cars in Turkey were mostly GM, Ford and
Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
models, especially
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
and
Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...
, until the mid-1970s) had approached the Turkish government to cancel the project, and due to political and economic reasons, the latter gave priority to maintaining the close bilateral relations between the two NATO allies at the height of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. Five years later, in 1966, Anadol became Turkey's first mass-produced automobile brand. Anadol vehicles were produced at the Otosan factory in Istanbul, which was established in 1959 as a joint venture between Ford Motor Company of the United States and
Koç Holding Koç Holding A.Ş. () is the largest industrial conglomerate in Turkey, and the only company in the country to be listed on the Fortune Global 500 as of 2016. The company, headquartered in Nakkaştepe, Istanbul, is controlled by the Koç family, ...
of Turkey. In 1960 Otosan started the production of the Ford Consul, which was the first passenger car to be produced at the factory in Istanbul.


Legacy

Three of the prototypes were scrapped due to the bureaucratic restrictions, their engines converted to diesel generators, but the last one (body no:002, engine no:002) is kept, in working condition, inside the TÜLOMSAŞ factory in Eskişehir, where it was built. In 2018 when the automobile hit its 57 years, it was completely disassembled and thoroughly maintained by its original manufacturer TÜLOMSAŞ in order to preserve Devrim for many decades. Since it is preserved in a closed showroom very little rust was observed; though paint and vinyl interiors had to be replaced according to original specifications of the car. Devrim is open for visit at the TÜLOMSAŞ factory in Eskişehir every day between 08:00-17:00.


In popular culture

The story of the building process and hard efforts of the 24 engineers who worked on Devrim automobiles became the subject of a film, which was released in Turkey in 2008 with the title "Devrim Arabaları" (English: ''Cars of Revolution''). In late 2010, students from the National University of Science and Technology in Pakistan developed a hybrid car with inspiration from Devrim and named it ''Devrim II''.


References


External links


Official page of Devrim



NTVMSNBC Article on Devrim
* Turkish Wikipedia article * Turkish Wikipedia article about the movie
Official movie page of Devrim (archived html)
{{Turkish automobile brands and manufacturers Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Turkey Cars introduced in 1961 Cars of Turkey