Keçiören is a municipality and metropolitan district of Ankara Province, Turkey.[2] Its area is 159 km2,[3] and its population is 939,279 (2022).[1] It is a crowded district in the northern part of the city of Ankara. Its elevation is 950 m (3,117 ft). The Çubuk River runs through the middle of the district.
From Kiçivirân or Kiçiören (small ruins). The first part is unrelated to keçi (goat}, but rather a dissimilation of older *kiçi (“small”), from Proto-Turkic *kičüg.[5]
Until the 1950s this was a green and pleasant area outside the city, but in recent years has become a large district of housing for Ankara's working class. The President of TurkeyRecep Tayyip Erdoğan has his Ankara residence within the district. The incumbent mayor of Keçiören is Mesut Özarslan of the secular main opposition Republican People’s Party.[6]
In August 2018, the Municipality decided not to issue business licenses to American brands including McDonald's, Starbucks and Burger King as a response to the U.S. sanctions on Turkey.[7]
In 2024, the municipal council unanimously decided to ban all the signs in foreign languages and require the usage of exclusively Turkish, with the exception of business branding.[8]
The current administration has made efforts to decorate the mass of dull concrete that the area mainly consists of. The new buildings include a huge artificial waterfall and many other pools and fountains, and a concrete replica of the Hungarian Esztergom Castle.
Keçiören has a two-station aerial lift, the Keçiören Gondola, which connects the neighborhoods Tepebaşı (Cumhuriyet station) and Kavacık Subayevleri (Atatürk station). As of November 2013, it is the only in Ankara and Turkey's longest urban gondola lift line with its length of 1,653 m (5,423 ft).[9][10]
To many Turkish people the name Keçiören evokes a popular children's TV outdoor game show (similar to the British It's a Knockout) of the 1980s, which was recorded in the district.[citation needed]
