Devrim was the first ever automobile designed and produced in Turkey.

In 1961, President Cemal Gürsel ordered 24 engineers working in various companies, including Necmettin Erbakan, who became Prime Minister in 1990s, to build a car fully designed and produced in Turkey; it was to be demonstrated on the Day of the Republic on October 29 1961. 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Cemal Gürsel, a statesman and a soldier, was a Turkish army officer, political leader and the 4th president of Turkey. ... October 29 is the 302nd day of the year (303rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 63 days remaining. ...

After four and a half months of hard work in the workshop, which now is TÜLOMSAŞ, the engineers managed to make four prototypes of the automobile. One was black, and the others were cream. It was named Devrim (the Turkish word for revolution, however the word references to the coup d'état of 1960). It has been suggested that Revolutionary be merged into this article or section. ... A coup détat (pronounced ), or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government against the volonté générale formed by the majority of the citizenry, usually done by a smaller supposedly weaker body that just replaces the top power figures. ...

Three of the cars were shipped to Ankara for the Republic Day. The black car was painted while 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. On the day of celebrations, the President got in the black car for a ceramonial ride. After driving a hundred meters the car stopped, because it had run out of gasoline, thus the car could not take a tour around the Parliament building, as supposed. Then the president got in the cream car, and went to Anıtkabir with it. The newspaper headlines were, "Devrim went 100 meters, and it stopped.". The car became subject of jokes for many years. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the countrys second largest city after Ä°stanbul. ... Republic Day is the name of a public holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they first became republics. ... Gasoline (or petrol) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, in Ankara, Turkey Anıtkabir is the mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, the leader of Turkish War of Independence and the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. ...

The car was never mass produced. One reason for that was the cars were crafted prototypes and production process was not well-documented, with almost no technical drawings remaining from the production. Another reason was that the demand was not high enough to make mass production feasible. Cars still were affordable for a small economic minority, therefore there was a small number of potential private buyers. Look up craft in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A conspiracy theory about production was that American auto giants were approaching the government and it was decided to keep relations smooth.

Three of the prototypes were destroyed and the last one is kept in TÜLOMSAŞ in Eskişehir, where it was built. EskiÅŸehir (Greek:Δορύλαιον, Dorylaion) is the capital of EskiÅŸehir Province, Turkey. ...

External links

• NTVMSNBC Article on Devrim
• TÜLOMSAŞ page on Devrim (in Turkish)
• Turkish Wikipedia article