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On April 23, 1920, the republican structure of cultural mind and Atatürk's attention paid on Turkish history and its culture were all reflected to the constitution when the Grant Assembly of Turkey and the first parliament goverment were founded. The Directorate of Culture (originally called the Directorate of "Hars") was one of the departments of the Ministry of Education (originally called "Maarif Vekaleti"). Until 1926, This Directorate was called as both "Directorate of Hars" and "Asar-i Atika Directorate" which were, from time to time, exchanged for one and other. Since Atatürk gave much importance on archeological and historical researches, in 1926, the Directorate of Libraries and the Directorate of Museums were separated from each other. The intensive development in culture and in arts consequently brought many constitutional changes. The Directorate of Fine Arts and many Schools of conservatuars were established. In 1935, the name of the Ministry of Education (so- called, then, "Maarif Vekaleti") was changed to the Ministry of Culture but this change was not reflected in the implementation. In 1941, it was again changed back to the Ministry of Education (changed back to "Maarif Vekaleti"). In 1949, The General Directorate of National Theatres was founded. In 1965, within the structure of the Ministry of National Education, the Under- Secretariat of Culture was established and the cultural units were then tied to the Under Secretariat In 1971, this under-secretariat became a department of ministry and consequently followed by the establishment of Ministry of Culture for the first time in Turkish history. After a little while, the ministry was changed back to Under-secretariat and it was tied to the Prime Ministry. The Ministry of Culture, reestablished in 1974, worked jointly with the Ministry of National Education for a short period of time. The Ministry of Culture was tied to the Ministry of Tourism and Information in 1982 and in this year it was again re-established as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Then, in 1989, these two ministries were separated and the Ministry of Culture was once again independently reconstituted. These structural changes were conserved as they were until 2000s. |