General Command of Mapping (Turkey)

The General Command of Mapping (Turkish: Harita Genel Komutanlığı or HGK) is the national mapping agency of Turkey under the Ministry of National Defense and is responsible for the official topographical mapping of the country in both hard-copy and digital forms.

The HGK produces and provides geographic information for defense and development purposes, in addition to planning, standardizing and producing and maintaining geographic materials. The HGK consists of a team of experts and two B200 Beechcraft planes stationed at the Güvercinlik Army Air Base in Ankara. They have the capacity for global aerial coverage are open to any proposals from international bodies in need of their services.

Turkish mapping dates to the 15th century. Some of the first examples of Turkish mapping include charts drawn by Ibrahim Mursel, and a world chart painted in nine colors on a deer skin by the famous navy commander of the Ottoman Empire, Admiral Piri Reis. A great number of maps can be found dating up to the 19th century which exemplify the historical aspect of Turkish mapping.

The establishment of the "Mapping Commission" in 1895, as a unit subordinate to the Fifth Department of the Turkish General Staff, is accepted as the beginning of modern cartography in Turkey. The Mapping Commission is considered the precursor to the current office, the General Command of Mapping. The Mapping Commission performed its preliminary works in five or six rooms reserved for them on the upper floor of the old Gendarmerie Office.

Since the rapid production of the maps needed urgently for national defense required a larger and more capable organization, the Mapping Commission was arranged on October 28, 1918. The Commission was established as an independent mapping department of the Ministry of National Defense, which by that time had several branches: triangulation, topography, reconnaissance, cartography, central offices, a surveying battalion and a surveying school.

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