Harbiye Cultural Center is a museum subordinate to the Military History and Strategic Studies (ATASE) Division, General Staff, deployed in Harbiye district of Istanbul. The Harbiye district, meaning "military”, derives its name from the service buildings of the Military Museum which were used by the Ottoman Empire in its later periods as the Military Academy; the founder of our Republic, The Great Leader Mustafa Kemal ATATURK also graduated from this school. The foundation of Harbiye Cultural Center (Millitary Museum), which is one of the leading museums of the world in terms of the richness of its collections, dates back to the 15th century, though not in the modern sense. After Istanbul was conquered by the Turks in 1453, the Saint Irene Church was organized as a 'Cebehane', an armory, in which valuable war armaments, tools and equipment were stored. In 1726, all the materials in Cebehane were reorganized and a new foundation, called 'Dar-ül Esliha', the Place of Arms, was established. The foundations of Turkish museology in modern sense were laid down in 1846 by the efforts of Artillery Marshall Ahmet Fethi Pasha and this date has become the foundation of Turkish museology and the Harbiye Cultural Center for the first time in real sense.