The War of Independence in painting: Ali Cemal Ben'im, İbrahim Çallı, Hikmet Onat, İbrahim Balaban, Mehmet Başbuğ, and Aydın Ayan

War is a complex phenomenon that has persisted throughout human history, constantly evolving. Early communities were constantly in conflict in order to find food and maintain control over their land, but it took thousands of years for these conflicts to evolve into war, or rather, to be evaluated within the scope of today's definition of war. This is because war is different from simple fights or momentary violent clashes. War is a "planned and organized" conflict between communities, states, or organized groups for political, economic, religious, or ideological purposes, and usually involves "lethal violence." Archaeological findings show that traces of such conflicts date back to around 13,000 BC. With the transition to settled life, organized and planned wars began to appear around 7000 BCE. In this context, the archer figures in the Val del Charco del Agua Amarga cave in the Levant region of Spain are considered one of the earliest depictions of war, dating back to the Mesolithic period. The nature of war and the meanings attributed to it have undergone significant changes throughout human history. Our study attempts to reveal how this transformation is reflected in representations of war. In prehistoric societies, small-scale conflicts are depicted in rock paintings as hunter-warrior groups, while with the emergence of states, war became central to monumental narratives of victory, such as the Narmer Palette and the Ur Standard. Qualitative research methods were used in our thesis, relevant sources were examined, and descriptive analysis was performed. The first section of our three-part study examines the definition, origins, and types of war, attempting to reveal its reflections in world and Turkish painting. The second section traces the traces left by war in social memory, focusing on the place of the War of Independence in Turkish painting and identifying artists who painted the War of Independence. The final section focuses on artists who produced works on the theme of the War of Independence, attempting to explain how they perceived the phenomenon of war, how they reflected this phenomenon in their paintings, and how they interpreted the war and its consequences.