A Comparative Analysis of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and European Union Capital Cities Based on Strategic Planning Documents

This study compares Ankara Metropolitan Municipality’s 2020–2024 Strategic Plan with a documentary corpus covering all 27 European Union capitals and a September 2024 eligibility cutoff. Thematic document analysis examines carbon neutrality, circular economy, digital participation and sustainable mobility, alongside descriptive profiles of time perspective, purpose, governance and sustainability. Explicit evidence occurs in 15, 22, 10 and 24 capitals respectively; five, four, seven and three cases remain unassessable for the corresponding themes. Differences in documentary genre, territorial scale, completeness and adoption status limit comparisons to articulated planning priorities. A restricted nine-capital comparison of available adopted citywide strategies and development plans reports the same coding categories separately. Ankara combines detailed service indicators with environmental, participatory and social inclusion aims, supporting a view of operational and transformative orientations as coexisting features. Recommendations connect these aims to participatory budgeting, digital consultation, material recovery and mobility milestones. Source identities, planning levels and evidence locations are documented. Single-coder interpretation remains a limitation, and textual occurrence is not evidence of implementation success.