Yesilköy
Encyclopedia
Mahalle
Mahalle is an Arabic word, adopted into Turkish which is variously translated as district, quarter, ward, or "neighborhood." It is an official administrative unit in many Middle Eastern countries. In the Ottoman Empire the mahalle was the smallest administrative entity...
) of the Bakırköy municipality (belediye) of Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
It is located along the Marmara Sea about 11 kilometers west of Istanbul's historic city center. Before the rapid increase of Istanbul's population in the 1970s, Yeşilköy was merely a village and a sea resort.
History
Its original name (Άγιος Στέφανος, pronounced Aghios Stéphanos, GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
for Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
) derives from a legend: in Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
times, the ship carrying the bones of the saint from Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
was forced to stop here because of a storm. The bones were taken to a church until the sea calmed down, and this gave the name to the church and to the place.
In 1203, the beach of Agios Stefanos was the site of disembarkation of the Latin army of the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
, which would conquer Constantinople
Siege of Constantinople (1204)
The Siege of Constantinople occurred in 1204; it destroyed parts of the capital of the Byzantine Empire as it was confiscated by Western European and Venetian Crusaders...
the following year.
In the 19th century, the whole village was owned by the powerful Armenian Dadyan family, which got it as a gift from the Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
after they refused to emigrate abroad.
During the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
, the French forces were stationed here, and built one of the three historic lighthouses of Istanbul still in use. Yeşilköy is also where the Russian forces stopped at the end of the war of 1877-1878 and was the location where the Treaty of San Stefano
Treaty of San Stefano
The Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano was a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78...
was signed between Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. In 1909, the decision to send Sultan Abdülhamid II in exile to Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
was taken by the members of the Committee of Union and Progress
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
in Yeşilköy.
In 1912, during the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
, thousands of soldiers sick because of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
were brought here, and about 3,000 of them died and were buried near the train station.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Yeşilköy was a favourite coastal resort and hunting place for Istanbul's upper class, and had a mixed population, made of Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
, Greeks, (now almost completely emigrated), Armenians (who still live there in numbers) and Levantines (Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
and French people
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
of Istanbul - now almost completely emigrated). As a legacy of the district's cosmopolitan character, an Italian mission, an Italian Catholic church and cemetery, Armenian churches and Greek churches still exist in the area. All the churches are dedicated to St. Stephen.
The village got its present name (Yeşilköy: "Green Village" in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
) in 1926, because of the legislation which imposed to give a Turkish name to each community. The name was given by the writer Halit Ziya Uşakligil
Halit Ziya Usakligil
Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil/Uşakizâde ) was a Turkish author.-Biography:Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil was born in Istanbul in 1865. He went to primary school and then attended the secondary school Fatih Rustiyesi in the same city. His family moved to Izmir in 1879. He completed his secondary education in Izmir...
, who lived here.
Yeşilköy today
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
houses built between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. It has a Marina and beautiful sandy beaches.
Istanbul Atatürk International Airport
Atatürk International Airport
Atatürk International Airport is the major international airport in Istanbul, Turkey. Opened in 1924 and located in Yeşilköy, on the European side of the city, it is west of the city centre. In 1980, the airport was renamed to Atatürk International Airport in honor of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the...
, formerly known as the Yeşilköy Airport, is located in this district. The headquarters of Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines is the national flag carrier airline of Turkey, headquartered in the Turkish Airlines General Management Building on the grounds of Atatürk Airport in Yeşilköy, Bakirköy district, Istanbul...
are on the property of the airport. Borajet
Borajet
Borajet is an airline based in Yeşilköy, Bakırköy, Istanbul, Turkey. It is a privately owned regional airline operating domestic services. Its main base is Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul.- History :...
also has its head office in Yeşilköy.
The first military aviation base was established in Yeşilköy in 1909-1911.
Yeşilköy has a station for the suburban railway line
İstanbul-Halkalı Commuter Line
The İstanbul-Halkalı Line, also referred to as the İstanbul Commuter Railway, locally referred to as B1 . Carrying an average of 22,200 passengers daily, it is the second busiest commuter railway in Turkey, after the Haydarpaşa Commuter Railway....
between Sirkeci and Halkalı. The first station was built in 1871, and contributed to the neighborhood's boom as a popular resort.
Yeşilköy borders the neighborhoods of Yeşilyurt
Yesilyurt (Istanbul)
Yeşilyurt is a neighborhood of Bakırköy district in Istanbul, Turkey. It is located along Marmara Sea, and borders to the southwest the neighbourhood of Yeşilköy, to which it once belonged, and to the northeast that of Ataköy...
to the northeast, and Florya
Florya
Florya is a neighborhood belonging to the Bakırköy district of the greater Istanbul, Turkey. It is located along Marmara Sea, and borders to the northeast the neighborhood of Yeşilköy, to the northwest that of Küçükçekmece. It is one of the high class and rich areas of Istanbul...
to the southwest.
Miscellaneous
San Stefano PeakSan Stefano Peak
San Stefano Peak is a rocky peak rising to 256 m, the summit of Rugged Island off the west coast of Byers Peninsula of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica...
on Rugged Island
Rugged Island (South Shetland Islands)
Rugged Island is an island long and wide, lying west of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands. Surface area . The island's summit San Stefano Peak rises to above sea level. Rugged Island is located at...
in the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
, Antarctica is named after the settlement, in connection with the Treaty of San Stefano
Treaty of San Stefano
The Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano was a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78...
.