Galatasaray Island
The island, which was gifted to Sarkis Balyan by Sultan Abdülaziz in 1872, was known as Sarkis Bey Islet for a while. This island, where the famous painter Ayvazovski stayed during the Ottoman period, was turned into a coal depot since 1914. After a while, it became a place that provided fuel to city line ferries. Kuruçeşme Island, which was planned to be opened to the public as a touristic facility at that time, was purchased for 150 thousand TL with the initiatives of Galatasaray Sports Club President Sadık Giz in 1957 and was put at the service of Galatasaray members. Between 1956 and 1992, it served as a school that trained students in rowing. Between 1957 and 1968, it was allocated to Galatasaray Sports Club Water Polo Branch. In 2006, it was rented to entertainment venue and restaurant operator Mehmet Koçarslan for 3 years. The operator named the facilities on the island "Suada".
It was claimed that there was illegal construction on Galatasaray Island and therefore a warning was sent to the operator of the Island to evacuate the Island. However, since the Island operator ignored the warning and continued to operate the Island, on May 28, 2017, the vehicles that would carry out the demolition were transported by ship to near the Island and the demolition started.
Restarting the island's operations was one of the election promises of Dursun Özbek, who was re-elected as Galatasaray President on June 11, 2022. The Island was reopened with a ceremony on July 27, 2022.
At the opening ceremony of the island, Galatasaray President Dursun Özbek said, "Today, we are experiencing the happiness and pride of keeping one of the promises we made to you, our valued members. We worked very hard to change the image we did not want to see on our island after the election and to meet on our island again. In a period of 24 days, the island went from that state of ruin to this situation." "We are here together at the end of this extraordinary effort. But the two parcels did not belong to us. We received the upper usage rights of these two areas belonging to the National Real Estate for 30 years. This is very important." made his statements. It was announced that fire was opened on Galatasaray Island on September 3, 2022. In the investigations carried out the next day, it was announced that the island was hit by a tired bullet.
