Pangaltı Armenian Cemetery

The Armenian cemetery Pangaltı (Armenian Սուրբ Հակոբ հայկական գերեզմանատուն ) in 1551 was located in Constantinople Pangaltı district (now Elmadağ ) in Taksim Square, and belonged to the Surp Agop - Hospital. In its place today are the Divan Hotels, Hilton and Hyatt, part of the Gezi parks as well as the building of the Turkish Broadcasting Corporation ( TRT).

He was part of a large, mixed -denominational cemetery area in the north of Taksim. The cemetery was the largest non-Muslim cemetery in the history of Istanbul.

History

The Pangaltı Cemetery was founded in 1560 after an epidemic brought the Armenian community to to turn to Sultan Süleyman I.. Because of its Armenian cook, who had saved his life, Süleyman accepted the application for the construction of the cemetery. It was enlarged in 1780 and 1853, enclosed by a wall. The district Pera was close to the cemetery, so that an outbreak of cholera in 1865 enticed the Ottoman government to ban funerals and allow them to instead hold in Şişli Armenian Cemetery. At the request of mostly European-Christian inhabitants of Pera in 1869 was a part of the Armenian cemetery grounds in one of the first public parks in Istanbul, Taksim garden transformed.

The remaining Pangaltı cemetery as well as the benachberte Muslim cemetery Ayaspasa Mezarlığı was overbuilt by Henri Prost during the Restruktierungen Taksim. In 1939, the marble grave stones were sold and used in the construction of the pillars and stairs of Gezi Park. Other parts of the cemetery were used in the construction of Eminönü Square, which was built as the Gezi Park by the French architect Henri Prost and city planners.

During the excavation work for the renovation of the new Taksim Square 16 grave stones of the Armenian Pangalti cemetery were discovered.

Case

1932 ranged Mesrob Naroyan, the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Opel, an action for the return of property, since the Istanbul municipality claimed the cemetery itself. The city council justified this by saying that the patriarchy do not own a property deed. The Patriarchate stated that in spite of the absence of such a document still had the right to own the cemetery, as the Turkish law to acquire such a property deed permitted if a property was occupied incontestable over a period of more than 15 years. As this was, given the patriarchy, as a longtime usufructuary of the cemetery, it claimed the property for themselves.

Based on the results of a Commission, which investigated the case, the court, however, the reasoning of the patriarchates was as devoid of which the Armenians lost the cemetery on July 9, 1932.