NEWS: Proletariat palace on Istanbul island on offer for 5 million euros

Proletariat palace on Istanbul island on offer for 5 million euros

Friday, August 20, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

After being deported from the Soviet Union, Trotsky lived in Turkey for four years, spending time in the Moda neighborhood on the Anatolian side before moving to Büyükada.

The pending sale of the Istanbul home where Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky spent part of his time in exile has drawn criticism from prominent historians, who say the building should be turned into a museum instead.

The Istanbul Adalar Municipality says it does not have the funds to buy the waterside residence, which has a sale price of 5 million euros.

“A figure who helped shape the politics of the 20th century sought refuge in and spent part of his life in Turkey. It would add to the value of our city to restore the house where such an important personality spent time and turn it into a museum,” Professor Afife Batur, an expert on historical architecture at Istanbul Technical University, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

“It is a big shame that the building has not been restored,” Batur said, adding that the house on Büyükada, the largest of the Princes’ Islands off Istanbul’s coast, would probably only survive for another 10 years if left in its current state.

Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union in the 1920s after leading a failed struggle against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin. His first stop in exile was Turkey, where he lived for four years, spending time in the Moda neighborhood on Istanbul’s Anatolian side before moving to Büyükada.

The house where he stayed on the island survived a fire in the 1930s and was never restored, though it had many subsequent owners. Only the walls now remain of the red-brick building set on a wooded property comprising 3,500 square meters.

Municipality lacks budget to buy the house

The Island Foundation has previously tried to turn the house into a museum but was unable to get the necessary funding. Its efforts to secure financial support from institutions run by Trotskyists also failed. “They first showed interest but then gave up,” said Halim Bulutoğlu, the director of the foundation. He added that the group hoped the new owners who bought the building for $2.5 million in 2002 would restore the structure. But once again, Bulutoğlu said, “the building was left to its fate.”

Mustafa Farsakoğlu, the mayor of Adalar Municipality, told the Daily News that the municipality does not have the budget to buy such a building, or the resources to monitor all 6,150 houses registered as historic structures. He added that the Trotsky house belongs to a private person and the government cannot interfere with the sale.

Already losing their cosmopolitan nature, the Princes’ Islands are now losing their cultural values one by one, said Bulutoğlu, who is also the secretary-general of the History Foundation. “The Greeks and the Armenians are not here any longer; they left, they migrated. We cannot take ownership of our people, nature or culture.”

Prominent historian İlber Ortaylı, who is also the director of Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace, wrote in an article published in daily Milliyet that it would be much better if the Trotsky house was turned into a museum, both for preserving history and boosting tourism. “Will our elites that see ownership of historic houses and waterside mansions as a sign of prestige show interest in this house?” he asked. “We’ll see what will happen. But it would be much better if the house was turned into a museum, like those in Belgium and Mexico.”

Trotsky left Turkey in 1933 for France. He was murdered in Mexico in August 1940.