The Tokatlıyan Hotels, founded by Meguerditch Tokatliyan, were two prominent hotels located around Istanbul. The hotels were regarded as luxury hotels where many famed individuals such as Leon Trotsky and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed. They are considered among the first European-style hotels to be built in Turkey.
History
The Tokatlıyan Hotels were founded by Meguerditch Tokatliyan, an Ottoman citizen of Armenian descent, who moved from Tokat to Istanbul in 1883 and adopted the last name Tokatlıyan meaning "from Tokat". Meguerditch Tokatliyan eventually settled in Nice, France, where he lived the rest of his life.
Meguerditch established the first Tokatlıyan Hotel in 1897 on the Rue de Pera in Pera, Beyoğlu. The hotel was first known as Hotel Splendide but the name soon changed to Hotel Tokatlıyan. It originally had 160 rooms and its furnishings were brought from Europe. The hotel contained high-ceiling halls and rooms and it also had its own coat of arms made with silver which was placed all around the hotel. The Hotel was one of the popular venues of the Istanbul high society for a long time. Many famed individuals such as Leon Trotsky, Josephine Baker, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were guests of the hotel. Atatürk considered it his favorite hotel. During the First World War and the Armenian Genocide, the hotel was vandalized and its windows were broken. It was eventually passed down to the Serbian businessman Nikola Medović in 1919. One of the most notable events in this period was on 4 November 1922, when Ali Kemal, the liberal newspaper editor and former Minister of the Interior was kidnapped from the barber shop at Tokatliyan Hotel, and was carried to the Asiatic side of the city and lynched by Republican forces. Subsequently the hotel came into the ownership of the Turkish businessman İbrahim Gültan, who changed the hotel's name to Konak. By the 1950s, due to lack of maintenance, the hotel was run-down and in a deteriorating state, after which the Üç Horan Armenian Church bought the property and attained ownership. Today, the building still stands at its original location next to the Çiçek Pasajı. Its lower floors are used as a hotel, while other rooms are now shops and banks. Many of the upper floors, which replaced the structure’s dome, are now off-limits.
After the success of the first Tokatlıyan hotel, Meguerditch Tokatliyan opened another hotel at Tarabya in 1909. The hotel consisted of 120 rooms and was situated on the banks of the Bosphorus. The hotel became popular immediately. However, on April 19, 1954, the hotel was heavily damaged due to fire. In 1964 the hotel was reconstructed and its name changed to the Büyük Tarabya Hotel. The hotel was used as a setting for numerous Turkish movies and TV shows such as Cici Gelin, Acele Koca Aranıyor, Arım Balım Peteğim, and more.
