Rust Bucket Slams Into HistoricBosphorus Yalı

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper,  22 July 2015)


                   Like getting a black eye.

At around noon yesterday, the rudder of the 106-meter long
cargo ship Majed and Randy (!), bearing the flag of Sierra
Leone, locked up and the ship crashed into the Ethem Pertev
Yalısı in Kanlıca on the Bosphorus. Both the ship and the
mansion suffered damage.

One of the nicest yalıs on the Bosphorus, the other name
for Ethem Pertev Yalısı is 'Süslü Yalı' (pretty mansion).
It was built in the 1860's for one of Sultan Abdulmecid's
favorites, Fatma hanım. When Fatma fell on hard times in
the early 1900's, pharmaceutical magnate and statesman Ethem
Pertev Paşa took the yalı.


                     ...in happier days.

In 2000, Murat Köprülü, a descendant of the famous Ottoman
statesman Köprülü Mehmet Paşa, purchased the yalı. Now
the yalı is owned and occupied by the family of Etel Baler,
the daughter of Sami Herman, who was once president of the
Turkey Jewish Community. Etel Baler married Robert Baler
in 2011 and has made a name for herself as a fashion and
style designer.