Gala Dinner at the Sait Halim Pasha Mansion

HISTORY OF THE SAIT HALIM PASA MANSION

The first owners of the mansion are believed to be the Duzogullari Family. The Aristarhis Family who acquired the mansion from the Duzogulları demolished it to construct a completely new one around 1863.

Abdulhalim Pasa bought the mansion, which was considered to be a wreck and not big enough to suit Egyptian aristocratic taste, from the Aristarhis Family and instructed architect Petraki Adamandidis of Canakkale to rebuild it. After Abdulhalim Pasa's death in 1890 the property was inherited by his nine sons. Sait Halim Pasa, gathering all shares from his brothers came into the sole ownership of the mansion in 1894.

In 1968, the mansion was purchased by Turizm Bankası (Tourism Bank) and converted into a casino serving only foreign guests. Due to safety conditions such as fire, the operation of the mansion was handed over to Hilton. Although some minor alterations were made in 1974, a major renovation was held during the years 1980-1984 by TAÇ Foundation under the instruction of Turizm Bankası.

Turizm Bankası merged with Türkiye Kalkınma Bankası (Turkey Development Bank) thus making the mansion the property of Türkiye Kalkınma Bankası. The garden was used as a restaurant during the summer and the mansion itself partially as a museum. Later on the mansion became the summer residence of the Prime Ministry and was used for government events and meetings.

The mansion underwent a fire in 1995 and its restoration as “Official Guest House of the Prime Ministry” was completed in 2002. The restoration was done according to the original architectural style of the mansion in the1890's. The mansion has not been in use since the restoration and its operation has been turned over to Göçtur Tourism in 2004.

SAIT HALIM PASA (1863-1921)

Sait Halim Pasa was the eldest of Prince Abdulhalim Pasa' four sons and the grandson of Kavalalı Mehmet Ali Pasa, Governor of Egypt. Born in Cairo in 1863, his early schooling was in the form of private tutelage where he was taught Arabic, Persian, English and French. He later studied political science for five years in Switzerland.

In 1888 he was appointed Provincial Governor and became a member of the State Council being awarded the Mecidi decoration. In 1889 he received the 2nd nd order and in 1892 the 1st order of the Ottoman Empire. In 1899 he received the special Mecidi decoration and in 1900 was appointed to the post of Governor General of the European provinces.

He was removed from his post as State Council member in 1908. Meanwhile he was appointed mayor of Yeniköy in the municipal elections and later elected vice-president of the General Municipality Corporation. In 1908 Sait Halim Pasa was elected to the Senate and was appointed as president of the State Council in 1912.

Sait Halim Pasa resigned from the presidency of the State Council in 1912 and elected post of general of the Committee of Union and Progress. During the Grand Vizierate of Mahmut Şevket Pasa he was elected president of the State Council for the second time and appointed as the Minister of Foreign affairs in the following three days. After Mahmut Sevket Pasa's death he became the official representative of the Grand Vizier with the rank of Vizier.

In September 1913 by a treaty signed between the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, Edirne was restored to the Ottomans with the Maritza River was established as the border. For his achievement in the conclusion of the this treaty an order of special privilege was bestowed upon Sait Halim Pasa by the Sultan.

In 1914 the Ottoman Empire joined the First World War. The Ottoman-German alliance treaty was signed in Sait Halim Pasha’s mansion with the German Envoy Baron Wangenheim.

In March 1919, Sait Halim Pasa was arrested together with several members of the government and of the parliament. Following his release Sait Halim Pasa went to Rome, where, on Tuesday, 6 December 1921 he was assassinated by an armed Armenian agent as he stepped out of his car to enter his house. His corpse was brought to Istanbul and on 30 December 1921 and was taken from his mansion at Yenikoy to be buried in gardens of the Sultan Mahmut Mausoleum.

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