Haydarpasa Station, once Turkey's busiest, is being transformed into an art centre by the Culture Ministry. Photo / Ozan Kose, AFP
When Senay Kartal worked at Turkey’s most beautiful railway station, her days were filled with the rumble of locomotives and the bustle of passengers at Haydarpasa on the banks of the Bosphorus.
But gone are the days when passengers from Anatolia would walk its marble halls, suitcases in hand, marvelling at the grandiose landmark on Istanbul’s Asian waterfront.
Today the tracks lie silent at what was Turkey’s busiest station, the great eastern hub of the Berlin to Baghdad railway.
Once immortalised in old Turkish films and portrayed in numerous novels, the station has been taken over by the Turkish Culture Ministry which wants to transform it into an art centre.
Yet for the 61-year-old retiree, who still hears the echo of whistles and the cries of simit sellers hawking their sesame-coated bread rings, the iconic building should remain a railway station.
“People would step off the train and we had waiting halls where they could stay the night – there was no need for a hotel,” recalled Kartal.
“It was such a beautiful place, there was so much movement and energy, people were full of excitement and joy. That beauty no longer exists today,” she told AFP.
“I gave 38 years of my life to Haydarpasa, and yet even to me, its doors are closed.”
The picturesque railway station perched right on the water was inaugurated in 1908 at the end of the Ottoman Empire as Europe’s gateway to the East.
It has witnessed some of the most turbulent and tragic moments in Turkey’s history, surviving the collapse of empire, World War I, the deportation of the Armenians, military coups, earthquakes, and a devastating fire.
“Haydarpasa has witnessed many historic events throughout its history including the influx of migrants from rural Turkey to Istanbul,” said Ayca Yuksel, a researcher, sociologist and author of books about Haydarpasa.
“That’s why it holds a special place in the memories of people who experienced this migration. We see reflections of this in literature, art and cinema,” she told AFP.
But today it lacks the very thing that gave it life: trains.
Since 2013, Haydarpasa has been closed – initially for restoration, then by an archaeological excavation that unearthed artefacts dating back to the fifth century BC, which is still ongoing.
Last year the station was handed over to the Culture Ministry, with the first phase of the new arts centre to be finished next year.
That involves emptying out the entire building, even though part of the complex is still used as housing for railway staff, who have been told they must leave.
“This isn’t just a building, it’s everything to us,” said train driver Hasan Bektas, a union member who belongs to the Haydarpasa Platform – a group of academics, urban planners and railway staff who are protesting against the Government’s plans.
For Bektas, it’s clear the lucrative waterside location has whetted the appetite of investors.
“Their aim has always been the same: to turn every beautiful place into profit – to strip it of value and cash in. The public’s interests were never part of the equation. That’s what we’re against,” he told AFP.
In October 2024, Culture and Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy pledged it would continue functioning as a station.
“He said: “There will be trains ... a cultural and arts centre, and a public garden. But there will never be a shopping mall or hotel here.”
Back in the early 2000s, there were bold plans floated for the site – it would house seven skyscrapers, a new World Trade Centre, an Olympic Stadium; some even spoke of a Venice-style makeover.
“But the building itself is already a world-renowned icon. No one ever fought to keep it exactly as it was, in its original form,” said Bektas, clearly furious.
Every Sunday, protesters gather near the station shouting: “Haydarpasa is a train station and must stay that way”.
Although Nehir Guner was just a child when the station closed, the 22-year-old student would gaze at it every time she caught a ferry to university and wonder about its future, eventually joining the protests.
“Railways are so important for a city, we want this to remain a train station,” she said.
“It’s painfully clear the art centre project is all for show – designed to impress, not serve any real purpose.”
Architect Gul Koksal said Haydarpasa, with its lodgings, repair workshops and nearby port, was much more than just a station and had a unique place in Turkish cultural memory.
“It’s like a jewel – but it has meaning only if it’s preserved and kept alive with everything that makes it.”
-Agence France-Presse