By Hasan Kuruyazici

Armenian architects played a major role in the modernization that Constantinople the then-capital of the Ottoman Empire was formerly known under in the late 19th Century. Even though much of that legacy is now dilapidated or has disappeared throughout the turbulence that took place in Istanbul in the last century, the city is still defined by that seminal architectonic. The fame of the Balian brothers transcended national borders and survives to this day, but other eminent Armenian architects also contributed to reshaping the cosmopolitan metropolis, including Mihran Azarian, the brothers Aram and Isaac Karakash, Ohannes Serverian and Garabed Tulbendjian. Author Hasan Kuruyazici prepared this richly illustrated volume as the companion to an exhibition that took place in 2010, in collaboration with the International Hrant Dink Foundation, the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency and the Haycar Association of Architects and Engineers.