Mıgırdiç Tokatlıyan established the first Tokatlıyan Hotel in 1897 on the Rue de Pera ( modern Istiklal Caddesi ) 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
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Tokatlıyan Hotels