ABSTRACT
The forest on the south-eastern side of Kuzguncuk was bequeathed to the Istanbul 'Municipality' in 1854 by Ahmet Fetih Pasa, founder of modern museum science in the Ottoman empire. This was the year in which Istanbul, under the inspiration of similar sanitary regimes in European capitals, organized its first major reforms in urban administration and services. Fetih Pasa Korusu was given a major facelift in Bedrettin Dalan's mayoralty, when the central government, on its return to civilian hands, passed two pieces of legislation that had significant effects on the urban landscape of Istanbul. The restaurant and tea garden themselves are bordered with flowerbeds, while the blazing white timber walls of Ahmet Fetih Pasa's old residence are immaculately maintained. In Fetih Pasa Korusu by contrast there is a democratic opening up of space to sections of civil society previously excluded by the evolution of Turkish modernity.
