Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

were draconian, with thousands arrested, media outlets closed down and universities and schools purged. Unsurprisingly, tourist arrivals to the country plunged as a result of these events and the local economy collapsed. This and the ongoing government assaults on civil rights led to many Turks revising their wholehearted support for the AKP and President Erdoğan. In the 2019 Turkish local elections the AKP’s grasp on power was considerably weakened, with the party losing both İstanbul and Ankara. The author of many books about İstanbul, American-born academic John Freely arrived in the city in 1960 and spent decades exploring its historic neighbourhoods. His 1972 book Strolling Through İstanbul , which was written with Hilary Sumner-Boyd, is still in print and is essential reading for İstanbul-bound history and architecture buffs. However, the city’s newly elected mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu didn’t have an easy entry to office, with the validity of his initial electoral victory in March 2019 being questioned by the AKP. A reelection in June of that year saw his winning margin increase – a major setback for President Erdoğan, who was widely believed to have pushed for the reelection in a bid to retain the AKP’s power in the city. İstanbul’s third bridge over the Bosphorus, the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, opened in 2016. It is named after Sultan Selim I (r 1517–20), who acquired his nickname ‘Selim the Grim’ after dethroning his father Beyazıt II and ordering the deaths of his brothers and nephews to ensure his succession to the throne.

TIMELINE 1000 BC

Thracian tribes found the settlements of Lygos and Semistra; Plinius mentions the founding of Semistra in his histories and traces of Lygos remain near Seraglio Point.