ISTANBUL — Lying off Istanbul’s Asian shore is the picturesque island of Buyukada, the largest of the nine Princes’ Islands and a rare oasis of tranquility in the bustling city. A Macedonian king is said to have buried treasure there and Byzantine empresses were exiled on Buyukada. In more recent times, it was a flashpoint in the 1955 pogrom against Istanbul’s Greek and Armenian minorities that forced thousands to emigrate. The mansions the emigrants left behind are today motels and pensions, attracting both local and foreign tourists, especially Arabs in recent days. Nestled on the island’s highest point is the ancient Agia Yorgi Church and Monastery, overlooking a coastline dotted with fish restaurants and ice-cream parlors. A favorite destination for day trips, Buyukada offers some of the few natural beaches that remain good for swimming in Istanbul today.
The island’s most enduring hallmark, however, is the ban on motor vehicles, which means that both locals and visitors rely on bicycles and horse-drawn carriages to move around the island's little more than 5 square kilometers (3 square miles). The colorful coaches, decorated with beads and bells, are perhaps the island’s most recognizable fixtures.
Yet, this environment-friendly, idyllic facade obscures a world of torment for the horses. In what has become almost routine, the arrival of the summer season is accompanied by animal rights campaigns. The latest one, launched on the petition site Change.org, denounces the "season of death" for horses.
For campaigner Gokcen Kilinc, the treatment of the horses amounts to cruelty that must be stopped. She claims the horses are deprived of adequate drinking water to keep them from urinating frequently, and their harness sores are left untreated. Others claim that crippled or sick horses are abandoned. Kilinc points to an incident in which a mare died following two days of agony after giving birth. Alleged footage of the incident was posted to YouTube by an animal rights group. Other videos show a horse fainting from exhaustion and another left to die.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
