1871 | Moliere at the Ghedik Pasha Theater

Mavi Boncuk | 1871 | Moliere at the Theatre at Ghedik Pasha, converted by Hagop Vartovyan (Güllü Agop)[1] in 1867 from the Ghedik Pasha circus as a theater and performed plays in Turkish. clipping from: The Athenæum: a journal of literature, science, the fine arts, music, and ...No. 2282 | July 22, 1871.


 [1] Agop Vartovyan, better known as Güllü Agop, (took later the name Yakub), (1840, Istanbul - 1902, Istanbul) was an Ottoman Armenian theatre director as well as an occasional actor. He is widely credited with having laid the bases for Turkey's modern and nationally renowned performing arts institution that became İstanbul City Theatres (İstanbul Şehir Tiyatroları). In his qualities of organizer, sponsor and figure of support for writers and spectators, Güllü Agop is one of the 19th century pioneers of the Turkish theatre art as a whole. He was accepted founder of modern Turkish Theatre. Vartovyan was born in 1840 in Istanbul with the name Agop Vartovyan to Armenian parents. "Güllü Agop" (literally Jacob the Rosy) was the name under which he had come to be known in the world of theatre. He converted to Islam in his forties and took the name "Yakub".

Read: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Ermeni ve Türk Tiyatrolarının Kuruluşu’nun Tarihi  | Türk Tiyatrosu’nun 140. Kuruluş Yıldönümü Vesilesiyle | Anna Aleksanyan Ermeni Soykırım Müzesi ve Enstitüsü’nde araştırmacıdır