ANKARA, November 1. /TASS/. An Istanbul court has ruled to transfer ownership of a historic Bosphorus mansion to the descendants of a Russian Empire diplomat who purchased it in 1868, following a 17-year legal dispute, the Sabah newspaper reported.
According to the publication, Nikolay Isvechin, an employee of the Russian Embassy, acquired the mansion and the surrounding 10-hectare estate from a French family. For a time, the building served as an office for the Russian diplomatic mission. The property’s current value is estimated at around $1.5 billion.
The lawsuit involved the Turkish Treasury, the Directorate General of Foundations, the Russian government, and the diplomat’s heirs. After examining property records, official decrees, diplomatic correspondence, and international law, the court dismissed the claims of both the Turkish and Russian sides and ruled in favor of Isvechin’s descendants.
The dispute over ownership dates back to the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, when the property’s legal status was called into question. Following the death of Nicholas II, the Ottoman sultan issued a decree and a court ruling allowing the mansion to be leased to Russia, though the property was never officially registered as belonging to the state. A cadastral review in 1950 confirmed that the estate remained registered under Nikolay Isvechin’s name, thereby affirming his ownership. It was later discovered that Isvechin had descendants living in France.
According to a 2022 land survey, the mansion is to be inherited by three of Isvechin’s descendants. The newspaper, citing a certified family tree prepared by the French Genealogical Research Bureau, notes that Nikolay Isvechin was born in Russia in 1815 and died in Turkey in 1903. His wife, Yelizaveta Alexandrovna Pestel, predeceased him in 1877. Some of their children left no heirs, while the diplomat’s adopted son, Didier Leconte Isvechin, passed away in 2005. The court ruled that Didier’s three children are the rightful heirs to the estate.