The remains of human skulls and other bones were found during reconstruction at Taksim Square in central Istanbul. As reports Haberler.com, it is assumed that the bones are the bones of Armenians since there used to be an Armenian cemetery there until 1939, writes ermenihaber.am.

The Turkish website cites Armenian sources and emphasizes the fact that the territory of the cemetery was granted to the Armenian community thanks to Manouk Karaseferian, who was the chef for Sultan Suleyman from Van and had once saved the sultan from being poisoned.

In 1853, by the decree of Sultan Abdul, a stone gate was built around the Armenian cemetery.  Later, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia (Italy) purchased some land parcels in the Taksim area and buried their soldiers who had died in the Crimean War.

The cholera epidemic that began in Istanbul in 1865 also spread to not only the Armenians, but also to some members of the royalty. For that reason, the burial of the deceased at the Armenian cemetery located near the palace designed for the winter had already been prohibited. A land parcel in the not too densely populated Shishli District of Istanbul had been allocated for the cemetery of the Armenians and the Greeks, and that cemetery exists to this day.

A part of the area of the Armenian cemetery of Taksim was seized by the order of Sultan Abdul Aziz during renovation in 1870. The territory was entirely alienated in 1939. In 1940, the governor/mayor of Istanbul Lutfi Kirdar approved the plan to build several apartment buildings in the modern-day Gezi Park and in the territory of Taksim in place of the cemetery.