[4] That same year the constructions had been finished, on 4 October 2007, a fire broke out in a kitchen chimney and burnt down two restaurants and damaged four other premises on the islet.

In 1872, Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz (reigned 1861–1876) granted the islet to the Ottoman-Armenian court architect Sarkis Balyan (1835–1899), who erected a three-story house on it as his own residence.

In 1874, during one of his several visits to Istanbul, Russian-Armenian painter Ivan Aivazovsky stayed in the mansion of Sarkis on the islet, and made here a number of paintings commissioned by the sultan for the Dolmabahçe Palace.

[3] Called as the "Sarkis Bey Islet" during his lifetime, it was rented out by his legal heirs after the World War I to "Şirket-i Hayriye", the company operating passenger ferries in Istanbul, and was used for a long time as a coal depot.

[3] The swimming pool on the islet served home to the water polo team from 1957 to 1968.