The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery, Istanbul’s main international burial ground, celebrated WDEC 2025 on May 28 with a guided tour, speeches, and the planting of a “peace tree.”
About the Event
To mark WDEC 2025 and highlight the spirit of international understanding and unity that has characterized the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery since its founding in 1859, an olive tree (a symbol of peace since ancient times) was planted in front of the chapel on May 28, 2025. Embodying the motto of ASCE’s Peace Tree Project, “Live in peace to rest in peace,” the tree is now a permanent reminder for cemetery visitors of the need for empathy and accord to counter aggression and foster just, harmonious societies that bind humanity rather than divide it. This was the first time the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery participated in WDEC, and the tree planting made it especially meaningful and memorable.
The event began with a guided tour of the cemetery lead by Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative members Fokke Gerritsen (Netherlands Institute in Turkey) and Brian Johnson (American Research Institute in Turkey). Speeches by Consul General of The Netherlands Arjen Uijterlinde and President of the Governing Board of the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Sebastiaan Kuipers followed, after which the tree was ceremoniously planted. A dedication plaque will be added later. The celebration concluded with a refreshments for the roughly forty guests, including members of the foreign diplomatic corps and cemetery friends and supporters.
Brian Johnson describes the gravestones of Monument Row, some of the oldest in the cemetery, which date from the early 1600s to the mid 1800s
Fokke Gerritsen speaks about some of the prominent people commemorated on the Dutch Memorial, whose names testify to the historic presence of the Netherlands in the Ottoman Empire from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries
2025 Governing Board President Sebastiaan Kuipers officially dedicates the Peace Tree (left)
Consul General of The Netherlands Arjen Uijterlinde addresses the audience by the Peace Tree
2024 Governing Board President Marc Seemann (Vice-Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany) shovels the first soil on the Peace Tree
The Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Peace Tree
About the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery
Founded in 1859, the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery is the principal burial place for Istanbul’s foreign Protestant and otherwise non-Catholic or Orthodox dead. It is managed by a governing board comprised of the consulates-general of Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Switzerland, and the USA. The board is assisted in its administrative task by the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative, a scholarly working group affiliated with six Turkey-based international research centers, including the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Netherlands Institute in Turkey, the Orient-Institut Istanbul, the Hungarian Cultural Center, the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, and the British Institute at Ankara.
Additional information
Further details about the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery and its history and administration can be found on its ASCE webpage and on the website of the Feriköy Protestant Cemetery Initiative. Inquiries about the Initiative and its projects can be sent to info@ferikoycemetery.org.
