New walking tour app spotlights multicultural Istanbul

Going beyond well-trodden hotspots, a new smartphone app will help visitors to Turkey's largest city discover the metropolis' rich multicultural legacy through guided walking tours.

The app, called KarDes ("kardesh") -- meaning "map" in Armenian and "sibling" in Turkish -- was launched last week by the Istanbul-based Hrant Dink Foundation.

The app was designed as a personal tour guide in both Turkish and English, allowing users to learn more about the 15 million-strong city's history through curated walking tours, each lasting for around two hours.

Behind KarDes is a trio of energetic twentysomethings: Narod Avcı, the project coordinator; Rudi Sayat Pulatyan, the research coordinator; and Atom Saskal, the project editor.

The group worked for over a year to make the project a reality, and with evident success: Since it went live on Jan. 9, the free app has already been downloaded by over 7,000 people.

KarDes took its inspiration from the earlier Turkey Cultural Heritage Map, an online map of Turkey's Armenian, Greek, Syriac, and Jewish cultural heritage, Pulatyan said at the foundation building, which also hosts Agos, a Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper.

The Hrant Dink Foundation was founded to honor Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink -- the founder and editor of Agos -- after he was shot dead on an Istanbul street in 2007.

"When we decided to work on KarDes, we wanted to make an Istanbul-focused project," Pulatyan said.

The app currently features 12 walking tours with nearly 900 sites including local mosques, synagogues, schools, and cemeteries.

Istanbul's minority population fell significantly after the first half of the 20th century. The year 1915 saw mass relocations, which then-Prime Minister...