The head of the municipality was in a meeting with the council members. Members took the floor and expressed their opinions. An opposition member had spoken:

There is a shopping mall almost everywhere in Istanbul. There is no shopping mall in our neighborhood.

The word was in another member:

-I agree with my friend. Modern buildings should be built in our district. Businesses should open. In this regard, if necessary, the bosses of large organizations should be consulted. Okay, around the park, garden, flower and bug… But…

The mayor turned to the opposition member and said:

I'm sorry I can't join you guys. Do any of you know about Mehmed Hayri Pasha?

There was a silence… The President said a few more sentences as if giving a clue:

-He is from Thessaloniki… He was the Thessaloniki Consul General in the first years of the Republic.

The head of the opposition member warned:

-Don't test us, President… What do you mean, tell me!

-Well, said the president…

And he counted the green areas in the city one by one…

– All eyes on the areas that add beauty and aesthetics to the city and breathe; in parks and gardens… You want to remove a few of them and plant a shopping mall instead. But on your behalf, I'm sorry to say that these places are all foundation land… You can't even hit a pickaxe.

-What? Is it the foundation? Whose foundation?

-Here is the foundation founded by Mehmed Hayri Pasha, whose name none of you know, and which preserves the aesthetics of this city…

Do you know what this rich Ottoman diplomat did? He donated his lands and buildings in Istanbul in Hijri 1321 (Gregorian 1903) so that the views of historical mosques would not be interrupted, to add beauty to the city and to serve his fellow citizens. So that the people can relieve the tiredness and boredom of the day and their desire to rest on the weekends: so that they have a place where they can get fresh air and stay away from stress and hustle and bustle… At the same time, so that the city can breathe… These lands are the lands he dedicated to this city for this purpose. Whether you like it or not, you can never do anything else here…