Güzel İstanbul
On the night of 18 March 1974, nine days after its installation, Güzel İstanbul was removed from Karaköy Square. In a midnight intervention, the sculpture was broken off its base and damaged: its arm was broken off. It was removed from the park and placed on a pile of sand near the Kumkapı municipal construction site. The front page of the newspaper Milliyet showed a photograph of people standing on top of the empty plinth on the night the sculpture was removed, as well as the rubble resulting from the plinth's destruction. An article in the newspaper Sabah stated the goal of their campaign to have the sculpture removed had been accomplished. This was countered by articles in the newspapers Milliyet and Cumhuriyet, which described the sculpture's right to remain as a necessity for democracy.