Hotel Tokatlıyan was built by Armenian Mıgırdiç Tokatlıyan in 1897. The hotel was in competition with Pera Palace for the passengers of the Orient Express which would transport Europe's elite to Istanbul.
Leon Trotsky was one of the famous visitors of the hotel. As a result of their exile, Trotsky and his wife Natalya Sedova arrived to the city on February 1929. After their time in the embassy, they have moved to the Tokatlıyan Hotel down the street. Later, the family continued their exile in the island of Büyükada.
