This is the official name of the island Yassıada (Flat Island) since 2013 - the Island of Democracy and Freedom. Originally called Plati (Platos - "flat"). The most mysterious of all the islands due to the abundance of ruins of ancient temples and churches. Part of the underground dungeons, which were used as prisons, warehouses, and cisterns, have been preserved on the island to this day. It was from here that the practice of exiling particularly important persons of the empire began. Thus, one of the first prisoners of the island (second half of the 4th century) was one of the founders of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Nerses I the Great, who was exiled to the island by the Roman Emperor Valens because the patriarch condemned him for his adherence to Arianism. From 813 to 844, Michael I, deposed by Leo V, lived in captivity on Plati with his sons Eustratius and Niketas (the future Patriarch Ignatius). Leo V himself was killed in 820 by Michael Amorian, who inherited the throne as Michael II. Michael then exiled Leo's widow, Theodosia, and her four children to the monastery of Panagia, or the Holy Virgin, on the island of Proti, where the remains of the deposed emperor were buried.
“And when Leo entered the city, Michael, together with his wife and children, cut his hair and went to the sanctuary called Pharos… to pray for the favor of the new king. And he decided that it was not right to tear Michael away from God and deprive him of life, and therefore sent him into exile on the island of Plat, ordered him to live there unnoticed, and provided annual monetary payments. It is said that there he took monastic vows, received the name Athanasius, and lived for another thirty-two years. With him were his son Eustratius, who was tonsured and castrated by Leo’s order at the age of 20, and Niketas, who, even as a boy, commanded the ikanates (he sought friendship with warriors and those who lived outdoors and were experienced in many matters), and who also took monastic vows, was called Ignatius, spent his days with his father, and became devoted to monastic life. But Leo took away his wife, separated her, and moved her to the monastery of Prokopios, although Michael fervently begged not to do so. Michael passed away on January 11, 6032 (Byzantine calendar), left his remains on the same island, and was buried on the right side of the church. Eustratius lived for another 5 years after his father’s death, died on January 15, 6037, and was laid to rest on the left side of the church. Ignatius, formerly called Niketas, having attained the rank of bishop of Constantinople, much later buried his holy body in the monastery of Satira, which he himself had recently founded from scratch.”
The Princes' Islands also played a special role in the fate of another Patriarch of Constantinople, Ignatius. He was castrated and became a monk at the age of 14. Here he launched vigorous activity: “The Princes' Islands Platia, Yatros, and Terevinf were inhabited under his care and filled with God's temples and monastic dwellings.”
Having spent 33 years in monasteries, on July 4, 847, he was elevated to the throne of the Patriarch of Constantinople by the holy Empress Theodora as a steadfast fighter against iconoclasm.
In 1960-1961, a series of trials took place on the island, including that of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Adnan Menderes, and his cabinet ministers, who were overthrown as a result of a military coup. The political figures were sentenced to death, and the intercession of world leaders did not help them, so in memory of this unjust event, the island was renamed in such an unusual way.
