The Yakut Turks (Sakha) migrated northward across Lake Baikal in Siberia during the 13th-14th centuries following the Mongol-Buryat raids. They have preserved the ancient Turkish culture, clothing, and lifestyle until today. The Sakha language, a classical Altaic language, contains no Arabic or Persian words, with few exceptions. The Yakut Turks have adopted a combination of Orthodox Church, Shamanistic, and Tengrist beliefs. Turkish mythology and mysticism include concepts and gods on which these beliefs are based. The Yakuts, who are distant from the concepts of heaven and hell, believe that spirits wander around their former lands and will disturb people. They believed that spirits had a material existence and resided in a place, and that the spirits of their great ancestors existed eternally either on earth or in the upper sky. According to the Yakuts, these spirits have friendly or hostile relationships with humans. The gods regulate the relationships among all of them.

One of these gods is Kailyn. For the Yakut Turks, Kailyn is the goddess of forests and joy, as well as the god of kings and queens.

A branch of the Yakut Turks settled in Crimea and the Caucasus in the 1600s, fleeing Russian persecution. Following the Ottoman-Russian Crimean War after 1850and the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War, Yakut Turks migrated to Ottoman territories along with Crimean Turks and Tatars. Some of the Yakut Turks who settled in the Balıkesir region came near Kocaeli and engaged in farming and animal husbandry.

Şerif Ali, who was part of this community, came to the region where we are today with his wife and established his own farm on hilly but water-rich land. Şerif Ali, who wanted to make a living by taking his animals and products to Istanbul, also gave his name to our region. A patriotic hero who fought in Çanakkale, Şerif Ali was a helpful, hardworking, and cheerful person full of love for nature, animals, and children. He would open his table to those in need and enjoyed telling educational stories to those around him.

The stories passed down from his ancestors to him and from him to his children told of the forests, lands, waters, and heroes of the Yakut Turks. In these stories, the name of Kailyn, the god of kings and queens who protected the forests and forest creatures and brought joy to people’s hearts, was frequently mentioned.

Today, although our forests have diminished, as The Kailyn Hotels & Suites Ataşehir, which opened its doors in 2023, we aim to bring joy and peace to our environment and our guests’ hearts while preserving Şerif Ali’s legacy.

Additionally, we are here to keep alive the memory of Şerif Ali, along with all known and unknown heroes, especially Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, by supporting projects that preserve the historical heritage, particularly related to the Çanakkale War and the War of Independence.