Kemal Sunal Museum opens

İmamoğlu said, "I would like to thank Sunay Akın in your presence, who first brought this idea to me and led me to welcome it with excitement. He said to me, 'There is something like this.' Of course, I welcomed it with excitement. Then we came together, and something interesting happened. These topics were discussed, and then we met. Thank you to him; we went there for a meal, but Gül sister sent us off with only coffee," he expressed.

Following this statement, Kemal Sunal's wife, Gül Sunal, said, "I fed you ice cream."

İmamoğlu replied, "I don't remember. We are talking about a meal, and she is going to send us off with ice cream. Anyway..."

Explaining that he was talking about the museum building in the Kadıköy district, İmamoğlu said, "While talking, I also mentioned such a building here. It turns out that the park and the building I was describing were actually the late Kemal Sunal's home; it's fate. My mother says, 'May God always have you cross paths with good people.' It means Kemal Sunal is a good man, and I am a good man. We found each other and addressed each other like this."

Sharing his memory about the district, İmamoğlu said, "I also grew up here. I actually spent 5-6 years of my life in Göztepe. Then, when my wife convinced me to get married, we got married out of necessity."

GÜL SUNAL: KEMAL SUNAL THOUGHT OF THIS MUSEUM

Kemal Sunal's wife, Gül Sunal, also said in her speech, "I don't know what to say. I didn't prepare a speech, of course. I just want to applaud Kemal. I am always grateful for making us experience this beautiful feeling and pride. Of course, we always thought about this museum. Or rather, Kemal thought about it. When I asked, 'What will happen to these belongings?', he would say, 'Maybe one day it will be a museum.' Mayor Ekrem has now realized that museum."

Thanking Sunay Akın as well, Sunal said, "And Sunay Akın, whose efforts I can never repay... I have a completely different sense of gratitude towards him for thinking of this and bringing it together with you in such a place. These are 1/10th of the belongings of Kemal that you see here. From the first day he started acting, his beard, his mustache, the makeup he applied to his face, his eyebrow pencil... This is the archive he kept while he couldn't even imagine becoming famous. It is very valuable to him."

"This will be an exhibition where we see how a person values their work, their life, their art, their family, and their homeland, rather than just a Kemal Sunal Museum," said Sunal, adding, "If a person values themselves this much, keeps everything they do with care, and determines their own importance—which is what happened—then we also care about Kemal very much, and we gathered here for him. Thank you very much again."

Following the speeches, İBB Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Kadıköy Mayor Şerdil Dara Odabaşı, Kemal Sunal's wife Gül Sunal, their children Ali and Ezo Sunal, his siblings Cemil and Cengiz Sunal, and those accompanying them cut the ribbon and toured the museum.

In the museum, many items belonging to the artist, who passed away in 2000, are on display, ranging from film posters to personal belongings, costumes he wore, and special mementos.