Eczacıbaşı Istanbul is a Turkish volleyball club which is playing their home matches at the Eczacıbaşı Spor Salonu hall in Istanbul. The team participated in the Women's CEV Champions League 2007-08. Their name in the original language means "Head Pharmacist". The Eczacıbaşı Women’s Volleyball Team’s international achievements have set an example for Turkish volleyball and contributed to the success of the Turkish National Women’s Volleyball Team. With its systematic and modern approach to the sport and close to 40 years experience, Eczacıbaşı is one of the most highly respected sports clubs in Turkey.

The Eczacıbaşı Sports Club gives priority to finding and training internationally competitive new talent and to using all scientific means available to the discipline to achieve its goals.

The Eczacıbaşı Women’s Volleyball Team has won more national championships than any other women’s volleyball team in Turkey, with 27 Turkish League Championships under its belt since it entered the league in 1968. In the 1972-1973 season, the Team began to set its first record of consecutive wins, winning 17 Turkish League Championship in a row. It repeated this performance another five years between 1999 and 2003, when it also won five Turkish Cups.

Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) is the largest city in Turkey, forming the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population of 13.4 million, the city is at the center of the second-largest urban area in Europe after Moscow, and among the world's largest cities by population within city limits. Istanbul's vast area of 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi) is coterminous with Istanbul Province, of which the city is considered capital. Straddling the Bosphorus—one of the world's busiest waterways—in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, Istanbul is a transcontinental city, with one third of its population living in Asia but its commercial and historical center in Europe.

Founded around 660 BC as Byzantium on the Seraglio Point, the city now known as Istanbul developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. For nearly sixteen centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 AD, it served as the capital of four empires — the late classical Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold from which the last caliphate ruled. Although the Republic of Turkey established its capital elsewhere, in Ankara, remnants of Istanbul's previous central role still remain highly visible across the city, with palaces and imperial mosques lining its hills.

Bülent Eczacıbaşı (born 1949) is a Turkish wealthy businessman. Currently, he is the chairman of Eczacıbaşı Holding, a prominent Turkish industrial group with investments in pharmaceuticals, personal care products, consumer products, building products and financial services.

He was born in 1949 to Nejat Eczacıbaşı (1913–1993), founder of the Eczacıbaşı group of companies, and his wife Fatma Beyhan (née Ergene) (1923–2004) in Istanbul. He has a younger brother Faruk, who was born in 1954.

Bülent Eczacıbaşı graduated from the University of London (Imperial College of Science and Technology) following his education at the Deutsche Schule Istanbul. He obtained his master's degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After initiating his professional career in 1974 in Eczacıbaşı Holding, Bülent Eczacıbaşı held a variety of management positions in Eczacıbaşı Group companies.

Bülent Eczacıbaşı served in a large number of civic associations, including TÜSIAD, the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, where he was chairman of the board (1991–1993) and chairman of the high advisory council (1997–2001). He was also founding chairman of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) (1993–1997) and chairman of the board of the Turkish Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers' Association (2000–2008).