About MersinHISTORY OF MERSİN
| 
| 
HISTORY OF MERSİN
“You are like the feather on heron’s head smiling to the sun on the slopes of Tauros mountains MERSİN, beautiful aroma of the oreastels are admired by the visitors. Mersin will take its place in the world with its developing trade and miraculous lands.” Madame Arthus 1917.
A EUROPEAN CITY IN EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN 100 YEARS AGO……..
Being considered as one of the youngest cities of Anatolia with its 150 years of history, along with its old district names during the Otoman Era such as “Lazkiye District”, “Frenk District”, “Giritli District”, “Christian Village District” with foreign origin names, presence of Turkish districts such as “Medrese District”, “Çardak District”, “Yeni Köy District” are symbols of communal integration whereas buildings, institutions and avenues such as “atarlar Market”, “Bezirgan Market”, “Moskow Market”, “Tahtalı Han”, “Orozdibak”, “Customs Square”, “Traders’ Han”, “ Stone Han”, “New Han”, “Bedesten”, “Port”, “Train Station”, “Telegraph Office”, “Post Office”, “Consulate”, “Bank”, “Customs”, Chamber of Commerce” are the most characteristic symbols of the port city of Mersin’s commercial life. Where the civil servants of the city such as the District Governor, Commander, Chief of Port , Chief of Court were Turks, for instance, during 1884-1885 non-muslim Otoman citizens such as Misters Nesim and Cord in the Accounting Secretarariat, Mister Agop in the Justice Secretariat, Bodos’s sons Dimetraki and Yuvanaki in Ziraat Bank, Mister Banus in the Municipal Council, Quarantine doctor Amadya, Fatulu in the Telegraph Office were serving.
Mersin was one of the
Otoman cities that first and best realized the value of the reforms and reconstructions in every field which began with the administrative Reform Charter of 1839. Smart and diligent people of East Mediterranean directed their attention to the Mediterranean. In a short time they created a brand new city with tidy streets, planned as checkers board where church bells, synagoge rites, calls for prayer were heard; beautiful buildings with Marseilles bricket roofs, walls with cut Stones congruous with “Ebniye Regulation”, different from the Anatolian cities. They were leading a happy, dinamic European life with people who talked almost every language at train station, on street car, horse carriage and in cafes; with businessmen in white silk, linen and fabric suits going back and forth with eager steps between ship brokers, banks and business concerns ; carriages and caravans passing through barrels and cases, woven sacks, cotton bales piled on the docks.
As it is written in the section of the book about Mersin Port, agricultural restoration in “Çukurova” by Egyptian İbrahim Paşa in 1832 later continued under the “Fırkai Reformation” program of the Otoman administration. On the other side, as the result of political and economic factores such as North American Civil War, construction of the Suez Canal and Crimean War which emerged in the world, small business firms and piers were established on the shores of Mersin which was composed of fishermen’s shelters. These were the first stirrings of development process called as “Hug Metropole” by Semihi Vural.
Due to some leasing and demands for structuring on the shores, when these stirrings were acknowledged by İstanbul, although late, an interesting situation came about. In amandate sent to Governorship of adana in 1855 it said: “ There is no record about Mersin pier and village in the Big Journal of İstanbul and it could not be determined whether it is included in a foundation or a region.” However, when the fast developments in this village were observed, Mersin was made “Valide Sultan Foundation” by a mandate of Sultan Abdulmecid the same year.
After the signing of Free Trade agreement with the Western european countries and the “Restoration Mandate” foreign capital was permitted to enter the Empire and privileges and conveniences were granted to non-muslim citizens and the foreign traders and businessmen who were called Levantin. This was especially effective fort he development of the sea side cities.
Cities such as Salonika, İstanbul, İzmir, Trabzon, İskenderun and Mersin turned into cosmopolitan metropoles of rich collection and distribution, where variety of handicrafts and industrial raw materials, agricultural products coming from the near-by hinterland sources were exported, industrial products of the Western Europe imported.
Mersin, by showing a unique performance in urbanism in the 19th century, as if coming into existence from scratch, became one of the prominent port cities of Eastern Mediterranen in a short period as 30 years.