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ABSTRACT
Contemporary challenges in world politics, technology, economics, and social structures made suppliers of news significant for the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. To preserve the Empire, policies that promoted centralization were pursued for decades. Improving transportation and communication systems was part of this centralization policy. However, because these technologies arrived in the Empire several years after its European counterparts founded, established, and extended these systems, it became dependent on foreign news agencies for supplying news. Finding their news biased and in favor of their home governments, Ottoman statesmen first tried to win them over by means of allowances and privileges, but enjoyed little success. As a result, the Empire founded the Ottoman Telegraph Agency. This article attempts to contribute to Ottoman press history by examining the creation of that agency.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on contributor
Ceren Uçan is a Research Assistant at Dokuz Eylul University. She holds a PhD in History from Bilkent University. She received her MA in Political Science in 2010 at the University of Toronto. She has a BA from Bilkent University and a BSc from the State University of New York at Binghamton in Global and International Affairs.
Notes
1 Nalbach, “Ring Combination,” 6. The names of the news agencies changed throughout the period in question. The conventional shorthand usage, as explained in Nalbach will be taken into account: ‘Havas’ for the Agence Havas, ‘Reuters’ (although the firm name retained the apostrophe until 1984) for Reuter’s Telegram Company (Limited), and either ‘Wolff’s’ or ‘the Continental’ (after 1865) for Wolff’s Telegraphisches-Bureau-Continental Telegraphen-Compagnie.
2 Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen, “The Globalization of News,” 1. Boyd-Barrett and Rantanen refer to news as a commodity to collect and distribute.
3 Koloğlu, Havas-Reuter’den.
4 Koloğlu, Osmanlı Döneminde.
5 Koloğlu, Osmanlı’dan 21. Yüzyıla.
6 Boyd-Barrett, “Global News Agencies,” 26.
7 Rantanen, “Struggle for Control,” 35.
8 Thussu, International Communication, 20.
9 Ibid.
10 Storey, Reuters’ Century, 8.
11 Silberstein-Loeb, International Distribution, 199.
12 Fenby, International News, 35–51.
13 Koloğlu, Havas-Reuter'den, 9.
14 Board Meeting Minutes, 17 November 1869, from the Minute Book (1868–1872), 1/883502, LN 288, Reuters Archive.
15 Storey, Reuters’ Century, 94.
16 Nalbach, “Ring Combination,” 190.
17 Ibid., 204.
18 Ibid.
19 Read, Power of News, 31.
20 Nalbach, “Ring Combination,” 203.
21 Ibid., 320.
22 Ibid., 321.
23 Ibid., 558.
24 Nalbach discusses in “Ring Combination,” cooperation and competition between the major news agencies of the nineteenth century. He claims that they were eager to offer their services to governments in exchange for certain privileges, and usually news agency representatives approached the governments. For further information, see also, Nalbach, “Poisoned at the Source?”
25 The National Archives, HD 3/97 (26 July 1894); Reuters Archive, Agreement with the Japanese government, LN 238, 1/8714059 (26 July 1894); Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (hereafter BOA), Y.PRK. BŞK., 39/61, 3 Ş 1312 (29 January 1895).
26 For further information on stockholders’ investments and their relations with governments, see also, Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain; Nalbach “Poisoned at the Source?”; Uçan, “Tale of Two Railways”; and Uçan, “News Agencies.”
27 Kırlı, Sultan ve Kamuoyu, 13–25.
28 Rabinow, ed., Foucault Reader, 242. In an interview Foucault stated:
What was discovered at that time and this was one of the great discoveries of political thought at the end of the eighteenth century was the idea of society. That is to say, that government not only has to deal with a territory, with a domain, and with its subjects, but that it also has to deal with a complex and independent reality that has its own laws and mechanisms of reaction, its regulations as well as its possibilities of disturbance. This new reality is society.
29 Baker, Inventing the French Revolution, 168.
Many studies of the idea of public opinion assume the existence of some corresponding social referent as a residual fact of common life in any society a kind of perpetual noise in the system which must in some way be taken account of, whether or not its existence if formally acknowledged by political actors or explicitly designated under the rubric of ‘public opinion.’ Others see it as a specific phenomenon of modern societies, brought into being by long-term changes in literacy, by the growth of capitalism and the commercial expansion of the press, by the bureaucratic transformation of particularistic social orders into more integrated national (and now international) communities. Without denying the importance of these latter developments, I wish to insist on the significance of public opinion as a political invention rather than as a sociological function.
30 Deringil, Well-Protected Domains, 172.
31 Davison, Nineteenth Century Ottoman Diplomacy, 351–56.
32 Deringil, Well-Protected Domains, 353.
33 Deringil, “II. Abdülhamid döneminde Osmanlı,” 149–62.
34 Karpat and Zens, “I. Meşrutiyet Dönemi,” 286–87.
35 Gladstone, Bulgarian Horrors, 12.
36 Zürcher, A Modern History, 83.
37 BOA (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi), HR.SFR.3, 260/52 (26 February 1878).
38 BOA, HR.SFR.3, 262/41 (2 December 1878).
39 BOA, Y.EE., 43/152 (29 S 1300/9 January 1883).
40 BOA, YPRK.TKM., 13/8 (29 Z 1305/6 September 1883).
41 BOA, BEO, 3625/211851 (30 B 1327/17 August 1909).
42 Nalbach, “Ring Combination,” 317.
43 BOA, Y.PRK. BŞK., 39/61 (03 Ş 1312/29 January 1895).
44 BOA, HR. ID., 1699/59 (17 April 1878).
45 BOA, HR. ID., 1699/61 (19 July 1878).
46 BOA, HR.ID., 1699/59 (17 April 1878).
47 BOA, BEO., 2178/163311 (4 B 1321/26 September 1903).
48 BOA, HR. SFR 3., 586/60 (27 December 1908).
49 BOA, Y.EE., 41/162 (6 R 1327/27 April 1909).
50 Salih Gürcü was referred as ‘Gürcü’ or ‘Gourdji’ in Ottoman documents and ‘Gourji,’ ‘Gurji’ or ‘Gourdji’ in British documents. To retain consistency, he will be referred as Salih Gürcü throughout the article, unless his name appears direct quote from a primary source in English or French.
51 BOA, BEO. 3625/271851 (30 B 1327/17 August 1909).
52 BOA, BEO, 3625/271851 (30 B 1327/17 August 1909).
53 BOA, BEO, 3717/278740 (29 S 1328/12 March 1910).
54 BOA, HR.ID., 1700/32 (14 August 1909).
55 Yeni Asır, “Osmanlı Telgraf Ajansı,” no. 1662, Şu’ûn-I Muhtelife (6 September 1909).
56 BOA, HR.SFR.4, 841/89 (25 November 1909).
57 BOA, HR.ID., 1700/32 (14 August 1909).
58 Il nous revient que l'agence télégraphique ottomane, nouvellement fondée a adressé une circulaire à la plupart de nos Représentants à l'étranger, pour leur faire diverses propositions. La façon doute la circulaire est rédigée, prête à cette agence un caractère officieux.
Je suis à préciser, pour votre gouverne, que l'agence ottomane n'a aucenne attache avec le gouvernement. Désireux de favoriser les entreprises indigènes nous nous sommes fornés à lui accorder des réductions sur la taxe télégraphique. Mais l’agence Ottomane n’est pas plus officielle un officieuse que les autres bureaux similaires établis eu Turquie.
59 BOA, HR.SFR.4, 841/89 (19 October 1909).
60 BOA, DH. ID, 79/ 3 (7 Za 1328/10 November 1910).
61 BOA, DH. ID, 79/ 3 (7 Za 1328/10 November 1910).
62 Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Ceridesi. Devre:1, Cilt: 5, İçtima Senesi:3, İnikad: 72, 22.03. 1327.
63 BOA, MV., 147/1 (4 Z 1328/7 December 1910).
64 Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Ceridesi. Devre:1, Cilt: 5, İçtima Senesi:3, İnikad: 85, 12.04. 1327, 525–26.
65 P.P.G. Intelligence Department Cairo to Arthur Henry McMahon, 14 January 1916, FO 371/2492, file no: 191093, no: 191093, 14 December 1915, NA.
66 BOA, BEO., 4332/324854 (27 S 1333/14 January 1915).
67 BOA, BEO., 4344/325785 (2 Ca 1333/17 April 1915).
68 BOA, BEO., 4332/324854 (27 S 1333/14 January 1915).
69 BOA, BEO., 2886/216385 (15 C 1324/7 July 1906).