Foreign Ministry and Its Peculiar Position in General Administration of Ottoman Empire in the Era of Reforms (1836-1871)

Abstract

With the importance of the use of diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, Foreign Ministry gained an effective position in the state administration. This prominence had a direct impact on implementation of reforms at larger scale which was the general characteristics of the era. Therefore, Foreign Ministry stood out among the other institutions of the state due to some of its characteristics and bureaucrats from Foreign Ministry undertook important state duties. This article focuses on the reasons of Foreign Ministry playing a more active role than other institutions during Ottoman Empire’s era of modernization in the 19th century. As a result, the accuracy of the claim that the Foreign Ministry had a superior role in the 19th century Turkish public administration due to certain qualities it possesses; has been explained in details by using archive documents, the sources of the period and literature review.