Osmanlı Devleti’nde İletişim Araçlarının Kontrolü: “Telefon Tevkifleri”

Abstract

An important technological advance of the nineteenth century, the telephone, spread throughout the world following its invention in 1875. Patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, it was introduced in the Ottoman Empire in 1881 during Abdulhamid II’s reign. The Ottomans’ experience with the device was rather short: It was prohibited because of possible clandestine uses. Devices arriving in Ottoman harbours were seized and stored. However, the illegal import of the telephones could not be prevented because of increasing demands. The liberalistic policies of the Second Constitution that extended privileges to foreign companies, encouraged its use. Istanbul had the largest telephone network but its use was limited in Izmir, Aydin and other Anatolian cities. From its introduction to its free use in 1908, a large amount of literature appeared in popular periodicals. Telephone-related issues were discussed in many bureaucratic documents which witnessed its delayed adoption in the Empire, compared to developed countries of the time.