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Entrepreneurial Spirit and Modernization of a Port City: The Case of Mersin

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Eastern Mediterranean Port Cities

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to divulge the role of entrepreneurial spirit as a source of underlying causal relations behind the modernization process in Mersin by focusing on the introduction of items of modern life into the city within a framework allowing for the recognition of multilevel and directional relations not only among actors but also between the actors and space. Parallel to the development of Mersin as a break-of-bulk point, the process of construction of technical infrastructure systems, the preparation of the first urban development plan for the city together with the development of daily life, the establishment of the entertainment facilities and the first hotels in the city are analyzed as the initiatives for the modernization of urban environment at different levels. What is evident from the paper is that although the items of modern life may be introduced to urban environment by the ruling group in a country from above, based on their entrepreneurial spirit the citizens and city administrators having regular connections to the other parts of world may also greatly contribute to the modernization of the built environment and social life in their city by their own initiatives from below.

This paper is based on two studies presented at the Colloquium series named as “Mersin in History”. The first one was conducted by Burak Beyhan and Selçuk Uğuz in 2002 (Beyhan and Uğuz 2002). The second one was conducted by Burak Beyhan in 2008 (Beyhan 2009).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In fact, high income group had two different houses differentiated according to the seasons of the year (Tekeli 1985, 883): One of these houses was located in the city center and generally accommodated in the winters. The other one was located outside the city and generally used in the summer.

  2. 2.

    Although some projects had been prepared to modernize the ports of Yumurtalık and Karataş, which were closer to Adana than Mersin, these projects were not approved by the state and the ports of Yumurtalık and Karataş were not renewed so as to make it possible for the ships to anchor near these ports (Dingeç 1998, 96). In addition to this, İskenderun, one of the most important port cities of Eastern Mediterranean, had also decreased in importance at the beginning of the 19th century. Thus, in many respects, the development of Mersin port was inevitable.

  3. 3.

    There were two important roads connecting Mersin to inland cities; one of these was linking Mersin to Tarsus, Adana and Kozan, and the other one was linking Mersin to Silifke (Dingeç 1998, 98, Çadırcı 1991, 300). At the beginning of the 20th century, a paved-road had also been constructed between Mersin and Karaman due to the increasing trade activities in the port. Nevertheless, road network serving to the port was not able to meet the increasing demand for transportation. It should also be noted that, as Çadırcı (1991, 300) argues, foreign investors did not choose to invest in the construction of roads because of the low profitability of them compared with other infrastructure investments such as railroads and ports.

  4. 4.

    As noted by Shorrock (1970, 135), French capitalist greatly invested in Turkish securities as such in 1902 they were operating five different railroads in the Ottoman Empire; Mudanya-Bursa, Mersin-Adana, Beirut-Damascus-Muzeirib, Jaffa-Jerusalem, and Izmir-Kasaba.

  5. 5.

    In 1890, 38,508 passengers and 36,612 tons of goods had been carried between Adana and Mersin viavia this rail-way. In 1891, the number of employees working for the routine operations and maintenance of the rail-way was 181 (Dingeç 1998, 98).

  6. 6.

    BOA. DH.MKT 364/40, (12 Şevvâl 1312/ April 8, 1895).

  7. 7.

    Municipality as a form of urban administration diffused firstly into the port cities of the Empire (Çadırcı 1991, 277; Tekeli 1980, 1985). The basic thrust behind the establishment of municipalities was to build technical infrastructure systems of the cities. However, these new municipalities were very poor in financial respects. As the foundations (Vakıf) were not tied to the control of municipalities, the coordination of the construction of urban infrastructures had become very difficult.

  8. 8.

    BOA. ŞD. 1201/9:1, (16 Kânûn-ı sânî 1309/ January 28, 1894).

  9. 9.

    For example, in August 1935, the Ministry of Health demonstrated a film about 13 different subjects (Yeni Mersin, August 8, 1935), and in July 1931, a film a about the preservation and package of vegetables and fruits was on for free to the farmers (Akın, June 4, 1931).

  10. 10.

    Kıraathane is a kind of café usually serving only coffee, tea or soft drinks.

  11. 11.

    Luxury hotels (such as Toros Hotel, Mersin Hotel and Türkmen Hotel) in Mersin during the 1960 s and 1970 s also served as entertainment places. Rahşan Gülşan (2006) mentions that there was a famous nightclub in Türkmen Hotel serving to the residents of the city, which confirms the expectation for the respective hotel. The pool of Türkmen Hotel was also actively entertained by the local residents during the 1970 s and 1980 s.

  12. 12.

    Yet, he noted that the customers of the hotel was mainly members of the upper or upper middle- class coming from Ankara, the capital city.

  13. 13.

    Although Vural (2009) places one of the hotels operated in Mersin at the center of his text, he does not provide us with at least the approximate period during which the respective hotel was operated. Yet, thanks to the directories (PTT 1965; MTSO 1967), we know that the respective hotel was being operated by Adem Safa Konak during the second half of the 1960 s. Nevertheless, the name of the hotel could not be found in the telephone directory published in 1983 (PTT 1983), which leads us to think that it went out business probably during the 1970 s.

  14. 14.

    It should also be re-emphasized that these hotels were rather pension type lodging places.

  15. 15.

    Parallel to the memoirs of Karçınzade, it is also important to note that although in the AOC published in 1900 Ziya Paşa Hotel is registered as a hotel run by Vrovithis, in the AOC published in 1895 there is no information about the respective hotel in spite of the fact that Vrovithis is again registered as a hotelier without any information about the hotel run by him (Cervati 1895), which leads us to think that Ziya Paşa Hotel was probably in operation during or before 1895.

  16. 16.

    Nazım Pasha becoming Mutasarrıf of Mersin in 1895 searched for financial resources in order to sustain the operation of the schools in Mersin and its environs. For this purpose, the administration of the schools was handed over from the foundations to a special commission. One of the most important achievements of the respective commission was the creation of new financial resources in order to pay the wages of the teachers and expenses made for the schools. The building of the Maarif Hotel and a pier was realized within this context in order to support the finance of the education in the area.

  17. 17.

    The book reports that there were “two large old limestone houses” in the place of Toros Hotel (O’Neill 2001, 18). The respective houses were built by Nader brothers in 1875 on Mersin’s main street. They “formed a single immense building two stories high and a block wide, with the ground floor given over to commercial units” (O’Neill 2001, 26). In the 1930 s, “sixty or so years later, these premises were transformed by” Joseph Dakad “into the Toros Hotel” (O’Neill 2001, 26). Finally in the 1960 s, the respective building was completely “knocked down and replaced by a single, brand-new, four-storey building with fiftythree rooms” to serve again as a hotel. Monsieur Salvator Avigdor, one of the former workers of the hotel, described the Toros Hotel of the 1930 s and 1940 s as a “place to be” (O’Neill 2001).

  18. 18.

    What is evident from the observations of O’Neill (2001, 45) in his book that Toros Hotel was a very profitable venture such that the municipality of Mersin awarded some plaques to Georgette Dakad several times “for being the proprietor of the hotel in Mersin to pay the most corporation tax in a given fiscal year”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

    Burak Beyhan

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  1. Burak Beyhan
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Correspondence to Burak Beyhan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vehbi Koç Ankara Studies Research Center, Koç University, Ankara, Turkey

    Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu

  2. Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Eyüp Özveren

  3. Center for Mediterranean Urban Studies, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

    Tülin Selvi Ünlü

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Beyhan, B. (2019). Entrepreneurial Spirit and Modernization of a Port City: The Case of Mersin. In: Yenişehirlioğlu, F., Özveren, E., Selvi Ünlü, T. (eds) Eastern Mediterranean Port Cities. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93662-8_12

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