Abstract:

In the second half of the 19th century, Russia made its presence felt in economic and cultural areas in the Ottoman Middle East. For example, there were 70 Russian schools in Beirut and its vicinity. There were Russian representatives in Beirut Trade Court, too. Russian ships carried 45.112 tons of load from Beirut ports (1894). Ships setting sail from Odessa sailed to the ports of Istanbul, Izmir, Thessaloniki, Chios, Rhodes, Sidon, Sur, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Tripoli, Beirut, Alexandria. After the opening of the Suez Canal (1869), we see that Russian ships passed to Persian Gulf and even Vladivostok (records dated 1884, 1893). The Russian ship running to Isle of Aynaroz (Thessaloniki) carried goods and passengers to the Russian monastery there. There were also Russian ships carrying Caucasian immigrants to the Eastern Mediterranean ports. The Ottoman central administration and the Russian consuls in the Ottoman port cities monitored problems related to this marine transportation. Although political problems existed and even war periods were lived between the Ottoman State and the Russian Tsardom in this period, it is observed that ethical ruled were obeyed in marine transportation. In 1882, Vasil Bulkof, the captain of the Russian ship called Azof, was given a decoration "on the grounds that he helped an Ottoman ship having lost its way due to fog”. Medals were given to "those rescuing the pilgrims from Bukhara in the Russian ship having come into collision with the Mecca ship in the Bosphorus between the Rumelian Fortress and the Anatolia Fortress” (1906). The Russian flagship drifting in Black Sea to the Ottoman shores was given food aid with the permission of the administration (1894). According to the list existing in the Ottoman archives, it is eye-catching that together with various food stuff, 9 barleys of beer, 24 big bottles of champagne and 80 bottles of Bordeaux wine were given to the mentioned ship. In this study of ours, we will get benefited from Ottoman Provincial Salnames, Ottoman archive documents and relevant literature. We will try to clarify the ports which “Russian ships” stopped by, the amounts of cargo they carried and the dimensions of this marine transportation.

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