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in: RESEARCHES ON SCIENCE AND ART IN 21 ST CENTURY TURKEY, Arapgirlioğlu H., Atık A., Elliott R. L., Turgeon E., Editor, Gece Kitaplığı, Ankara, pp.1093-1099, 2017
The report issued at the end of the meeting held by the Supreme Assembly of Economics on December 15-29, 1931, has a section that includes the proposals for the measures required to be taken for the ports in Turkey. Considered as the largest trade center of Turkey, the Port of Istanbul connects the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Besides, it is located in the vicinity of the Bosphorus strait which provides the only access to the open sea for Russia, Romania and Bulgaria. The port is also on the terrestrial and the maritime routes extending from Asia to Europe. Due to such reasons, the Port of Istanbul was examined in more detail than the other ports specified in the report. During the given period, the Port of Istanbul had three docks in Haydarpaşa, Galata and Istanbul. However, they lacked sufficient capacity and mechanical equipment, leading to problems in the loading and unloading of cargos. While the port had the loading and unloading capacity of 2.5 to 3 million tons, the total tonnage of the ships arriving to the port was 5 million tons. Besides, due to the lack of sufficient bonded warehouses to provide services for the ships, the loads were stored outside and got damaged. In addition to such lack of technical infrastructure, the Port of Istanbul was also having problems in terms of the way of administration. Different departments were responsible for the administration of ship crews, loads, passengers and equipment, leading to unnecessary delays. Moreover, ships began to refrain from using the Port of Istanbul not if they could help it due to collection of various duties and charges as well as the unnecessary customs formalities. Because of such reasons, foreign ships began to prefer the ports of the neighboring countries, thus leading to a shift of commerce to the Ports of Piraeus, Sigri and Constanza. This study examining the status of the Port of Istanbul in the 1930s was prepared using the Report issued by the Supreme Assembly of Economics, archive documents and official publications.