Transfer Of The Lifesaving Service To The Turkish Administration And Liquidation Procedures

Abstract

The Lifesaving Service, which was established as an Ottoman institution in the second half of the 19^th century and whose administration was left to the Istanbul Port Authority under the Ministry of Navy, became open to the control of foreign states with the regulation prepared in 1883. Benefiting from the capitulation rights, foreign states started to be financially and administratively effective. The organisation, which came under Turkish administration during World War I, remained almost completely under the control of the Entente Powers during the armistice period. During the days of the Lausanne Conference, the Government of Ankara took action to bring the Lifesaving Service back under Turkish administration. As a result of the negotiations with the representatives of the Entente Powers in Istanbul, first, the administration was taken back and then the General Directorate of Lifesaving was established, putting an end to the influence of foreign states. In the same period, efforts were also initiated to recover the deposits held in the London branch of the Ottoman Bank; however, this was not easy. The efforts spread over a long period of time constituted an agenda item that mobilised international relations. In the end, after arduous negotiations, it was possible to recover the deposits. The purpose of this article is to analyse the initiatives and developments that took place during and after the process of the Lifesaving Service, which was an important acquisition of the new Turkish State, to come back under Turkish administration. Focusing on a long and difficult diplomatic struggle, the study was conducted comprehensively based on document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods. At this point, the information and documents obtained were evaluated separately and the development and details of the process were tried to be revealed. Although the Turkish Diplomatic Archive constitutes the main material of the study, other archives, periodicals and copyrighted works were also utilised. As a result, with the successes of the National Struggle movement in the political and military fields, the complete abolition of capitulations in the Treaty of Lausanne and the practices of the new Turkish State that put an end to the interventions of foreign states, this diplomatic struggle ended in a positive way.

There is no study that would require the approval of the Ethical Committee in this article.

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