Baghdad Railways

The 147-year history of Baghdad Railway! Professor Edward Mead Earle wrote in his book "1923" that Abdulhamid had prevented aliens from settling along the way.

According to Professor Earle, II. Abdulhamit insisted on the recognition and protection of certain rights. The Ottoman Government imposed articles on the concession agreement to prevent large privileges from bringing new capitulations for the benefit of foreign states. It was stated in the agreement that Anatolian and Baghdad Railway Companies are common Ottoman companies. Disagreements between the government and the companies or between the companies and private persons were to be heard in the competent Turkish courts. A secret agreement was added to the concession agreement. Accordingly, Kumpanya would not be encouraged to settle foreign state citizens along the Anatolian and Baghdad Railways.

The major states struggled to achieve the privilege of the project of laying the railway to Baghdad, which was restarted, due to its strategic importance.

The story, which went to the "Baghdad Railway" project during the Ottoman Empire, first appeared with the İzmir-Aydın line, the construction of which started in 1856 with the privilege given to a British company in 1866. When the Eastern Railways started from the Austrian border and passed through Belgrade, Nis, Sofia and Edirne and reached Istanbul in the summer of 1888, in addition to the İzmir-Aydın line in Anatolia, the British owned the Adana-Mersin railway and rented the Haydarpaşa-Izmit railway. The İzmir-Kasaba (Turgutlu) line was under the control of the French. In fact, the first railway construction on the Ottoman territory started in Egypt in 1851, and its length exceeded 1869 kilometers in 1.300.

Sultan II. Abdulhamit also brought up the issue of weaving Anatolia with a railroad network upon the proposal of the General Directorate of the Duyuunu Umrah when the Eastern Railways was completed. Dr. Wurttembergische Vereinsbank manager in Stuttgart, who wants to sell "Mauzer" (Mavzer) rifles to the Ministry of War. Alfred von Kaull to make railway in Turkey for the purpose of Deutsche Bank's managing director Dr. Agreement with Georg von Siemens. Thus, a partnership was established to handle the operation of the Haydarpaşa-Izmit line and extend this line to Ankara. The privilege to take this line to Ankara in October 1888; It was given on condition that the railway was extended to Samsun, Sivas and Diyarbakır to Baghdad.

Thus, the Anatolian Railway Company (La Societe du Chemin de Fer Ottomane d'Anatolie) was born and the first German railways in the Ottoman Empire began. II. Abdülhamit guarantees the company at least 15 thousand francs per year for Ankara railway. This money would be provided by Düyunu Umumiye with taxes to be collected from the places on the route of the new line.

Despite the various attempts of the British and the French, II. Abdülhamit announced on 27 November 1899 that he decided to give the railway line concession from Konya to Baghdad and the Persian Gulf to Deutsche Bank. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Bank, in line with the French interests, was taken to the Baghdad Railway Company by Deutsche Bank a while ago.

II. Abdülhamit also gave the Deutsche Bank group a port concession in Haydarpaşa. The Haydarpaşa Station building was opened in 1902, one year before the concession of the Baghdad Railway concession was finalized.

The decree that the Baghdad Railway concession was awarded to the Anatolian Railway Company was published on March 18, 1902. Kayzer II. Wilhelm, II. He thanked Abdulhamit with a telegram.

The Baghdad Railway, which will be the starting point, will pass the historical roads and bring movement to the old trade route. The new line would cross the Taurus Mountains after Karaman and Ereğli and reach the productive Çukurova. Baghdad Railway would meet Adana-Mersin railway in Çukurova's commercial center Adana. The Gavur Mountains would be passed through tunnels and come to Aleppo. The railway would establish connections from here to Hama, Humus, Tripoli, Damascus, Beirut, Jaffa and Jerusalem. The Baghdad Railway would reach Nusaybin and Mosul after heading east from Aleppo. The two branches that would leave Nusaybin would go to Diyarbakır and Harput. The Baghdad Railway, which will follow the Tigris River valley flowing from the south and southeast of Mosul, will meet Baghdad after Tikrit, Samarra and Sadiye.

According to the terms of the agreement, published by Columbia University Professor Professor Edward Mead Earle in his “1923”, the Ottoman government would partially participate in financing the Baghdad Railway. For each kilometer line to be laid, the government would issue Ottoman bonds with a nominal value of 275 thousand francs. In return for these bonds, the real estate of the railway and the enterprise would be mortgaged.

After Konya, on March 200, 5, the company was given a 1903-percent interest, first period 4 million francs “Ottoman Baghdad Railway” bond for the financing of the first 54 kilometers of the railway. The ownership of the state-owned lands, to which the railway would pass, would be transferred to the concession holders free of charge. The company could occupy the lands it would build without paying rent. Sand and quarries would also be used free of charge. The company would have the right to expropriate the privately owned lands, quarries, and sand-like construction sites where the line will pass. Apart from these, the authority to search for archaeological artifacts and make excavations along the line was also granted.

II. Abdulhamid insisted on the recognition and protection of certain rights. The Ottoman government imposed concessions on the concession treaty in order to prevent wide-ranging privileges from bringing new capitulations to the benefit of foreign states. Anatolia and Baghdad Railway Companies are common Ottoman companies, stated in the agreement. Disputes between the government and the troupe, or the troupe and private individuals, would be seen in the competent Turkish courts.

A concession agreement was added to the concession agreement. Accordingly, Kumpanya, foreign citizens of the state, along the Anatolian and Baghdad Railways would not be encouraged to settle.

The Ottoman Government was also interested in the construction of the Baghdad Railway for military purposes. The railroad could be used to suppress maneuvers or riots in peace, and mobilization in war.

Professor Earle also writes that the Baghdad Railway is "an element of the German-British competition in the seas, a pawn of the great game between the Alliance States and the Entente States, a period of diplomatic war for influence influence". "Baghdad every kilometer of the railway being laid against the empowerment of Turkey England, I was given a tough fight against the resistance of Russia and France. Britain feared that the Baghdad Railway would threaten Egypt and India.

According to the information given by the British Consul in Istanbul, which Professor Earle included in his work, "Agricultural production had increased in the regions where Anadolu Railway passed." The rate of land planted in some regions had doubled. The famine and famine that were seen in the past disappeared; irrigation facilities largely prevented drought and flooding. Anatolian peasants had become the industry burned.

Anadolu and Baghdad Railways paid 1906 to 1914 percent of earnings to shareholders from time to time between 5-6. By modernizing the Baghdad Railway in 1911, oil from the American Standard Oil Company of New Jersey began to be burned in locomotives.

The completed parts of the Baghdad Railway also made faces laugh. With the line length of 1906 kilometers in 200, 29 thousand 629 passengers and 13 thousand 693 tons of cargo were carried; Gross income per kilometer was 1.368 francs, and community security payments were 624 thousand 028 francs. By 1914, this line reached 887 kilometers; 597 thousand 675 passengers, 116 thousand 194 tons of cargo were transported, per capita gross income was 8.177 francs, and total assurance payments were 2 million 939 thousand 983 francs.

In the First World War, how the Ottoman Empire, which was located next to Germany, to be divided, emerged with the Sykes-Picot Treaty signed between the Entente States on May 9, 1916. With the agreement, the limits of British and French political and economic rights were drawn in the parts of the Empire to be divided. Among the regions given to the full sovereignty of France were the Çukurova cotton, the Ergani copper mines, and the part of the Baghdad Railway between the Taurus Mountains and Mosul. Britain would control all southern Mesopotamia from Compensation to the Persian Gulf, from the Arabian border to Iran, as compensation.

After the proclamation of the Republic, 4 thousand kilometers of railways built and operated by foreign states during the Ottoman period remained within the national borders. These lines were nationalized by the law enacted on 24 May 1924. Companies' concessions were purchased over time.