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Sinop

/ Administration / Governors-Mayors-Port Masters / Mayors

Mayors    EN
Author: İMAMOĞLU HUSEYIN VEHBI

*Assist. Assoc. Professor,  University of Sinop, Sinop, Turkey

In Ottoman Empire, the concept of municipality began to be used with Tanzimat. During the classical period, in the Ottoman State, municipal services were made through local organizations such as foundations and guilds formed both by the state organization and the public. In Ottoman State, the places outside İstanbul were referred to as province and they were ruled by officers assigned from the center within the frame of central administration understanding [1]. Thus, we cannot talk about a local administration in a modern sense from the foundation of the Ottoman State to the Tanzimat period [2]. Municipal services such as water supply, cleaning, lighting, parks, gardens, cemeteries and road construction were carried out through charitable foundations. People did not pay taxes for these services, the state did not spend any money and the people made use of these services for free [3].

Modern municipal activities started with the foundation of Şehremaneti which was formed in French style after Tanzimat in 1854. The period of mayors started in municipal services with the regulations issued on July 13, 1854. With the City Regulations issued in 1864, city councils were formed. With this regulation, a head was to be appointed to the city council by the governor or the district governor in order to preside the city council. The job of the head of the city council was to put the municipal decisions into effect and to organize the relations with the city. Later, the sixth municipal Office was founded in İstanbul in 1868. For places outside of İstanbul, “Province General Administration Regulation” was accepted on January 22, 1871. With this regulation, the foundations of province municipalities were laid [4]. With the law also known as Meşrutiyet (Constitutionalism), municipalities were reorganized with the law known as Dersaadet Municipal Law. According to this law, municipalities have three organs as the mayor, municipal council and municipal society. The mayor is chosen among the members of the council. With this organization, municipalities did works such as population census and real estate notation along with their regular duties [5]. The system that was built with the aforementioned law was in effect with various changes until 1930s.

Under the administration of the Ottoman Empire, Sinop was initially attached to Canik sanjak, the administrative organization center of which was Samsun; then in 1846 it was attached to Kastamonu after Tanzimat. Since it was a sanjak of Kastamonu, it was in the yearbooks (Salname) of the city of Kastamonu that there is information on Sinop. In the yearbooks, mayors and members of the city council were shown together. There were generally six members in the city council; however, this number rose up to 9 or 10 towards the last years. The municipal organization had employees such as clerk, treasurer, inspector, official in the fuel depot, sergeant, vaccine official and physician. In the yearbook No.1 first published in 1869, city council members and the mayor has not been written. The name of city council members are written in the yearbook No. 10 published in 1878, however name of the mayor is not written. The relevant section of Sinop of recently published the yearbook No. 21 are missing. Accordingly, the names and dates of duty of the Mayor located in the yearbooks as follows [6]:

Osman Efendi 1870-1871

Abdülkerim Efendi 1871-1872

Osman Nuri Efendi 1872-1873

Seyit Muhammet Efendi 1873-1874

Veli Ağa 1874-1875

Osman Nuri Efendi 1875-1876

Hüseyin Efendi 1876-1879

Ahmet Fuat Efendi 1879-1881

Mustafa Galip Efendi 1881-1882

Asım Efendi 1882-1889

Hacı İzzet Efendi 1889-1892

Osman Nuri Efendi 1892-1896

Hacı Hasan Efendi 1896-1899

 

[1] Ahmet Ulusoy ve Tekin Akdemir, Mahalli İdareler Maliyesi, (Ankara: Seçkin Yayınları 2004), p. 149.

[2] Bilal Eryılmaz, Kamu Yönetimi, Genişletilmiş ve Güncellenmiş Yeni Baskı, (İstanbul: Erkam Matbaası 2007), p. 182.

[3] Hakkı Uyar, “Türkiye’de ve Dünya’da Yerel Yönetimler: Kısa Bir Tarihçe”, Aydınlanma 1923, 51 (2004), p. 1.

[4] Ibid, Bilal Eryılmaz, p. 212.

[5] Behiç Çelik, “Türk Belediyeciliğinin Tarihsel Gelişimi”, Yeni Türkiye, 1:4, (1995), p. 592.

[6] Ahmet Cengiz, “Salnamelerde Sinop”, I. Uluslararası Karadeniz Kültür Kongresi 06-09 Ekim 2011, Sinop, Türkiye, pp. 171-172.

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