o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

ALIYE F. MATARACI
Ethno-religious distribution according to workplace
In order to understand the ethno-religious distribution within the brothers’ immediate
work environment, data listed under two different sections of Annuaire Oriental
dated 1894, 1904 and 1914 have been utilized: ii)names and specializations listed under
Çakmakcılar Yokuşu, which is the street of the han in which the brothers’ Istanbul
office was based, in the Addresses des Rues de Stamboul (Addresses of the Streets of
Istanbul) section, and ii)names and specializations listed under the hans located on
Çakmakcılar Yokuşu 20 in the Addresses des Hans de Stamboul (Addresess of the Hans of
Istanbul) section. The analysis of the brothers’ immediate commercial environment is
based on the data created by merging the data listed under both sections. This data,
consisting of the house numbers, names and specialization of each workplace 21 on
Çakmakcılar Yokuşu, can provide us with the total number of workplaces, their distribution
according to sectors and –through the addition of the absent category of
ethno-religious characteristics– their ethno-religious distribution on this particular
street. The analysis will be based on Çakmakcılar Yokuşu in general and the two big
hans of the street, Büyük Yeni Han, the han in which the brothers’ Istanbul office
was located 22 , and Valide Han, in particular.
The ethno-religious distribution of workplaces on Çakmakcılar Yokuşu shows a
slight but consistent increase in Armenian domination, reaching 50% in 1914. The
share of the second prominent ethno-religious category, Muslims, falls to 28% in
1914, after a gradual increase up to 33% in 1904 (see Appendix VI). The share of
the third prominent category among the workplaces on Çakmakcılar Yokuşu, that
of the Greeks, was in constant decline from 22% in 1894 to 14% in 1914 (see Appendix
VI). The decline in the number of Muslim as well as Greek workplaces,
which might be related to their forced migration during the Balkan Wars, appears
to be compensated for by the relative increase in the number of Armenians. Hence,
in this analysis, the absent Greeks seem to be replaced by Armenians rather than
Muslims in 1914, challenging once again the general expectations created by the National
Economy discourse.
20 Hans located on Çakmakçılar Yokuşu in 1914 were Agop Muradyan, Agopyan,
Boncukcu, Büyük Yeni, Caferi, Valide and Zümbüllü.
21 The unit of analysis is workplace. Each entry starting with a house number, followed by
name and specialization, is taken as representing a workplace. Exceptional cases are: i) two entries
with the same door number but different names and specializations are considered as different
workplaces, and ii) two entries with more than one house number but same name and
profession are considered as the same workplace within the boundaries of this work.
22 The brothers’ Istanbul office appears under İlyas’ name, in Büyük Yeni Han, number 38,
under the profession manufactures in Annuaire Oriental dated 1913 and 1914. In 1921, it appears
under their second name and this time in Kuru Kahveci Han, number 27, under the title négociants-commissionnaires.
In Le Guide Sam dated 1928, another directory covering businesses in the
Orient, it appears under Ali’s name on Hamidiye Street, number 47, under the section Addresses
Utiles à Constantinople (Useful Addresses in Istanbul). Annuaire De L'orient. Le Guide Sam. France,
Italie, Turquie, Egypte, Grece, Bulgarie, Palestine., 8eme edition ed. (1928), 103.
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