Abstract:

KARAMANLIDIKA PRESS

The term “Karamanlidika Press" covers the Turkish-language newspapers and periodicals that were printed in Greek characters and circulated from the mid-nineteenth century. A product of the multi-ethnic and polyglot Ottoman Empire, the Karamanlidika press was addressed primarily to the Turkish-speaking Rums identified as “Karamanlides”, the majority of who spoke no other language than Turkish until shortly after the Exchange of Populations. Newspapers and periodicals in turkish language printed with greek characters were published from the mid-19th century up until a few years after the Exchange of Populations. Specifically, the first publication, as we know, was printed in Smyrna around 1845, and the last, Prosfygikē Fonē / Muhacir Sedasi (Refugee Voice) in Athens for the refugees who had arrived in Greece after the Lausanne Treaty.

The entity titled "Karamanlidika Press" comprises my studies on the Karamanli press in general as well as for specific prints that are presented and extensively cited, since their content offers an abundance of information on this topic.

Following the completion of the bibliography of the main corpus of the book production of the Karamanlis, I turned my attention towards finding, collecting and citing of the Karamanli press, and since 1984 I am systematically working for the creation of a sound collection at the Center for Asia Minor Studies (Athens), an archive of photocopies from volumes of various Karamanlidika periodicals and newspapers spotted in private collections of refugees, collectors, etc. These corpora are available to researchers willing to study them.

In 1990 Ι located and reproduced volumes of the periodicals Aggeliaforos and Aggeliaforos Cocuklar Icun, which were published by the American Bible Society (Amerikan Han, Istanbul). The photocopies of these volumes are today kept within the collection of Stratis Tarinas (Athens).

In the years that followed, my research was extended to the Ottoman archival material, the fruit of which were certain papers that shed light on information concerning unknown periodicals and newspapers, no volume of which had been traced until then. Systematic research of the Ottoman archival material since 2009 contributed in the collection of data concerning the history of these prints, presenting unknown information about their publishing, as well as data on the lives and deeds of their publishers.

The 3rd Workshop of Karamanlidika Studies (2 Nov 2013) was dedicated to the Karamanli press. This was no coincidence. The time was right, since several young researchers have been trained to engage in the systematic indexing and storage of information contained in the Karamanlidika press. All the papers initiate new topics within Karamanlidika studies and demonstrate the need for corresponding research projects to be commissioned in the field of the Armeno-Turkish press. In general they show the need for the press of non-Muslim subjects to be crosschecked and compared with the relevant material from newspapers and periodicals available that were printed with Arabic script in the later years of the Ottoman era, a very significant historical period, in order for identities and diversities to be also located within. As it has often been pointed out the Karamanlidika Press is a valuable source on the history of Karamanlis and Κaramanlidika printing. The volume of Proceedings titled Cultural Encounters in the Turkish-speaking Communities of the Late Ottoman Empire, Isis Press, Istanbul 2014, contains the following six papers:

Achladi Evangelia: The Karamanlidika periodical AKTIS (1913-1915)
Aprahamyan, Garo: A Note on Sdepanyan’s Bibliography of Armeno-Turkish periodicals
Balta Evangelia – Şafak, Nurdan: The "Dervis Savvas Rumi Paşa and the Karamanlidika Newspaper Sebat
Baydar Ayca: Karamanlidika Press between Greek and Turkish Nationalism (1920-1923)
Benlisoy, Stefo: "Another Newspaper in our Language!”: Competition and Polemic in: the Karamanlidika Press
Irakleous, Stelios: Sociolinguistic Aspects of Αγγελιαφόρος Τζοτζουκλάρ ιτζούν 1872-1896
Orakçı, Meryem : Karamanlica Bir Gazete : TERAKKI
Şişmanoğlu Şimşek, Şehnaz: Karamanlidika Literary Production at the end of the 19th Century as reflected in the pages of Anatoli.

PDF 1. La revue karamanlie AKTIS [= le Rayon lumineux]. Revue périodique hebdomadaire traitant de sujets religieux, politiques et scientifiques, in: E. Balta, Beyond the Language Frontier. Studies on the Karamanlis and the Karamanlidika Printing, Istanbul 2010, pp. 135-143.

PDF 2. Le journal karamanli Mikra Asia yani Anatoli d’Evangélinos Misailidis dans la tourmente du Schisme Bulgare, in: Evangelia Balta, Beyond the Language Frontier. Studies on the Karamanlis and the Karamanlidika Printing, Analecta Isisiana CX, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2010, pp. 153-176.

PDF 3. I ARETI (La Vertu): Revue micrasiatique illustrée, bi-mensuelle, parue en 1912", in: Evangelia Balta, Problèmes et approches de l’histoire ottomane. Un itinéraire scientifique de Kayseri à Eğriboz, Analecta Isisiana XXVIII, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2010, pp. 201-244.

PDF 4. The first family periodical in the Ottoman Empire : A Karamanli Magazine in Smyrna (1849-1850), in: Evangelia Balta, Miscellaneous Studies on the Karamanlidika Literary Tradition, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2013, pp. 109-152.

PDF 5. The Karamanli Newspaper Phostir or Fener. A Futile Publication Effort (1909), in: Evangelia Balta, Miscellaneous Studies on the Karamanlidika Literary Tradition, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2013, pp. 153-170.

PDF 6. Karamanlidika Press (Smyrna 1845-Athens 1926), in: Evangelia Balta, Beyond the Language Frontier. Studies on the Karamanlis and the Karamanlidika Printing, Analecta Isisiana CX, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2010, pp. 107-121.

PDF 7. A Notebook on the History of the Karamanlidika Press, in: Evangelia Balta, Festschrift in Honor of Ioannis P. Theocharides. Studies on the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, vol. II (eds) Evangelia Balta, Georgios Salakidis, Theoharis Stavrides, The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2014, pp. 61-83.