| 简介： |
Our Chamber was established in 1885 by the order of Sultan. According to various sources the event that led to the establishment of the chamber happened as described below:
"In July 1882 a group of entrepreneurs from Marseille came to Izmir and visited the Governor Haci Naşit Paşa expressing to him their wish of making contact with the businessmen of İzmir. Upon this request the governor sent one of his assistants to the shopping center to invite Karaağazede Muslahattin Efendi and some other Greek and Armenian merchants to his premise, so that a meeting between the merchants took place.
Upon this event the merchants of İzmir had the idea of establishing a chamber of commerce in İzmir taking into account the fact that such a chamber was established in İstanbul in 1882. The governor supported this idea and he personally applied to Babıali in order to receive a permission for the establishment of the chamber. In 1885 İzmir Chamber of Commerce started its activities.
However, it should also be mentioned that during the big fire in September 1922 the building of the chamber together with all the documents were burnt and all the information sources about these years were lost. Inspite of that event, it was possible to collect some information about our chamber from publications that were published in these days.
As the newspaper of the chamber indicates, in 1886 the president of the chamber was Balyozyan Matyoz Reis-I Sani Giridi Hacı Şerif Bey. According to the Annual Report of Cavit Bey (1891) the first president of our chamber was Gökas Efendi, the second president was Miralayzade Lütfü Bey. Both documents indicate that the secretary general of the chamber was Agop Istanbulyan.
In 1908 after the movement of "Union and Devolepment Organization" the structure of the chamber regarding the administrators was changed. Within the framework of the national economic policy and with the support of the Governor Rahmi Bey, Alaiyelizade Mahmud (ALAYELİ) Bey was elected president in January 1909. The Union and Devolepment government gathered the chambers of commerce and industry under one roof with a decree of 13 June 1911. Moreover, through this decree the power of Turks was enhanced. |
