D.A. KORKMASOVA

(Djana Anatolyevna KORKMASOVA)

"Stambulskiye Novosti", the illustrated weekly newspaper, is the first newspaper in Russian in the history of the Turkish press. It was published in Constantinople in 19091910. The increased interest in Russia in the political and social developments in the Ottoman Empire after Young Turks revolution was the reason of the emergence of this edition. Mutually advantageous development of cultural and economic relations between Russia and Turkey was considered to be the main goal of the newspaper. The newspaper was distributed in Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, and a number of countries in Western Europe. The circulation was 1000 copies. The newspaper fitted the format of magazines of that time. The newspaper was printed in İstanbul in the first and only Russian printing house. The editorial board included well-known Turkish politicians and public figures as well as representatives of the Russian and Caucasian intellectual elite. The executive director of the edition was Ahmed Dzhevad who was in the Young Turks movement. The Russian citizen Dzhelalutdin Korkmasov was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. The themes covered in the paper were the main directions concerning issues of economics, political and public sphere, but a considerable coverage was devoted to cultural issues. News stories reflect its close contacts with many famous Turkish journalists, writers and poets.  In the spring of 1910, the newspaper began to experience difficulties with the import and newspaper distribution in Russia as evidenced by archival documents.  Recently 33 issues of the newspaper are available, from the first one of October 23, 1909 to the number of June 4, 1910. Issues of the newspaper collection are stored nowadays in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Science in St.-Petersburg, in the State Historical Public Library of Russia in Moscow. The photocopies could also be found in The Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Daghestan Scientific Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences in Makhachkala. 

Keywords: D. Korkmasoff, Press, “Stambulskiye Novosti”, Russian-Turkish Relations