Turkish Studies - International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 8/12 Fall 2013, p. 649-662, ANKARA-TURKEY THE SITUATION OF PORTS IN TURKEY DURING EARLY 1930S ACCORDING TO REPORT OF HIGHER COUNCIL OF ECONOMY DATED AS 15-29 DECEMBER 1931 * Şengül KARADENİZ ** Zehra ARSLAN *** ABSTRACT A section of a report published at the end of the meeting dated as 15-29 December 1931 by Higher Council of Economy, which was founded as required by liberal and national economy in 1927, was devoted to an analysis of proposals regarding the measures for improving Turkish ports. Proposals regarding the measures for Turkish port services and improving these services, the situation of ports in Turkey and their commercial activities constitute the main titles of the section of the report in relation to ports. The content of the report contains general situations of İstanbul, Mersin, Samsun, Trabzon, İzmir and Ereğli ports as well as commercial activities. According to information provided in relation to general situation, the conditions that Turkish ports have at the end of 1931 were inadequate. Many reasons such as problems of administration, high customs duty, abundance of formalities and inadequate health conditions of ports led to the result that commercial ships avoided Turkish ports when non-obligatory. Besides, thefts and smuggling were common and laws and practices of that time were not deterrent enough to prevent these incidents. Though it was dissolved in 1935, some arrangements were made according to the recommendations of Higher Council of Economy during the period starting from 1932 until the beginning of II. World War and these negativities were tried to be eradicated. This study was based on report of Higher Council of Economy belonging to year 1931, archive documents and official publications to evaluate general situation of the ports in Turkey in early 1930s. Key Words: Report, port, dock, ship, fee, vehicle. * Bu makale Crosscheck sistemi tarafından taranmış ve bu sistem sonuçlarına göre orijinal bir makale olduğu tespit edilmiştir. ** Öğr. Gör. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Üniversitesi Turgut Kıran Denizcilik Yüksekokulu, El -mek: sengul.karadeniz@erdogan.edu.tr *** Yrd. Doç. Dr. Rize Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Üniversitesi, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Tarihi, El -mek: zehra_arslan2009@hotmail.com