SUPPLEMENT TO
COMMERCE REPORTS
 | DAILY CONSULAR AND TRADE REPORTS ISSUED BY THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, WASHINGTON, D. C. | |
| Annual Series | No. 18a | March 15, 1915 |
TURKEY,
HARPUT.
By Consul Leslie A. Davis.
The limited trade of the Harput consular district has almost entirelyceased since the outbreak of the European War. Under normal conditionsthe trade is small and confined to the merest necessaries of life.Stoves, bedsteads, dining tables, table linen, individual tableware,and many other articles usually regarded as indispensable in domesticlife are not to be found even in the homes of the better classes.
Limited Business Opportunities—Population.
There are no manufacturing establishments or industrial enterprisesof any importance and no business houses of any size in the entiredistrict. The only stores are small shops or booths of one room, seldommore than 10 or 15 feet square and usually even smaller than that. Thebusiness of any one merchant is necessarily small, and the quantity ofgoods that he can handle limited. The goods are usually obtained by himthrough business connections in Constantinople or Aleppo. The districtis essentially agricultural, and the products of the soil supply nearlyall the needs of its inhabitants.
The Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz, in which Harput is situated, issaid to contain about 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 250,000 residein the Sandjak of Mamouret-ul-Aziz, 180,000 in the Sandjak of Malatia,and 70,000 in the Sandjak of Dersim. Of the total number, about90,000 are Christians and the remainder Mohammedans. There are nearly3,000 villages in the Vilayet but no large cities. In addition tothe Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz, four other Vilayets depend on thisconsulate—Sivas, Diarbekir, Bitlis, and Van. This comprises thegreater part of the interior of Asia Minor, a region as large as allNew England and New York combined, with a total population of about3,000,000.
Lack of Transportation and Other Facilities—Trade Routes.
There are no railroads, tramways, electric light or gas plants, publictelephones, places of amusement, automobiles, or newspapers in theentire district. The lack of means of transportation is the greatesthindrance to the development of the country. There are not even anynavigable rivers in the district. The distance to any seaport is 200to 400 miles, and all goods have to be brought here over extremelyrough, mountainous roads, which are never kept in repair. In timesof peace some goods are transported in crude carts, but at 2alltimes the greater part is carried on the backs of camels or donkeys.Transportation is thus always a matter of many weeks and often ofmonths, especially in the winter, when the roads are frequently blockedby snow for two or three months.
The principal trade route in the district begins at Samsun on the BlackSea and runs southeast to Bagdad, passing through Sivas, Harput, andDiarbekir. Goods destined for this Vilayet usually come via Samsun,which is about 372 miles from Harput. Th