TURKEY,
HARPUT.

By Consul Leslie A. Davis.

The limited trade of the Harput consular district has almost entirely ceased since the outbreak of the European War. Under normal conditions the 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 domestic life are not to be found even in the homes of the better classes.

Limited Business Opportunities—Population.

There are no manufacturing establishments or industrial enterprises of any importance and no business houses of any size in the entire district. The only stores are small shops or booths of one room, seldom more than 10 or 15 feet square and usually even smaller than that. The business of any one merchant is necessarily small, and the quantity of goods that he can handle limited. The goods are usually obtained by him through business connections in Constantinople or Aleppo. The district is essentially agricultural, and the products of the soil supply nearly all the needs of its inhabitants.

The Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz, in which Harput is situated, is said to contain about 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 250,000 reside in 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, about 90,000 are Christians and the remainder Mohammedans. There are nearly 3,000 villages in the Vilayet but no large cities. In addition to the Vilayet of Mamouret-ul-Aziz, four other Vilayets depend on this consulate—Sivas, Diarbekir, Bitlis, and Van. This comprises the greater part of the interior of Asia Minor, a region as large as all New England and New York combined, with a total population of about 3,000,000.

Lack of Transportation and Other Facilities—Trade Routes.

There are no railroads, tramways, electric light or gas plants, public telephones, places of amusement, automobiles, or newspapers in the entire district. The lack of means of transportation is the greatest hindrance to the development of the country. There are not even any navigable rivers in the district. The distance to any seaport is 200 to 400 miles, and all goods have to be brought here over extremely rough, mountainous roads, which are never kept in repair. In times of peace some goods are transported in crude carts, but at all times the greater part is carried on the backs of camels or donkeys. Transportation is thus always a matter of many weeks and often of months, especially in the winter, when the roads are frequently blocked by snow for two or three months.

The principal trade route in the district begins at Samsun on the Black Sea and runs southeast to Bagdad, passing through Sivas, Harput, and Diarbekir. Goods destined for this Vilayet usually come via Samsun, which is about 372 miles from Harput. This port being inaccessible at the present time, the few articles that come here are brought overland from Constantinople via Angora and Sivas or by mule trail from Alexandretta. Little merchandise has been received during the last few months. Freight rates are, of course, extremely high at all times, being many times greater than the rate from the country of export to the port of arrival in Turkey and often amounting to much more than the original cost of the goods. This region can never make much progress commercially until transportation conditions are remedied by the building of railroads, and this is not likely to be done except with foreign capital and assistance.

Housing Conditions—Military Exoneration Tax.

Owing to the lack of building stone and almost total lack of wood of any kind in this part of Turkey, all houses in both town and country are built of mud bricks called “kerpitch,” which is a mixture of mud and straw. The houses are not