The alphabet revolution, which took place in Turkey in 1928, brought about
profound changes in the religious, educational and cultural life of the Turkish
society, and had a significant impact on the printing houses. This effect seems
to be in the form of financial difficulties at the same time as psychological at the
beginning. It is argued that these difficulties cannot be exaggerated, considering
that an intense publication activity has been launched after the revolution known
as the alphabet change. However, considering the news in the newspapers and
the reports prepared by the bookstores, it seems that the results of the revolution
were not as it was said at the time. After the change, publications with the
Arabic-letters turned into a waste paper and Latin letters for new books are
not immediately supplied. These problems have put the people who deal with
publishing the book in a difficult situation. These difficulties have led some
bookstores to face the risk of closing down, some to get under debt and a few
to go to compulsory partnership. When the results are taken into consideration,
how the printing houses are influenced by the Revolution stands as a subject
worth investigating. This study is limited to Istanbul bookstores. The subject
covered by the documentary analysis method has been researched by evaluating
the archive documents and examining the printed works. The following
results have been reached in this study: The fund of Istanbul bookstores was
seriously decreased by the leftover of books with Arabic letters. Because of the
government’s inability to help, the printing houses have been overwhelmed by
these difficulties and they had to borrow money from the banks. In particular sold
books have been returned by later change of the original letter order. Because
of all the reasons, printing houses have been seen to suffer great damage. They
sometimes asked the government for help in compensating their losses.
Journal Section | ARTICLES |
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Authors | |
Publication Date | June 21, 2017 |
Published in Issue | Year 2017 Volume: 27 Issue: 1 |