Meriç Uluslararası Sosyal ve Stratejik Araştırmalar Dergisi

Abstract

Mustafakemalpaşa, the agricultural district of Bursa, was a township known as "Kirmasti" in the late Ottoman period, where people of different ethnic backgrounds lived. From the late 19th century onwards, letters of complaint from the people of the township against their district governors take an important place in archival documents. Among these complaints, it can be said that the questioning of District Governor Kazım Bey for allowing the construction of a Greek School without a license draws attention. The building license for the Greek School was not authorized due to the lack of information on the dimensions and quality of the school, who would use it, who would pay for its construction, the condition of the project site, and the ethnicity of the people living in the neighborhood. However, when all the information about the school was completed after the interrogation due to the construction that started before the license was received, the construction of the Greek School was close to completion, and the license for the building was obtained. In this article, in the context of the complaints against the district governors of the Kirmasti township since the late 19th century, the process of District Governor Kazım Bey's permission to start the construction of a Greek School without a building license is evaluated.