Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1887 — A Turkish Newspaper. [ARTICLE]

A Turkish Newspaper.

Among the various innovations lately introduced into Turkey may be included that of newspapers. The ihvt, if we are not mistaken, appeared in Constantinople in 1841, under the auspices of Mr. Oscanyan, the former Turkish Consul General in New York, and was called Aztarar Bizanlian, or the Byzantine Aavertiser. Tee people, unacquainted at that time with the aim and importance of a dany chronicler, were not prepared to appreciate tne value of a newspaper, and were slow to patronize the paper. It was obliged to slop. Since thtn more frequent intercourse with the rest oi Europe and political incidents which made the people eager lor news gave rise to the publication of other newspapers, whose number is now legion. There are at present more than twenty different dailies and twenty weeklies appearing in Constantinople in various dialects, each advocating its own particular interest. Among the organs of the different nationalities in Turkey may be mentioned the Akhtar (Stan, which represents the Persian interest in Turkey. It is printed in Turkish script, though the language is Persian. It commences at the right-hand corner of the sheet with the announcement that “the office of publication of the Akhtar is at Valide Khan in the seat oi felicity (Constantinople . All communications must be addressed to Mehmed Tehir Effendi, sole editor and propr.etor.” In imitation of French journals, the paper commences with an editorial on the affairs of Siam as a leader, followed by telegraphic news, both foreign and domestic, extracts from foreign papers, home news, current events, official promotions, and a few advertisements. These papers are sold at an average of four cents per copy, and an edition of 2,000 is considered a large circulation. There being a strict surveillance over all publications by the government, the editors are restrained from indulging in liberal thoughts and observations, as well as on what news they publish, so that these prints are, as a matter of course, vapid and devoid of interest, and can not in any sense be called “newspapers.”— New York Graphic.