Abstract :
The subject of this article is the incomplete railway projects in the Ottoman State and Turkish Republic between 1876 and 1939. The first railway in the Ottoman State was build between Alexandria and Cairo in 1854, and then railways had drastically reformed the economic, military, social, and cultural life of the Ottoman and Turkish. In the middle of the nineteen century, the Ottoman State extending approximately 913.000 km.² area in the Asia, Europe, and Africa, has regarded the railways as the most effective ways to strengthen its political and the financial power and follow the significant developments of the era. However, the Ottoman State was lack of the needed technology and capital to build the railways and surrendered by the Western capital. The Ottoman requested the construction of the some major railway lines by enforcing the Europe through capitulations. Hence, some of these railway lines were not truly completed by the European and are still cited as uncompleted projects. The negative strategic effects of the incomplete railway projects had suddenly appeared and the Republic of Turkey has suffered from the long term detrimental political and social effects. The railways also were highly valued by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Atatürk during the early times of the Turkish Republic as valued during the Ottoman rule. However, following these policies, it was included a national policy, not in the shadow of the Western imperialism. The population began to travel around the country thanks to the construction of the north-the south and the east-the west railway lines. The economy improved and the national consciousness shaped thanks to railways. However, there were still some incomplete railway projects in the early times of the Turkish Republic. Hence, this article focuses on the incomplete railway projects between 1876 and 1939 and its ongoing negative consequences were discussed in the frame of the global dimension of the respected era.
