The Bursa Electricity Company and nationalisation
1924–1939
Attempts to obtain an electricity concession in Bursa, begun in the late Ottoman period, were cut short by war. The company was founded in 1924 through the French Omnium d’Entreprises, passed to the Italian firm Marelli in 1932, and was bought by the Ministry of Public Works on 18 June 1939, becoming a state enterprise.
Related work
- Foreign Capital and the Nationalisation Process from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic: The Case of the Bursa Electricity Company
- The History of Electricity in Bursa from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic (1906–1939)
Details
1906–1924Three contracts, one working concession
Three contracts were made for electricity in Bursa, in 1906 (Mehmet Ali Ağa), 1913 and 1924 (the French Omnium); only the 1924 one was carried out.
- Concession-Holding Foreign Companies in Early Republican Turkey and the Case of the Bursa Electricity Company, International Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic, Istanbul, 21–22 November 2023, pp.636–674
1932 and 18 June 1939From Marelli to the state
The company passed to the Italian Marelli in 1932. On 18 June 1939 the Ministry of Public Works bought it; the nationalisation is assessed as a change that widened access to a public service and prepared the ground for rural electrification.
Sources
- Hacer Karabağ Arslan, Foreign Capital and the Nationalisation Process from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic: The Case of the Bursa Electricity Company, Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences 26/49 (2025), pp.593–620
- Hacer Karabağ Arslan, The History of Electricity in Bursa from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic (1906–1939), Gaye Kitabevi, 2020