KING CRANE COMMITTEE’S ACTIVITIES AND DISPUTES OF MANDAT IN ？STANBUL PRESS (1919)

In Paris Peace Conference, Entente States had joined in the idea of establishing mandate regimes in the territories of German colonies and Ottoman Empire who had been defeated in the World War I. They decided to establish committees and send them to the relevant lands to find out what kind of political and administrative order people wanted. However, Britain, France and Italy later changed their minds on sending committees. Thus, the United States decided to act alone. On June 3, 1919, the American committee came to ？stanbul and stayed for a short time and then left the city to investigate Syria and Palestine. After returning to ？stanbul in late July, the American committee began deliberations with representatives of Muslim and non-Muslim political parties and congregation delegates. Turkish press and intellectuals were worried after seeing that the American Committee was more interested in the establishment of an Armenian state in Anatolia than Turkey’s future. This situation ignited both the Armenian question and the mandate debate. In this work, the press which is an effective tool of creating a public opinion, the American King - Crane delegation’s work in ？stanbul and the view of the mandate idea were discussed