Izmir’s treasure of history: It is kept in a special room and cabinets.

The Ahmet Piriştina City Archive and Museum (APİKAM) located in İzmir sheds light on history with the donations of citizens and thousands of documents within the institution, taking on an important role in both the city’s history and the history of Turkey. Among the invaluable donations are precious items like the Parliamentary Notebook with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s wet signature, the robe of Ali Nazmi Bey who served as the Mayor of İzmir between 1910-1911, and a brochure published regarding the title of “Supreme Commander and War Veteran” awarded to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the War of Independence. These donations are stored in special rooms and cabinets designed to provide protection against natural disasters such as fire, floods, and earthquakes.

Opened to visitors in 2004 as the İzmir City Archive and Museum and later named after the late former Mayor of İzmir, Ahmet Piriştina, APİKAM resembles a treasure trove of history.

Housing numerous valuable artifacts and growing daily through donations, APİKAM is quite significant in terms of İzmir’s history. The number of donors to APİKAM approaches 400, while the digital archive data count, consisting of visual documents, notebooks, books, periodicals, and cartographic documents, has reached 54,000.

Among the donations are the Parliamentary Notebook with Atatürk’s wet signature, the first speech book published in 1927, Ali Nazmi Bey’s ceremonial mayoral robe worn during events, the brochure published by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) granting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk the title of “Supreme Commander and War Veteran,” and a postcard depicting the joy of the people welcoming the entry of the glorious Turkish soldier into İzmir after its liberation from Greek occupation on September 9, 1922.

Also included are the military identity card of Major Nuri Özkan dated 1926, a 1/10,000 scale Ottoman map of İzmir, a facsimile map of the Treaty of Sèvres signed on August 10, 1920, between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied Powers, a copy of the September 23, 1922 issue of the French magazine L’Illustration featuring the departure of part of the British colony by the Greek ship Elpiniki to London from İzmir, Bedi Hıfzı Efendi’s diploma from the İzmir İsmetpaşa National School dated 1929, and a 1927 share certificate.

These donations are kept in special cabinets in rooms referred to as the heart of APİKAM, designed specifically to protect against natural disasters like fire and earthquakes. These rooms are equipped with a sensitive alarm system against fire, and APİKAM staff take great care of the donations.

Those curious about all these donations and documents can easily access them through APİKAM’s website www.apikam.org.tr. To date, APİKAM has transferred approximately 300,000 data, including documents, parliamentary decision minutes, old newspapers, postcards, magazines, manuscripts, and maps into a digital archive program.

Access to all newspapers published in İzmir from 1877 to 1950 is available

Dr. Serhan Kemal Saygı, Director of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Ahmet Piriştina City Archive and Museum (APİKAM), stated that all kinds of archival materials reflecting İzmir’s historical accumulation are present in the institution. He pointed out that the largest collection of APİKAM consists of periodicals from the İzmir National Library, adding, “All newspapers published in İzmir from 1877 to 1950 have been digitized, and everyone can access this archive by entering the institution’s website www.apikam.org.tr. Additionally, there is also a collection of periodicals, meaning there is a document set that includes magazines. 138 manuscripts have also been digitized and made available for researchers. Among these three collection pieces, the largest document set is the newspaper archive belonging to the İzmir National Library collection. Citizens can access all newspapers published in İzmir from 1877 to 1950 digitally from their homes, online, or even from their mobile phones, including Ahenk, Anadolu, Yeni Asır, Hizmet, Halkın Sesi, and many others I cannot name right now. This also creates Turkey’s largest digital archive at the local government level. By doing this, we ensure the preservation of original copies,” he said.

APİKAM Director Dr. Serhan Kemal Saygı added, “Not only is our collection limited to newspapers and periodicals, but we also have a large document set that illuminates the Ottoman period of İzmir and its surroundings, namely the court records known as şer’iyye sicilleri. This includes not only İzmir but also court records from places like Afyon, Manisa, Balıkesir, Karaburun, Tire, Bergama, Çeşme, Kemalpaşa, and Foça. Aydın Province Salnames (Annuals) covering the years 1879-1908 and 1927-1928 are also valuable resources found in our archive.”

Call for donations

Addressing donations, Saygı concluded, “Another element of our archive collection consists of donations received from citizens. We have a donation unit here. Our citizens can donate any archival material (photos, documents, etc.) that sheds light on the history of İzmir and its surroundings. By making a donation protocol with our donors and obtaining their consent, we digitize their donations and then upload them to our archive program for the service of researchers. All these collections and gathered donations are classified according to contemporary archival methods and are kept in APİKAM’s special donation rooms. We also hope that İzmir citizens will share any written and visual documents and objects they have that relate to the city’s historical identity with us.