When did the first quarantine implementation take place in Turkey?
When did the first quarantine implementation take place in Turkey? Reports show us that the first quarantine took place during the Ottoman Empire when a cholera epidemic prevailed in 1831.
After the outbreak of the disease in Russia (possibly the extension of the first cholera pandemic), the British, French and Austrian embassies requested that the ships coming from Russia to Ottoman ports be quarantined against this deadly disease.
Two years later, when the cholera epidemic came to Istanbul in 1831, it was decided that Ottoman ships from the Black Sea would be quarantined at Büyük Liman (Sariyer) and other state ships would be quarantined at Istinye Bay for five days. In 1835, due to cholera affecting the Mediterranean environment, quarantine tents were set up in Çanakkale and the ships going to Marmara and Istanbul were put on hold for a while. Later, many quarantine stations were established on highway routes.
Tuzla Tahaffuzhane, one of the most known quarantine centers called “Tahaffuzhane” during the Ottoman period, is located in the Tuzla port area, where Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Maritime faculty is located.
An academic at ITU Maritime Faculty, said two tahaffuzhanes (quarantine centers) had been established in Tuzla and Urla (in Izmir) during the Ottoman Empire, to serve as quarantine centers to order to prevent the spread of epidemics such as cholera, plague, typhoid, typhus, flower, yellow fever which effected the whole world in 19th century.
The same official said Tuzla Tahaffuzhanesi had been completed and entered service in 1892 and shared following:
“Tuzla Tahaffuzhanesi was the first place where our citizens who emigrated from Greece and Bulgaria set foot. The health problems of our citizens who came as a result of the change decision of the Lausanne exchanges, were solved here and the healthy ones were placed here in Anatolia.”
