Research Information System
AMME IDARESI DERGISI, no.3, pp.59-87, 2022 (SSCI)
The Ottoman Empire refused to accede to the Berne Convention in line with cultural and educational policies that took effect during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. By 1923, at the Lausanne Conference, the founders of the Turkish Re- public guaranteed that they would soon join the Berne Union. However, despite the international pressures and the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey avoided being a member of Berne Union until 1951. In 1948, a group of Turkish authors and artists who deplored this failure organized under the leadership of Halide Edib Adivar to draw public attention to the matter and put pressure on the government. They then founded the Society for the Protection of Copyrights, and this civil initiative achieved its goal. On the other hand, when the Turkish government decided to join the Berne Union, the Society ceased its activities. To date, however, the Society's vital contribution to the implementation of international intellectual property law in Turkey has been overlooked by most researchers. Hence, in this article I aim to demonstrate the crucial role of the Society for the Protection of Copyrights in the process of Turkey's accession to the Berne Convention. Within this context, I argue that there is a clear link between the Society's campaign conducted over its three years (1948-1951) in favor of the Berne Convention and the change in the Turkish government's attitude toward international intellectual property law.