@article{2013,title={THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF OIL AND THE ROLE OF CALOUSTE SARKİS GULBANKIAN IN THE ALLOCATİON OF MESOPOTAMİAN OİL RESOURCES (1890-1928)},abstractNode={The end of 19th Century and in the early 20th Century, oil gained a strategic importance in international relations by taking the place of coal as a modern energy source. Besides the increase of oil consumption in industry, bringing the oil into play in navies with tensed competition between British- German navies, made the oil irreplaceable in terms of military strategy and these states started to focus more intensely on Middle East. Europeans were already informed of the rich oil resources of the region through not only the travelers walking in every inch of the region but the studies of European scientists as well. Although Mesopotamia witnessed the multidimensional conflict of European forces, it was still the Ottoman territory and the fact that no state could take the risk of occupying the region necessitated that the control of the regional resources should be ensured through peaceful ways. Gulbenkian, was born in 1869 into a family of Armenian oil trader. Gülbenkyan graduating from King’s College in London with excellence award as civil engineer at the end of 19th Century when the oil started to become a key actor in international contention, wrote his thesis on the rising oil industry and he achieved fame as an oil expert when he was just 22. His fame did not escape the attention of the Palace and Abdülhamit II asked Gülbenkyan to write a report on Mesopotamia oil resources. This report considered as the beginning of his story of Mesopotamia. C. S. Gülbenkyan who is an oilman thanks to his education and his family, saw into the competition of western states on Mesopotamia oil and played an active role in the allocation of regional resources by mediating between the conflicting parties. He made a fortune from this mediation by help of his close bonds with both western investors and Ottoman bureaucracy. His desire to made a fortune on regional resources in the struggle as much as it are exposed the Armenian community during this period the Ottoman administration and the Turks in to hold responsible for the troubles was effective. Mesopotamia oil was allocated among global powers according to the status quo to which Gülbenkyan contributed considerably until the outbreak of World War II.},author={Necmettin ACAR},year={2013},journal={The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies}}