Osmanlı Mahkemelerinde Elçilik ve Konsolosluk Tercümanlarının Fonksiyonu

The right to use an interpreter in court was adopted as one of the guarantees of procedural law in Islamic and Ottoman law, as it is today, and constituted one of the privileges granted to foreigners in capitulations. However, the weakening of the state and the forced political and economic conditions, and the transformation of the capitulations into a restrictive element of the Ottoman sovereignty, led to the abuse of this right granted to foreigners by trying to use it in a way that exceeded its purpose and scope. The judicial reforms carried out during the Tanzimat Period were put forward by the Ottoman State as a basis for eliminating these excesses. However, foreign state representatives tried to use this right beyond its scope and function by taking advantage of the ambiguity of the expressions in the capitulation texts and through interpretation, in order to protect their own subjects and ensure political interests. This study aims to shed light on the legal nature of the privilege in question, how the function attributed to embassy and consulate translators was evaluated by the parties, and its implementation in the light of capitulation texts and Ottoman and British archive documents.