Mersin Shipping Chamber’s 37-Year History and Port Community Roots

Mersin’s shipping community is entering a new chapter after Cihat Lokmanoğlu’s 37 years at the helm of the Mersin Chamber of Shipping (MDTO). Captain Berdan Doğan, a Maritime Academy graduate, has taken over as board chair after a contest between two lists. His White List defeated the Blue List, which nominated Murat Uçar. It was the first two-list contest in the chamber’s history, according to the source.

The handover brings an uninterrupted period of leadership to a close and puts the chamber’s origins back in focus: a local maritime association formed in 1972, a dispute over who should organize shipping businesses in Mersin, and the creation of a separate chamber in 1989.

A long tenure ends

Lokmanoğlu led MDTO from its establishment in March 1989 until the latest leadership change. The source describes his tenure as 37 years, though it gives October 2026 as its end date while also stating that Doğan began his duties on October 14, 1986. Those dates conflict with the account of a 37-year tenure beginning in 1989, so the precise date of the handover is unclear from the text.

Before becoming chair, Lokmanoğlu served on the board of the Mersin Shipowners and Agents Association from 1986 to 1990. He was born in Mersin in 1954, attended Tarsus American College and Acalanes High School in California, and graduated from Cornell University in 1976 with a civil engineering degree. He completed a master’s degree there in 1977.

His work extended beyond MDTO. Lokmanoğlu was a delegate to the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), served on its High Coordination and Arbitration boards, and became a board member and co-chair of the Turkish side of the Türkiye–Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Chamber of Commerce Forum after 2018. From 2000 to 2018, he chaired Mersin Free Zone Operator Inc. (MESBAŞ).

In maritime business, Lokmanoğlu worked in ship agency and cold-chain sea transport. His company, C.B.A. Maritime Affairs Transportation Storage Service Tourism Trade and Industry Inc., operates in the region as CBA Cold Quay, with logistics, cargo and cold storage among its activities.

The association that came first

Mersin’s shipowners and agents formed their first local trade association in 1972. The province recognized it in a letter dated November 26 that year, numbered 117. The group held its first meeting at Catoni Maritime Agency and began with 12 founding members.

Fehami Kuzeyman was the association’s first president, with Jorj Şaşati as vice president and Ksenofon Tahinci as general secretary. Hanri Atat served as treasurer. The other board members were Romolo Babini, İskender Şelfun and Albert Botros.

The founding roster reflected the range of shipping and agency businesses active in the port. It included Fehami Kuzeyman Shipping Agency; Erkut Kuzeyman and Fehami Kuzeyman and Son Fehami Kuzeyman Co. Ltd.; Jorj Şaşati; İbrahim Nakkaş and Associates; Hanri H. Atat Atako Trade Co. Ltd.; Ksenefon Tahinci Antuan E. Makzume Shipping Agency; Romolo Babini Emilie Levante Halefleri; Jorj Şelfun Catoni Maritime Affairs Inc.; Emilio Levante Scandinavian Shipping Agency; İskender Şelfun Shipping Agency; İlyas Soysal Shipping Agency; and Nikola Zeliç Lyonel Makzume Shipping Agency.

Several of these names later appeared in MDTO’s founding story. The account lists Abdulkadir Hadra, Albert Botros, Ali Ay, M. Cihat Lokmanoğlu, Haldun Kancaal, Hanri Atat, İlyas Soysal, İrfan Solmazer, Jan Taşçı, Mişel Şaşati, Erkut Kuzeyman, Remon Kumdereli and Semir Tınaz among the people involved in establishing the chamber. From its first board, Ali Ay, Haldun Kancaal, Jan Taşçı and Semir Tınaz are still living; Abdulkadir Hadra, Albert Botros, Hanri Atat, İlyas Soysal and Remon Kumdereli have died.

Why Mersin formed a separate chamber

The national structure for maritime representation began with the Istanbul Chamber of Shipping, established in 1982 with 744 members. Its reach later expanded through branches and representatives in port cities across the Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. The chamber’s name reflected that widening footprint, while Mersin developed its own organization.

The source traces the framework for separate maritime chambers to a 1981 change to the legislation governing chambers and commodity exchanges. It says the Istanbul chamber was approved in May 1982 and began operating on August 26 that year. Mersin’s chamber followed in 1989, despite earlier efforts to organize shipping interests in the city and approvals described in the account.

The divergence grew from a visit by Ziya Kalkavan, then speaker of the Istanbul chamber’s assembly. He wanted to visit Mersin and İskenderun and encourage local organization. The writer says he accompanied Kalkavan on the trip and witnessed the meetings firsthand.

The group flew to Adana before travelling to Mersin. Local business figures with roots in Rize and the Black Sea region met them at the airport, and the party continued to the city in a large Buick. At Sülün Han, Kalkavan spoke with the visitors over lunch and called on the Black Sea business community in Mersin to help organize a shipping chamber there.

Afterward, the party travelled to İskenderun, where Ernest Boutros welcomed them. At a restaurant in Belen, Kalkavan spoke with younger members of local maritime firms about the value of organizing in that port. The account says the reception was positive and that an İskenderun branch was established later.

In Mersin, the appeal to Black Sea business figures landed differently. The city already had a Shipowners and Agents Association, and its members felt that the visit had bypassed them. The perceived slight helped turn a question of regional organization into a push for a distinct Mersin chamber.

At a later meeting in the association’s headquarters at Sülün İşhanı, Hanri Atat chaired discussions about the visit. The writer recalls a small, narrow room and a group gathered around a long table. Those present may have included Remon Kumdereli, Mişel Şaşati, Erol Kuzeyman, İrfan Solmazer, Jan Taşçı, Albert Botros and Cihat Lokmanoğlu.

Participants revisited Kalkavan’s request and their sense that the existing association had been overlooked. The idea of establishing a separate chamber gained support, though the group did not reach a decision immediately. When news reached Istanbul, it surprised some members there.

A four-person delegation led by Istanbul chamber chair Hilmi Sönmez then travelled to Mersin to address the dispute. The account recalls a separate episode during the trip: Atat sent his own car to collect Sönmez in Adana after hearing that he needed a vehicle with a telephone. Other shipowners objected, saying they should not provide transport to someone they saw as opposed to them. The delegation’s visit did not resolve the underlying disagreement, and MDTO was established in 1989.

Families shaped by port trade

The chamber’s history is also a record of the families and businesses that connected Mersin to other ports. The source describes ship agents in Mersin and İskenderun as having roots in Ottoman cities including Aleppo and Beirut, with migration and commercial ties shaping the port communities over generations.

Hanri Atat was a prominent shipowner and agent in that network. His family moved from Beirut to Tarsus in the early 19th century and settled in Mersin in the early 20th. Born on January 28, 1929, Atat attended school in Beirut and later studied at Mersin Trade High School. He served as a reserve officer, worked at Akbank and Ziraat Bank, and established his own business in 1963. He married Aline Zehil in 1970 and became Denmark’s honorary consul in 1986.

Atat also supported civic and cultural institutions in Mersin, including the chamber of commerce, the Mersin Cultural Center and the Mersin International Music Festival. The source credits him with contributions to schools, hospitals, diabetes centers, universities, opera houses and cultural venues, as well as other charitable work. He died on July 22, 2003. His funeral account reflects the city’s religious diversity: he was buried as a Catholic, while a religious scholar also recited from the Quran at his grave.

Remon Kumdereli, another MDTO founder and a former council president, is remembered by the writer as gentle, sociable and devoted to Mersin. He died in the city on April 18, 2010. His funeral was held the following day at Mersin Orthodox Church, and he was buried in the city cemetery.

The Botros family’s connection to Mersin began with timber shipments for the Suez Canal. The source links the family’s arrival from Beirut to the canal works led by Ferdinand de Lesseps. After the International Suez Canal Company was established in 1858, timber from the forests behind Mersin supplied construction needs. Iskender Botros and his workers cut pine logs in the mountains, moved them downhill by ox cart and brought them to the shore for shipment to Suez.

Albert Botros, born in Mersin in 1933, was part of the third generation of the family business. His son Aleks Iskender Botros recalls that his father studied in Beirut and England before returning to Mersin. In 1954, after further education in Lebanon and London, Albert joined his father, Iskender, in the company Iskender Albert Botros Shipping and Trade Ltd. Albert died in 1996, after which his son took over management.

Other agency families linked the city to shipping networks beyond the eastern Mediterranean. Rinaldo Levante represented the Navigazione-Assucurazione insurance company in Mersin and Istanbul from an office on Bankalar Street. After his death in 1990, his son Davide ran Levante-Mar, an agency active in passenger shipping and tourism, until his death in 1999.

Enrico Levante, born in Mersin in 1908, worked with his father at Emilio Levante Successori. The family’s descendants married into the Sayek and Chachati families, both associated with İskenderun and Mersin. The source says the Levante Successori trademark rights were later sold to Arkas Group, chaired by Lucien Arkas.

Fehami and Erkut Kuzeyman represent another link between shipping services and local transport. Fehami, a chief inspector at Turkish Maritime Enterprises, was assigned to Mersin and later opened a local branch and maritime agency. His son Erkut, born in Istanbul in 1943, studied at Robert College and completed business studies in the United States. He worked with his father, took over after his father’s death and expanded into agency work for foreign vessels and a transport fleet.

Erkut Kuzeyman also served among the early board members of the Mersin Maritime Transporters Association. Outside shipping, he held sports roles in Istanbul and Mersin, including as president of Demirspor Club. The source recounts his support for Tarsus İdmanyurdu and says he became ill in 1986 after the team missed a championship. He died on April 21, 1991, and was buried in Mersin.

For Mersin’s shipping businesses, the leadership change closes one chapter of institutional history. The chamber’s origins show how local relationships, representation and long-standing agency families shaped its structure. Doğan and his colleagues now inherit an organization built through decades of port trade and debate over how Mersin should speak for its maritime sector.

Source: SeaNews Türkiye