Demetrius Nicolaides

Demetrius Nicolaides ( Dimitrios Nikolaidis; ; – 3 July 1915 ), also known as Nikolaidis Efendi, was an Ottoman Greek journalist and compiler of legislation. Johann Strauss, author of A Constitution for a Multilingual Empire: Translations of the Kanun-ı Esasi and Other Official Texts into Minority Languages, wrote that Nicolaides was "an extremely active but somewhat enigmatic figure in the press life of 19th century Istanbul ".

Career He began editing the Anatolikos Astēr in 1862. In 1864, he left the first publication and began editing Heptalophos ; he received ownership of it in 1865 and renamed it Nea Eptalofos. During periods when Kōnstantinoupolis was not in operation, Nicolaides edited Thrakē ("Thrace"; August 1870 – 1880) and Avgi ("Aurora"; 6 July 1880 – 10 July 1884).

He edited a French-language collection of Ottoman law, Législation ottomane, that was published by Gregory Aristarchis. He also edited the Greek version of the Düstur, Оθωμανικοί Κώδηκες ("Othōmanikoi kōdēkes", meaning "Ottoman Codes", with Demotic Greek using "Οθωμανικοί κώδικες"), its first non-Turkish version. These two publications enriched him financially, After the Ottoman government received the Greek version, it made him a third-class civil servant. The Bulgarian copies of the Dustür circulating stated that they were written by Christo S. Arnaudov ( ; Post-1945 spelling: Христо С. Арнаудов), who published it. Johann Straus concluded that the Bulgarian version probably originated from Nicolaides's Greek version due to "striking similarities" between the two, Gedeon stated that Nicolaides obtained 5,000 gold francs from the Ambassador of Russia to the Ottoman Empire, Ignatieff, to fund this publication, and that he did not give much of this away to other parties. According to Gedeon, Theodoros Kasapis wrote in Diogenis that the Russian ambassador had bribed Nicolaides. Ultimately, in 1889, he established an Ottoman Turkish newspaper, Servet.

For a period, his main printing facility was at Millet Han in Galata. He applied to move to a new facility twice, to Financılar Yokușu in 1899, approved but not completed, and then to Lloyd Han in 1902, also approved. The move was completed by 1903.

Because Nicolaidis tried to save his newspapers no matter what it took, he sold his possessions and lost his wealth. and a daughter, who married in 1892. He invited Sultan Abdulhamid II to his daughter's wedding. Balta and Kavak stated that this illustrated the close relationship between the Ottoman government and Nicolaides. He himself was in favour of Ottomanism.

According to Gedeon, Nicolaides had a house in Phanar (now Fener), one in Mouchli and one in Antigone (now Burgazada) in the Princes' Islands. An 1894 earthquake ruined the Mouchli house. He also received the Gold Cross of the Holy Sepulcher and the Gold Cross of the Holy Savior.