The first decade of the 20th century… Izmir is the backbone of the Anatolian economy… Its thousands year-old port is the Ottoman Empire’s gate into Europe… Every kind of produce grown in its fertile soil from cotton to tobacco, grapes and figs and they are sent not just to the east but shipped from Izmir to the countries of the West.

In this city, which was the pearl of the Ottoman Empire’s eye, Gabriel J. B. Arcas established Arkas in 1902 as an import agency. In 1944 it began to operations in the field of international transportation.

At a time when the country needed more branches of business even more than ever, Arkas, headed by Lucien Gabriel Arcas, began to evaluate the potential of this peninsula surrounded by water on three sides.

Arkas first dispatched ships loaded in Turkey to Egypt. Within a short time they were sailing the seven seas… Arkas’s main goals were to utilize maritime waterways and, in parallel, to play a leading role in the rapid development of the country’s economy.

In 1964, as horse-drawn carriages gave way to motorcars and cobblestones were replaced by asphalt, Arkas’s development accelerated with the establishment by Lucien Arkas of the Lucien Arkas Shipping Agency. This company provided services to shipowners renowned in the global transportation sector for their success and reliability and successfully represented the Turkish Transportation Sector in the international market. Arkas was responsible for the first container shipment from Turkey in 1978 and pioneered the acceptance of this transportation system in the country.

Changing circumstance meant that Arkas had to grow. This resulted in the establishment of a joint stock company in 1979 and this ‘development’ became complete with the adoption of the name Arkas Shipping and Transport.

The restructuring of Arkas at the beginning of the 21st century led to the foundation of Arkas Holding which today brings together under a single roof 66 companies active in the international transportation and services sector. Today the Arkas flag is the symbol of international transportation in Turkey and in particular of container transportation

Gabriel J. B. Arcas

Lucien G. Arcas

over a century of proud achievement...