Although mainstream Ottomanists argued that the Armenian communities in western part of the Empire were exempted from the deportations of 1915-1916, Ottoman port city of Smyrna was not a safe haven during the war years. The outbreak of the First World War gave Ottoman governors-general the opportunity to attain dictatorial powers, and in case of necessity, take preventive measures over the residents in their realms of authority. Rahmî Bey of Aydin province was one of the forerunners of these governors who exercised considerable autonomy in the pursuit of his own political agenda and personal interests. In spite of the fact that he had close ties with the Unionist triumvirate and enjoyed Unionist networks in previous years, Ottoman participation in the war on the German side prompted the disagreement between the Unionist leaders and the pro-British governor-general. In the first decade of the 20th century, Aram Hamparzum (alias Kamparsomian), an Ottoman Armenian fig merchant, appeared as the rival of “Smyrna Fig Packers” Ltd., a British firm. Despite he ceded his business to the British company by contract in 1911, he continued to work figs on his own account in opposition to the company, with the encouragement of Rahmî Bey. When the war broke out in 1914, Hamparzum, aided by H. Giraud, also a Levantine merchant, created fictitious boom on the market through selling their shares in the company. Contrary to traditional historiography of the Ottoman economy, Hamparzum case reveals that non-Muslim Ottoman merchants found themselves more often in direct competition than in co-operation with European merchants thanks to their social and commercial networks. His case shows that non-Muslim merchants continued to dominate the local market in the temporary shelter of Smyrna, though the Central Office of the CUP employed economic measures to liquidate the non-Muslim bourgeoisie, and the Armenians were sent to the brutal death marches toward the Syrian Desert in the spring of 1915. Nonetheless, after the Great Fire of Smyrna in September 1922 and the subsequent population exchange following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, the Ottoman Christian communities in the city were wiped out by ethnic violence. Shortly after the end of the war, the first Economic Congress of Turkey was convened in modern-day Izmir between 17 February and 4 March 1923, and the venue of this congress was Hamparzum’s fig warehouses located along the inner quay.