The topic of this article is the Edict of Islahat –Islahat Fermanı- which was annonced in 1856

This period marks an important cross-section of the experience of co-existence in the Ottoman Empire. Because, in this time, Muslims and non-Muslims were accepted as uquals. It has been passed from the concept of subject (re‘aya) to the concept of citizenship and to be able to reach this goal many regulations have been proposed. Therefore, we looked at the reasons, preparation, content and proclamation of the Edict, the connection of Paris Peace Conference and the Edict, the differences and similarities between the Tanzimat and Islahat edicts, the reforms which were regulated in connection with the Edict and the practise of reforms such as the issue of conversion. Turkey is a candidate country for EU membership and negotiations have been carried out between two sides. As far as I am concerned, there are many similarities between this process and regulations which were done in the period of Islahat Edict mainly about minorities. I tried to evaluate the smilarities of these periods. In the conclusion, I tried to draw some conclusions.