It was founded in 1908 by Mevlanzade Rifat Bey, who in 1924 would become one of the 150 personae non gratae of the newly established Republic of Turkey, because the paper and its founder had an oppositional and hostile stance to the independence movement led by Mustafa Kemal.
The editor-in-chief of Serbestî, Hasan Fehmi Bey, was murdered on 6 April 1909 by unknown assailants.
[2] Following this incident Mevlanzade Rifat Bey left Istanbul and settled in Paris where he published Serbestî for a short period.
[3] Next he went to Egypt and published the paper there until February 1910 when it was banned.
[3] Following his return to the Ottoman Empire he resumed the publication of Serbestî in İstanbul on 12 July 1912.