The Ministry of the Interior received Nicolaides' request for publishing the paper in January 1888,[5] and around February of that year the newspaper began distribution.
[6] In addition the newspaper had received official rebukes for stating negative information about Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdulhamid II and for also doing so against a high school teacher, Şerif Efendi, who was later cleared by an investigation in the Ministry of Education; the publication had to retract articles about the latter.
[8] In 1895 Servet began publishing content in French also after Abdulhamid II's affirmation; Nicolaides had applied to the Interior Ministry for this in August 1895.
[7] Tahir Bey became the publisher in 1897, and the owner in 1898, the latter with approval from Abdulhamid II, after Nicolaides agreed to transfer it to him for 50 years.
Baltia and Kavak argued that based on a statement by Ali Arslan comparing the editorship to the office of the patriarch and the Tower of Babel that the newspaper's content "was disorganized.