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The settlement of tunisian immigrants in Syria in the beginning of the 20 century... 367

to migrate to Libya. The aim of those immigrants who took refuge in
Tripoli was not to settle there permanently, but to return when the
conditions were suitable .
18

An Important Settlement Region: Syria

Syria, which is at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in a
key position for the dominance of the Middle East, has been an im-
portant settlement area since prehistoric times. Syria, the last stop
between the desert and the sea, has been an important place where
many elements of civilization, religions, alphabet and various arts
were transmitted to the Mediterranean world . The arrival of the Ot-
19
tomans in Syria occurred in the Seljuk period. Syria came under Ot-
toman rule with the Mercidabık War in 1516 . With the conquest of
20
Egypt as well as Syria, the Ottoman State expanded the scope of its
Eastern Mediterranean strategy .
21
Examining the 19 century demographic structure of Syria, where
th
many immigrants were settled during the Ottoman period, shows that
the majority of the population were Muslim. For example, in 1867,
99,436 of the 115,377 households in Aleppo Province, one of the most
important cities in the Syrian region, were Muslim, 1,544 were Chris-
tians and 724 were Jews. In other words, 85.8% of the populations of
Aleppo Province were Muslim .
22
The Muslims living in the lands that the Ottoman State had lost in
the 19 century had abandoned their homes. Because the Muslims
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living in the territory of the nation states established in Europe were
either expelled or fled due to their ethnic and religious identities .
23
Since this situation continued until the collapse of the Ottoman State,
the shortage of land to accommodate the immigrants was an im-
portant problem for the Ottoman state. As the migrations of refugees
increased, it became difficult to find land to accommodate the incom-
ing masses. Therefore, after Anatolia and the Balkans, the resettle-

18 M. Sititi, Tunus’un Fransızlar Tarafından İşgali Karşısında Osmanlı Siyaseti (1878-
1888), unpublished PhD thesis, Istanbul University, 2008, p. 166.
19 F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World cit., p. 161.
20 K.Z. Taş, Suriye’nin (Şam) Osmanlı Hâkimiyetindeki İdari Yapısı, «Tarih İncele-
meleri Dergisi», 15:1 (2000), p. 77.
21 E.S. Gürkan, Osmanlı-Habsburg Rekabeti Çerçevesinde Osmanlılar’ın XVI.
Yüzyıldaki Akdeniz Siyaseti, in Osmanlı Dönemi Akdeniz Dünyası, H. Çoruh, M. Y. Ertaş,
M. Z. Köse, (eds.), Yeditepe Publishing, Istanbul, 2011, p. 19.
22 Osmanlı Belgelerinde Halep, ed. T. Koltuk, Union of Turkish World Municipalities,
Istanbul, 2018, p. 42.
23 D. Chatty, Syria the Making and Unmaking of a Refugee State, Oxford University
Press, New York, 2017, p. 19.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XX - Agosto 2023
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)