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The settlement of tunisian immigrants in Syria in the beginning of the 20 century... 369

caused problems. Some of the lands given to the resettled immigrants
were lands used by the local people, which resulted into unrest and
conflict. The Bedouins, who generally lived a tribal life and were a
closed society, did not easily accept the immigrants . For example,
31
the Hawran region, which is an important settlement region of Damas-
cus Province, was one of the places where the Bedouins and other
indigenous communities frequently attacked these immigrants . This
32
was not the only problem created by the resettlement of immigrants in
Syria. It is also known that other states, due to conflicting interests,
frequently intervened in Ottoman settlement policies. Russia was op-
posed to the Ottoman settlement policies because of their being con-
troversial to Russian interests on East Anatolia. Because of this, Rus-
sia wanted Circassians to resettled in Central Anatolia and Syria. On
the contrary, Italy, France and England opposed the settlements of
refugee immigrants in Syria, Beirut and Palestine .
33

Resettlement and Provisioning of Tunisian Immigrants in Syria

The first and most important problems for the immigrants, the
main actors in the process, were the resettlement procedures. If an
immigrant settles on a land, this would be the new homeland of the
immigrant and they would be able to start his economic activities as
soon as possible to continue their life. However, in the second half of
the 19 century and the beginning of the 20 century, it was quite
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difficult for the Ottoman State, which faced the problem of immigra-
tion not only in Syria, but across the whole of Ottoman territory, to
quickly finalize settlement processes. The reasons for this were eco-
nomic problems, disruptions in the coordination of local administra-
tors and the central government, the large number of immigrants and
finding suitable land. The following examples, which are reflected in
the Ottoman documents, show that the government experienced great
difficulties as in other regions in the settlement of immigrants in Syria.
Syria was one of the significant resettlement places. However, at
the end of the 19 century, the a scantiness of land due to the inten-
th
sity of the immigrants were commenced. At the end of 1894, the Syrian
governorship was asked how many of the immigrants were not settled,

31 O. Kızılkaya, T. Akay, Kafkasya Muhacirlerinin Suriye cit., pp. 141-142.
32 T. Başıbek, 19. Yüzyıl Sonunda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Muhacir Hareketliliğine
Suriye Vilayetinden Bakmak, «Toplumsal Tarih», 282 (2017), p. 56.
33 S. Erkan, XIX. Yüzyıl Sonlarında Osmanlı Devleti’nin Göçmenleri İskan Politikasına
Yabancı Ülkelerin Müdahaleleri, «Osmanlı», 4 (1999), p. 624; K. H. Karpat, Osmanlı’dan
Günümüze Etnik Yapılanma ve Göçler, Timaş Publishing, Istanbul, 2010, p. 171.

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