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The settlement of tunisian immigrants in Syria in the beginning of the 20 century... 371

to purchase the necessary tools for agriculture should be found urgently.
It was ordered to transfer this money derived from a lottery organized for
contributing the resettlement costs to the branch of Ziraat Bank in Da-
mascus . It was important and urgent for the province to provide the
38
necessary money as soon as possible due to the precarious and miserable
situation of immigrants who were temporarily placed at the inns (han).
The presence of immigrants waiting under difficult conditions for
their resettlement continued in the following year. The resettlement of
120 Tunisian immigrants consisting of 34 families who came to Da-
mascus via Aleppo, could not be done. In addition, there were 70 Cau-
casian immigrants waiting to be settled in the region. The governor’s
office, who had problems with finding the required money for the set-
tlement of these immigrants, requested it from the Ministry of Interior.
The government found this impossible and wanted the 5,000 lira re-
quired for the expenses to be covered by the local budget or covered
by the Agricultural Bank of Damascus from lottery revenues. In the
reply sent to the Syrian Province on the 24 of February 1909, it was
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stated that permission was requested from the vizierate for the proce-
dures to be carried out regarding the Tunisian immigrants, reply was
expected. It was mentioned that the Ministry of Finance in order to
obtain the money urgently, and to prevent the immigrants from stay-
ing in temporary residences and misery for a long time .
39
Again, another Tunisian immigrant group in Syria applied to the
government to be resettled as soon as possible, but they were not re-
settled yet. Tunisian immigrants applied again on the 8 of March
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1909, and drew attention to their plight. The Governor of Syria re-
ported the situation to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a letter for
the urgent settlement process on the 25 of March 1909. Upon corre-
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spondence with the Grand Vizier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs re-
quested that Immigration Commission carry out the transactions im-
mediately, to give the necessary orders for resettlement . Looking at
40
the records two years after this event, it is seen that the settlement
problem continued. There were Tunisian immigrants who came to
Syria in 1910 and still could not be settled. According to the records
of the Council of Ministers dated the 12 of February 1911, the
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38 «Instructions on the settlement of immigrants from Caucasus, Tunisia, Rumelia
and Algeria who were sent to the Province of Syria and to solve this problem». BOA,
DH.MKT. 2760/42, 8 March 1909.
39 «Procedures to be made about Tunisian immigrants coming to Damascus». BOA,
DH.MKT. 2760/53, 08 March 1909.
40 «Resettlement demands of Tunisian immigrants in Syria». BOA, DH.MKT. 2776/1,
25 March 1909; «Correspondence between Ottoman government and Syrian Province
regarding the dispatch and settlement of Tunisian immigrants». BOA, DH. MKT.
2794/3, 12 April 1909.

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