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The settlement of tunisian immigrants in Syria in the beginning of the 20 century... 373

the Ottoman Government sought to obtain a commitment document
from the immigrants stating that they would not claim to be foreign
nationals and that they would obey Ottoman laws.
Likewise, for Tunisian immigrants who are considered to be resettled
in Syria, early measures were taken for citizenship. The Ministry of For-
eign Affairs informed the government that a document containing mutual
agreement should be obtained from Tunisian immigrants who wanted to
come and settle in Damascus in order to accept their resettlement re-
quests, since France claimed the right over the Tunisians. Since such
problems were previously experienced in respect to the Algerian immi-
grants, it was also required that the documents to be submitted by the
immigrants be approved by the French embassy. However, the Tunisian
immigrants who were waiting for settlement were also in misery. Drawing
attention to the situation of the immigrants, the Ministry of Internal Af-
fairs demanded that they would be resettled in Syria as soon as possible
in a petition dated the 5 of May 1909 . 117 Tunisian immigrants re-
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44
peatedly submitted their complaints about their situation to the govern-
ment and they awaited resettlement. These immigrants demanded that
they should be settled on a miri land (state owned land/treasury land).
Although immigrants needed to be resettled as soon as possible, the Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs drew attention to the letter sent to the Immigration
Commission on the 19 of November 1893 and requested the procedures
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to be carried out accordingly. According to the aforementioned article, a
document should be obtained from each immigrant with a separate seal
and signatures stating that all immigrants who want to immigrate to the
Ottoman Empire accepted Ottoman citizenship and would be subject to
the laws of the Ottoman State, and that they would not in the future
claim to be a citizen of a foreign country . Subsequently, each immigrant
45
would have this letter approved by the embassy of the state they belong
to and will afterwards be accepted as immigrants. These were require-
ment for the admission as immigrants and after the completions of these
transactions were made by the immigrants, they were settled in Syria.
At the end of the same year, a new group of Tunisian immigrants
who arrived in Syria were accepted for resettlement on the condition
that they pledged to become Ottoman citizens. According to the letter
sent to the government from the Syrian governorship on the 7 of De-
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cember 1909, a new group of immigrants from Tunisia and Algeria,
consisting of 24 families, came to Syria with passports or not. These

44 «Informing the Ministry of Interior about the number of people who want to come
and settle in Syria from Tunisia and whether they will accept resettlement in Adana
Province». BOA, BEO. 3598/269828, 15 July 1909.
45 «Informing the Ministry of Interior about the number of people who want to come
and settle in Syria from Tunisia and whether they will accept resettlement in Adana
Province». BOA, BEO. 3598/269828, 15 July 1909.

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