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8/9/2019 Zionists & the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, 1876-1909
1/12
Pluto ournals
Zionists and the Ottoman Foreign Ministry during the Reign of Abdulhamid II (1876-1909)Author(s): Bülent Kemal ÖkeSource: Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Fall 1980), pp. 364-374Published by: Pluto JournalsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857551 .
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8/9/2019 Zionists & the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, 1876-1909
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Zionists and the Ottoman Foreign Ministry
during
the
Reign of
Abdulhamid II
(1876-1909)
Bülent
Kemal
Öke
By
the late
1800s,
Palestine
had
become the focus of the
European
Zionists who were
offering
o
deliver their followers
to the
Promised
Land.
Palestine, however,
was
neitherempty
nor
free of an
existing
sovereignty.
t
was
part
of the Asiatic
provinces
of
the Ottoman
Empire,
inhabited
by
the Arab
subjects
of
the
Sultan.
Having
elevated the
Zionist
movement
from a
disunited
collection of
philanthropic
ocieties to an
actor
in
international
elations,
Dr. Theodore Herzl admitted
that the
decision is in
the sole
hands
of His
Majesty
the
Sultan. 1 In order
to
win
Abdulhamid
I to
his
plan
of
establishing
home
for
he Jews
n
Palestine,
he made
five
journeys
to
Constantinople
between
1896
and
1902.
During
his
stay
at
the Ottoman
capital,
he was summoned o
the Porte
as
well as to the
Palace,
negotiated
from
Power to
Power,
as he
described
it,withvarious dignitaries f the State, including he Grand Vezir, and
was
even
granted
an
audience with
Abdulhamid
I.
Herzl was soon to
discover that the Sultan of
Turkey
was
vehemently
against
the
creation of a Jewish State in Palestine.2
At a time when the
Macedonian
uprisings
n
the
West and the
Armenianrevolts n
Anatolia
were
threatening
he territorial
ntegrity
f the
Ottoman
Empire,
the
Turkish
Governmenthad
no
desire
to
nurture
nother
nationality
roblem
within
ts
domains.
Thus,
the Ottomans
took the Zionist movement eri-
ously
from ts
inception
and devised their
policies
to
deal with t
accord-
ingly.
It
was Abdulhamid II himselfwho laid the
cornerstone of the
Ottoman reactiontoward theZionists. He was determined hattheTurk-
ish Government
should
prevent
Jewish
immigration
nd settlement
n
Palestine to
the best of
ts efforts.3 he
Sultan,
in
turn,
sked the Cabinet
to
carefully
discuss
the
entire
question
at
its
meetings
and work
out
detailed
policies
to
cope
with the
Zionist
phenomenon
both at home and
Bülent
emal
Öke
s
Lecturer
n
nternationalolitics
nstitutefPolitical
cience
University
f
stanbul.
1. R. Patai ed.),TheComplete iaries fTheodor erzl London,1960), ii,p.
909.
l.
Diaries
i,
p.
5
is.
3.
A.
Osmanoglu,
abam Abdülhamid
Istanbul,
960),
p.
46.
364
ASQ
Volume
2
Number
4
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Ottoman
Foreign Ministry
365
abroad.
The
final
program,
s
formulated
y
the council
of
ministers nd
approved
by
the
Sultan,
entailedfour ets
of
policies,
forwhose
execution
different
inistries
were
responsible.4
While the Ottoman
Foreign
Minis-
try
was
asked
to
persuade
the
Powers
not
to lend
any
support
to
the
Zionist
movement,
he
Ministry
f the Interiorhad to
find
ways
of
pre-
venting
he Zionists
from
ntering
he
country.5
espite
the efforts f the
ministries
oncerned,
some
Jews
managed
to
infiltrate
he
country;
t was
up
to the Grand Vezirate
to ensure that
they
did not
acquire foreign
protection
nd become entitledto
capitulatory
ights.6
Furthermore,
t
was the task of the Departmentof Land Registration o preventtheir
acquisition
of land in Palestine
and
its environs.7
The
Ottoman
Foreign
Ministry
ame to be
involved at
every
level of
decisionmaking
n Turco-Zionist
relations. Abdulhamid
II and
his ad-
visors'
image
of
Zionism
was
shaped
by
the
way
Turkish
diplomats
abroad
perceived
Zionism
and
by
the
way
they
communicated this
phe-
nomenon
to
Constantinople.
Second,
the
Ottoman
Foreign Ministry
proved
to be
highly
nfluential
n the formulation
f
definitive
olicies
toward
the
activities
of
the
Zionists,
both in the
diplomatic
field
and in
Palestine.Third,theForeignMinistry, ompared
withthe other Ottoman
ministries,
ore the heaviest
burden
n
the
mplementation
f
the Turkish
Government's
nti-Zionist
egulations.
I
When
Zionism came
to
the
forefrontf
Jewish
ffairs
with the
congre-
gation
of
the
First
Congress
at
Basle
in
1897,
the Ottoman
representatives
abroad
did not lose
any
time in
feeding
he
capital
detailed
information
concerning
he
development
of the entireZionist movement. While the
detailed
reports
nd
newspaper
cuttings
were
readily
dispatched
to Con-
4.
Tahsin
Pa§a,
Abdiilhamide
Yildiz
Hatiratari
Istanbul,
931),
pp.
7-9.
5.
PublicRecord
Office,
ondon
later
o be
cited s
PRO), Foreign
ffice
iles
(later
o
be
cited
as
FO),
78/5479,
o.
71,
Dickson
to
Bunsen,
Jerusalem,
9
December
900;
no.
34,
O'Conorto
Lansdowne,
onstantinople,
7
January
901.
6.
Foreign
elations
f
the
United
tates
later
o be cited s
FRUS),
(1886),
no.
445,
Cox
to
Bayard, onstantinople,January
886;
FRUS
(1893),
end. to
no. 3, MavroyenioGresham,2 November 893,Therapia.
7.
FRUS
(1898),
no.
78,
Angeli
o
Sherman,
onstantinople,
January
898;
FRUS
(1906),
no.
1370,
Jay
o
the
Secretary
f
State,
Constantinople,
5
April
1906;
RO, FO,
195/1765,
o.
35,
Dickson o
Clare-Ford,
erusalem,
0 December
1892.
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366
Arab Studies
Quarterly
stantinople,8
Turkish
diplomats
tried to interview Zionist
notables and
even
sent
agents
under
disguise
to
their
congresses.9
Turkish
diplomats
did not
perceive
the Zionist
phenomenon
favorably.
In
1898 Ali Ferruh
Bey,
the
Turkish
minister n
Washington,
eported
hat
Zionism
4
vitally
concerns Turkish
sovereignty. 10
The Turkish
ambas-
sador
in
Berlin,
Ali
Tewfik
Pasha,
wrote
to the Porte on
17
August
1900
that
we
must have no illusions about Zionism.
Although
he
speakers
at
the
Congress
dwelled
upon
vague generalities
uch
as the
future f the
Jewish
people,
the
Zionists,
in
effect,
im
at the formation f
a
great
Jewish tate n Palestine whichwould also spreadtowardstheneighboring
countries. 11Two
years
before his
message
reached
Constantinople,
he
Turkish
ambassador
in
London,
Antopulos
Pasha,
had
already
warned
the Porte
that
4
with the increase in the number
f
flourishing
olonies
in
Palestine,
the Zionist
colonizers
would
not be content to live
under
Ottoman
municipal
aw. 12 He
added
that
the
Zionists,
contrary
o
what
they
had
said
at
Basle,
would
press
for nternational
ecognition
nder
he
law
of
nations.
After
analyzing
these
reports,
the
Sultan,
as the
principal
decision
maker of the Ottoman Empire, admitted that he
4
understood their
[Zionists']
evil
projects,
and
as much as he
protected
his
Jewish
ubjects,
he was
still an
enemy
of
those Jews who entertained
ertain
chimeric
ideas
about
Palestine. 13
Abdulhamid I
thought
hat he
mmigration
nd
settlement f the
Jews in
Palestine
were
harmful
o
the
interestsof
the
Ottoman
Empire
insofar s
they
would lead to the
emergence
of a
4
'Jewish
Question,
and were
especially
dangerous
at a time
when the
Turkish
Government
had the
Armeniantroubles on its hands.14
Having
communicated o
the Portethe
emergence
nd
the
development
8. These were all
kept
in a dossierentitled The
Question
of
Zionism,
catalogued
nder
32/17 f the Ottoman
oreign
Ministry
rchives
later
o be
cited s
OFM).
9.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
1205/30,
issak Effendi
o
Tewfik
asha,
La
Haye,
17
August1907;
no.
23600/182,
ahmudNedim
o
Tewfik
asha, Vienna,
1
July
1898;
Yildiz Palace
Archives
t
the
Porte,
stanbul
later
o be cited s
YPA),
C
11/67/54/136,
li
Ferruh
ey
to
the
Palace,
Washington,
0
May
1898;
6
11/48-
49/54/136,27
pril
1898.
10.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
9597/81,
li Ferruh
ey
to
Tewfik
asha,
Washington,
3
July
898.
11.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
1683/136,
.
Tewfik
o
Tewfik
asha, Berlin,
7
August
1900.
12.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
23598/216,
ntopulos
o
Tewfik
asha,
London,
8 June
1898.
13.
Abdülhamid,
iyasi
Hatiratim
Istanbul, 975),pp.
76-77.
14.
C.
R.
Atilhan,
ttihat
e
Terakki in
uikastleri
Istanbul,
973),
pp.
200-1.
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Ottoman
Foreign
Ministry
367
of
Zionism as
they
perceived
them,
he
members f the
Turkish
diplomat-
ic
corps
were
also enthusiastic
n
advising
the Turkish Government
n
ways
to
cope
with
this
movement,
which,
according
to
them,
threatened
the territorial
ntegrity
nd
political
sovereignty
f
Turkey.
On
31
No-
vember
1903 the
Turkish
mbassador
in
Berlin
urged
the
Porte to elabo-
rate
the
existing
pecial
regulations
rohibiting
he Zionists from
cquir-
ing
land
in Palestine
and
preventing
he colonization of the
country,
activities
which,
according
to
him,
aimed
at
the establishment of
an
independent
State
within he
domains of the Ottoman
Empire.15
As earlyas 1898,Ali FerruhBeywrotea letter o the Sultan a copyof
which
he also sent
to the
Foreign
Ministry
t the Porte16
suggesting
hat
the time
has
come for
the
Government
f His
Imperial Majesty
to take
certain
measures
to
repair
the faultwhich
their
ncestors had committed
by
allowing
the
non-Moslem
communities
o settle
in Palestine. As the
journey
of the
German
Emperor
to
Jerusalem
learly
showed, Catholics,
Protestants,
Orthodox
and Jews
prepare
the
ground
for the
Powers
to
enhance
their
respective spheres
of
political
and
religious
ambitions
(within
he Ottoman
ands). 17
Ali Ferruh
Bey,
whose father ad been the
governor fJerusalem, urthernformed he Sultan thaton a recent visit
to Palestine
he had
seen the
way
the
Zionistswere
plundering
he riches of
the
country,
o the detriment
f
the
local Muslim
population.
In order to
rectify
hisstate
of
affairs,
e
suggested
hat
he
Government
acilitate
he
immigration
f Muslim
communities
nto Palestine
to
leave fewer
places
for
he Jews
to settle. Abdulhamid
I must
have
shared Ali
Ferruh
Bey's
anxiety,
for he declared:
We must
forget
he idea of
allowing
Jewish
immigration
nto
Palestine.
Otherwise,
s
they
would in due
course mus-
ter all
the
power
in their
hands
wherever
hey
settle,
we would
sign
the
death
warrant
of
our
religious
brothers. 18 On another
occasion,
Ab-
dulhamid I said, we could onlyopen our borders o those whobelongto
the same
nationality
nd
religion
s
we do. We
should
try
o
buttress he
Turkish
lement
n
our
body
politic. 19
When
Muslim Turkish
refugees,
in
the face
of
growing
repression
in the Balkans and
Russia,
fled
to
Turkey,
Abdulhamid
I settled them
n the
valley
of
Hauran,
Palestine.
When
t came
to
implementing
he Turkish
policies,
the
Foreign
Minis-
15.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
3309/178,
.
Tewfik
o
Tewfik
asha, Berlin,
1 Novem-
ber 1903.
16.
YPA,
C
11/48-49/54/136,
li Ferruh
ey
to the
Palace,
Washington,
7
April1898.
17.
OFM, 332/17,
o.
9550/63,
li Ferruh
ey
to
Tewfik
asha,
Washington,
9
April
1898.
18.
Abdiilhamid,
p.
cit.,
p.
76.
19:
Ibid.,
p.
68.
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368
Arab
Studies
Quarterly
try
was
asked
to
persuade
the Powers
not to lend
any
assistance
toward
Zionism. Since
Germany
was
the
European
Power
most
sympathetic
toward
Turkey,
the Ottoman
Government
hought
hat t
should
first
win
the
support
of the
Kaiser
for ts
anti- ionist
policies.
It is curious
that of
all the
Powers,
Germany
was the
country
most
favorably
isposed
toward
the Zionist
movement. The Kaiser
had
admittedthat the
4
'fundamental
idea of
Zionism has
always
interested
me]
and
even
aroused
[my] sym-
pathy. 20
n
September,
1898 Count
Evlenburg,
he
German
ambassador
in
Vienna,
wrote to
Herzl
that
4
His
Majesty
has
declared himself
eady
to
intervenewith heSultan and preparedto undertake heprotection fthe
Jews
in
the Orient. 21
When the German
Emperor attempted
o
discuss
the matter with the
Sultan and told him
that the Zionists were
4
not
dangerous
to
Turkey,
but
everywhere
he Jews are a nuisance
of
whom
one should
like to be
rid,
Abdulhamid I
was
reported
o have
replied
that he was
quite
satisfied
with his Jewish
subjects.22
Tewfik
Pasha,
the
Turkish
foreign
minister,
old
Wilhelm
I
on
his
tour
of
Jerusalem hat
4
the Sultan would
have
nothing
o do
with
Zionism and
an
independent
Jewish
Kingdom. 23
As
a
result,
Wilhelm
I,
anxious
not to
arouse the
suspicion
of
his host
over
such
a
project,
lost all his enthusiasm for
Zionism.
Biilow
was
extremely
pleased
to
see this
change
in the
Kaiser
and further onvinced him that since
Zionism
was a serious threat to
Turkish
sovereignty,Germany's
support
of
Herzl'
s
plans
was
incompati-
ble
with
the traditional
German
policy
of
maintaining
he
integrity
f
the
Ottoman
Empire.24
Turkish authorities
used
the same
line of
argument
with the Powers which had a vested
interest n the
preservation
f Tur-
key,
namely,
that
they
4
should
renounce the
idea
of
introducing
he
Jewish
people
into
the international
ommunity
s a
state,
because this
project, by
creating
a state within state
at the
center of the Ottoman
Empire,would assure theruinofTurkey. 25Turkishpropaganda in this
connection
was so
powerful
that the
Allegemeine Zeitung
wrote
on
11
August
1900
44Live
nd
let
live;
this s the
policy
of the
Great
Powers
not
only
towards the
Jews,
but
also towards the Turks. 26
It
appears
that
Germany
played
a
pivotal
role in the
shaping
of other
20.
I.
Friedman,
ermany
Turkey
nd Zionism
897-1918
Oxford, 977),
p.
65.
21.
Ibid.,
p.
68.
22.
Diaries
iii,
p.
770.
23. Friedman,p. cit.,p. 79.
24.
Biilow,
Memoirs
London,
1931),
i,
p.
250.
25.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
1683/136,
. Tewfik
o Tewfik
asha,
Berlin,
7
August
1900.
26. Ibid.
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Powers'
attitudes
toward Zionism.
In her withdrawal of
support
from
Herzl,
Russia
followed
Germany'sexample.
Plehve,
the Russian minister
of
the
interior,
had written
o
Herzl
in
August
1903 that
4
so
long
as
Zionism
consisted
of
wanting
o create an
independent
tate
in
Palestine
. . .
,
the Russian
Government
ould
be
completely
favourable to it. 27 t
seems
that
he Russians
gave
their
upport
o
the Zionists
to take
the
wind
from
German
sails.
Suspicious
as it was
of
Wilhelmstrasse'
ambitions
n
the
Near
East,
St.
Petersburg
must
have
thought
hat
f the establishment
of
a Jewish
State
were
unavoidable,
it would be
better to have
it under
Russianrather han Germanprotection.Once theGermansbacked down
from
fostering
he Zionist cause
in
Palestine,
the
Russian
Government
must
have
realized
that there was
no
need
to
complicate
international
relations
with another
nationality uestion.
Thus,
it
placed
the
Jewish
Question
in
cold
storage.
With
respect
to
the
French,
it must be said
that
Paris
was
always
against
Herzl's
project.
It was
clear,
Bodenheimer,
who
accompanied
Herzl
in his
Middle
Eastern
tour,
wrote,
that
Paris
watched
suspiciously
over
events
n Palestine.
Any
ncautiousdeclarationof a
protectorate
r a
Jewish
State
would
have led to
dangerous complications.
Should
the
French
fleet,
alerted at
Toulon,
have anchored off the
Syrian
coast,
trouble
would
certainly
have ensued. 28
Having recognized
the
potential
danger
o
world
peace,
Britain
was
content o
offer
Herzl
and his follow-
ers
less
sensitive
pots,
ike
Uganda
and
Cyprus,
to
fulfill
heir rredentist
aspirations.
II
Having done its homework n the diplomaticfieldby convincingthe
Powers
to
withdraw heir
upport
from he
Zionist
movement,
he Otto-
man
Foreign
Ministry
urned ts attention
o
anotherfacet of the Turkish
Government's
nti-Zionist
olicies.
The Ottomans wished to make
world
Jewry
elieve
that,
from he
point
of view of the
Jewish
people,
Herzl's
plans
were neither
feasible
nor
desirable.
They
hoped
that f
they
were
successful,
here
would be a
drop
n the number f Jewish onvertsto the
Zionist
ranks.
This would
indeed
deprive
he Zionists of theirmain source
of
strength.
typical
method
used
by
the
Turkish
Foreign Ministry
was to
27.
OFM,
332/17,
o.
3309/179,
.
Tewfik
o
Tewfik
asha,
Berlin,
1
Novem-
ber
1903.
28.
H. H.
Bodenheimer
ed.),
The Memoirs
f
Max Bodenheimer: relude
o
Israel
(New
York,
1963),
pp.
124-5.
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Ottoman
Foreign
Ministry
371
halt the
development
f
Zionism. Certain sections of
the
Jewish
commu-
nity,
such as the
4
Orthodox and the
reformists,
did
indeed
prove
helpful.
Orthodox
Jews believed that
only
a
Messiah could deliver the
Jews
nto
Palestine;
thus
Dr.
Herzl,
who
appointed
himself o
this
divine
task,
was a charlatan.
He
was not
only
interfering
ith the will of
God,
but also
promising
he Jews a
mission
which
he,
with his mere human
powers,
could
not
fulfil.34
eformists lso
did
not
think
highly
f
Zionism.
Reformist
ews
of
Western
Europe
thought
hat
Jews did
not
constitute
nation,
but
a
religion.
nstead
of
migrating
o and
settling
n Palestine
with
thehopeofestablishingheir wn State,they houldabsorb the cultureof
the
nations
among
which
they
ived.
They
were worried
hat
f Dr.
Herzl
could
convince
the
Turks,
then their
position
would be threatened
by
a
sudden
upsurge
of
anti-Semitism,
s
their
hosts could
insist that
they
leave
their
ountries nd
migrate
o Palestine.35
Assimilated
Jews
had
no
desire
to leave Western
Europe,
where,
apart
from ccasional
tragedies
like
the
Dreyfus
Affair,
hey
lived
in
peace
and
prosperity.
Thus Ali
Ferruh
Bey
foundthe reformist ews in
the
United States
very
coopera-
tive.
Reverend
Stoden,
the
grand
rabbi of
Washington,
old him
that
a
large
section of the
Jewish
community elonged
to the reformist chool
and
had
no
sympathy
whatsoever
with
Zionism.36
As
a
last
measure
to
prevent
he
Zionists
from
olonizing
Palestine,
the
Ottoman
Foreign
Ministry
rdered the
Turkish
diplomatic
corps
not to
give
visas
to those Jews
who
belonged
to the
Zionist
movement.37
Jews
who
had
hoped
to evade
the Turkish
restrictions nd had
embarked on
their
ourney
without
visas
were
surprised
o see
that
the Ottoman cus-
toms'
authorities
were
already
alerted about their arrival. The
Turkish
police
more often han
not
knew the
homeland,
the
date of
embarkation,
as well
as the number
f Zionists
aboard a
ship
even before t reached
the
shores of Haifa or Jaffa.The Turkish representatives broad had no
inhibitions
bout
spying
n the Zionists.
Once
they
earned that
party
f
Zionists
was
on its
way
to
Palestine,
they
immediately
nformed
the
Turkish
authorities
t home with
a
cipher
telegram.38
t was indeed
34.
OFM, 332/17,
o.
60,
Ali Ferruh
ey
to
Tewfik
asha,
Washington,
3
April
1898.
35.
OFM, 332/17,
o.
23598/216,
ntopulos
o
Tewfik
asha, London,
8 June
1898.
36.
YPA,
C
11/35-37/54/136,
li
Ferruh
ey
to
the
Palace,
Washington,
2
April
898;
YPA,
C
11/48-49/54/136,
li Ferruh
ey
to
Tewfik
asha,
Washing-
ton,27April 898.
37.
YPA,
C
11/275-276/54/136,
li
Ferruh
ey
to
the
Palace,
Washington,
4
January
899.
38.
YPA,
C
11/226-229/54/136,
li
Ferruh
ey
to the
Palace,
Washington,
October
898;
C
11/218/54/136,
li
Ferruh
ey
to
the
Palace,
15
September
898.
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372
Arab
Studies
Quarterly
remarkable that the Turkish
Foreign Ministry
nd
the
Ministry
f
the
Interior
chieved such a state of
coordination
and
cooperation.
Ill
Despite
Ottoman
ntransigence,
he
Zionists
managed
to
penetrate
he
borders
nd to
settlethousands
of their
ollowers n Palestine.
By
1909the
Jewish
population
of
Palestine had
risen
to
eighty
housand,
three
times
the number n 1882,when the first ntryrestrictionswere imposed; the
Zionists had
acquired
some
156
square
miles of and and set
up
twenty-six
colonies.39
The
wide
gap
between the
theory
and
practice
of
the Otto-
man
policies
and its results was attributable
o the intervention f
the
Powers on behalf of the Jewish colonizers.
Thanks to
the efforts
f
the
Foreign
Ministry,
he Ottomans
were
by
and
large
successful
in
persuading
he Powers
not
to
lend
any
support
o
the
Zionist
cause. The Powers
did not mediate between the Turks and the
Zionists. If the Zionists
lost on the
diplomatic
front nd failed to obtain a
charter or
home n
Palestine,
they
won
in another
way.
On their
rrival n
Palestine,
the Jewishsettlerswere not naturalizedas Ottoman
subjects,
but
preferred
o
acquire foreign ationality
n
order
to
enjoy
the
privileges
accorded to the Powers under the
Capitulations.
As
the
immigrants
b-
tained
certificates
f
protection
by very
doubtful
means),
the
European
consuls in
Jerusalem
were
compelled
to
recognize
them
as their sub-
jects.40
The Powers
made
it
clear to the
Porte that the
right
of
their
subjects
to
travel
nd to settlewithin he Ottoman
dominionswas
secured
by
the
Capitulations;
therefore,
nti-Zionist
egulations
were
considered
to be
ipso facto
null and
void
as
far as
they
concerned
persons
enjoying
theirprotection.41Thus, the delegations of European (and American)
Powers did not
hesitate
to
intervene
with he
Turkish
fficials
n
behalfof
the Zionists. As a
result,
each
regulation
f anti- ionist
egislation
of
the
Ottoman Governmentwas evaded.
Seeing
that ts efforts
o
check the
establishment
f a
Zionist
stronghold
within he
Ottoman
Empire
were
wasted,
the
ForeignMinistry
made a last
desperate
demarche.
It tried to
explain
to the Powers that the
Jewish
migrants
were
fraudulently cquiring
certificates
f
protection
nd that
39. N. Sokolow,History fZionism London,1919), i,pp. 326-31.
40.
PRO, FO,
78/1692,
o.
218,
Finn
to
Russell,Jerusalem,
y June
1862;
195/2028,
o.
408,
Dickson
to
O'Conor,
Jerusalem,
1 November
898.
41.
PRO,
FO, 195/1575,
hite o
Moore,
Therapia,
9 October
1887;
FRUS
(1888),
no.
1083,
Straus
o
Bayard,Constantinople,
9
May
1888.
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Ottoman
Foreign
Ministry
373
they
were
using
them
to
evade
the
anti-Zionist
egulations
f
the
Porte.
Believing
thatthe
protégé
system
constituted
source of
inexhaustible
abuses,
Said
Pasha,
the
foreign
minister f
Turkey,
n a
note dated
April
1887,
asked the
Powers
to withdraw heir
protection
rom he
Zionists.42
Although
Britain
agreed
in
principle,
London
still
thought
hat
4
'owing
to the actual
persecution
f
the Jews
n
Russia,
it
might
e
injudicious
as
a
matter f
policy
to
deprive
the Jews in
Syria
and
Palestine
suddenly
of
British
protection. 43
The
Porte
did
not find
Germany
and
Russia
very
cooperative
either.
Both countrieshad
genuine
nterests
n
the
promulga-
tionof Zionistpolicies. As Herzl told the Kaiser and Plehve, the exodus
of
theJews
from hese
countries
meant hat he
Socialist movement
would
be
deprived
of its leaders
and
supporters
on
the one
hand,
and
anti-
Semitismwould
be
sapped
of
its
impetus
on
the other.44
With
respect
to
external
considerations,
both
the Germans and
Russians must have
thought
hat these Jewish
lements,
once
placed
under their
protection,
would
prove
themselves
gents
for heir
ncreased
nfluence n that
part
of
the Ottoman
Empire.
As
a last
effort,
he
Foreign
Ministry
urned o
the
United States. The
U.S.
stand vis-à-vis
the Zionists was left to
the discretion of
the U.S.
minister
n
Constantinople,
Oscar
Straus,
who
was
favorably
disposed
toward
Zionist
aspirations.45
As
a
result
of
Straus'
continuous at-
tempts
o
champion
Jewish
rights,
Ali
Ferruh
Bey
wired the
Sultan that
Straus was
blocking
America's
acquiescence
to
the
Turkish
policy
of
restricting
he
stay
of American Jews in
Palestine.46
Abdulhamid I had
him removed fromhis
post
in
Constantinople.
On
28
August
1893 the
Turkishministern
Washington
ppealed
to the
State
Department
hat he
question
of Zionism was an internal ffair f
the Ottoman
Empire,
and
Americans should
abide
by
the
principles
of
the
Monroe
Doctrine,
namelyno one should mix himself itherdirectly r indirectlywith the
affairs f others. 47 These
protests,
however,
fell
short
of
changing
the
American attitude
oward the Zionists in
Palestine.
In
1911,
seeing
that all his
Government's efforts
had
been
in
vain,
Abdulhamid
II,
deposed
and
exiled
by
then,
admitted to
his
private
42.
PRO, FO, 83/1723,
nei, to
no.
394,
White o
Salisbury,
herapia,
10
September
891.
43.
PRO, FO, 195/1510,
o.
14,
Elridge
o
Granville,
eirut,
5
May
1882.
44.
Diaries
ii,
pp.
669-671.
45. FRUS (1888),no. 1101,Adee to Straus,Washington,November 888.
46.
YPA,
C
11/275-276/54/136,
li
Ferruh
ey
to
the
Palace,
Washington,
4
January
899.
47.
FRUS
(1893),
Mavroyeni
o
Gresham,
Washington,
orrespondence
ith
the
Legation
f
Turkey,
8
August
893.
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