790 | www.ijar.lit.az INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 3. No. 3. May, 2011, II Part INITIATIVES TO COLONISE CYPRUS WITH JEWS IN THE 20 th CENTURY Prof. Dr. Ata Atun Near East University & SAMTAY Foundation, Famagusta (NORTH CYPRUS) ABSTRACT For hundreds of years the Jewish community has been blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus and because of this has been dispised and ostracised by the Christian world. The two most explicit examples of this can be seen in the fact that the Jews were exiled from Spain about 500 years ago and the fact that they were subjected to genocide during the 2 nd World War. As the land which their Prophet had promised them, was at that time under Ottoman rule and because the Sultan refused to allow the Jews the right to settle there, the Jews who for around 1900 years had lived under this oppression in Europe, started to think about settling in areas close to their ‘Promised Land’. After investigations in the area of the Eastern Meditteranean and because the British Administration acted sympathetically towards their cause, the island of Cyprus become a very attractive location to them and with the initiative of the associations they founded they began moves to form a Jewish colony on Cyprus. Key words: Cyprus, Jews, Jewish colony on Cyprus, history 1. INTRODUCTION At the start of the 20th century an initiative to found a Jewish settlement centre in Cyprus is made. All the financial funding for the settlement is met by the French philanthropist Maurice de Hirch and the “Jewish Colonization Association (JCA)” The attempts by the Jews to settle in Cyprus were short lived. This initiative was started by a few Jewish families who had recently moved to London from Russia in 1897 and had founded an association called ‘’Ahavat Zion”, Love of Zion. The aim of the association was to found new settlements areas and settle on Cyprus, which was only a days sea journey away from Israil which was then under Otoman rule. The aim of this document is to put this little known initiative on record and to give researchers basic information about this, to date little known issue. 2. THE JEWISH COLONISATION ON CYPRUS Many members of the ‘’Ahavat Zion” Love of Zion association are people who had managed farms in Russia. However more than planting and sewing and tending animals these people were more experts in collecting rent. Even so the members of the Association come to Cyprus, only a days sea journey away from the “Promised Lands” make explorations and decide to settle there. With this aim they approach the “Jewish Colonization Association” (JCA) to buy the 8,305 dönüm (11,110 hectare) Margo Farm. The JCA which believes that this move will serve the Jewish mission and fullfill the dream they have had for many years reacte positively to this request and give them the money required as credit. With this money, at the start of the 20th century, 15 families, members of the Association, come to Cyprus and buy the Margo Farm which is situated about 14 kms east of the British colonial capital Lefkoşa (Nicosia) and settle there. The JCA builds houses and stables for these families, buys seeds for them to plant and cattle for breeding and supplies them with a school, Synagog an oven and a mill. As the very hot and dry the weather of the Mesaoria (Mesarya) plain and the climate in Cyprus is not like that of west Europe, three of the families which settled return immediately. Another one of the reasons for this return are the Malaria spreading mosquitos as well as fact that there is no social life in their new poor village, made of adobe mud houses, or in the surrounding area. With the return of these three families the Jewish colony is reduced to twelve families and seven families, who can only endure this life of privation for two years also return two and a half years later, leaving only five families on the farm. With the dispersment of the Association members to different places, solidarity breaks down and the “Love of Zion” association is closed and becomes a thing of the past. As the credit had been given directly to the JCA, when the Association closes the JCA takes possession of the farm. Fig. 1. Location of Margo Farm in Cyprus