Savaş Yillarinda Akhisar’da Bir Ziraat Okulu: Or Yehuda
An Agriculture School in Akhisar During The War: Or Jehuda

Summary/Abstract: Within the dificult conditions of the World War I, the Mükellefiyet-i Ziraiye Kanunu was promulgated by the governement as a consequence of the decrease in the agricultural production. Under the authorization of this law, the managers of the Or Yehuda farm inaugurated by the Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA) in 1899 gave the majority of the products produced in this farm to the military and civil authorities. Ottoman military power stayed within the farm for a while. Under the war conditions where high amount of money was spent for war expenses, resort were sought for the companies which constituted a burden to the state budget. In this framework, the governor of Izmir, Rahmi Bey who applied austerity measurements decided to transport temporaryly the Seydiköy school of agriculture in Akhisar as it was situated in an unfertile soil and was ineffectual to compansate the management expenses into the school of agriculture which was situated within the land of the Or Yahuda farm. This decision led to a reaction from the Or Yehuda association and the agricultural school’s administrators. The administrators of the Or Yehuda thought that the governor was aiming at confiscating the entire land of the farm. In order to prevent this possibility, the administrators of Or Yehuda requested an emergency help from the German embassy. Accordingly the German Embasy in Istanbul and the German consulate in Izmir paid close attention to this matter and lobbied for a decision in favour of Or Yehuda on the governement and governorship level. This paper sheds light to the talks between the parties after Rahmi Bey’s decision and the extent to which the German foreign ministry in Turkey was enrolled in this subject in reference with the archival material of the German foreign ministry affairs. The communications in the documents moreover points out the role played by the allied Germany in protecting the non-muslim Jews in the Ottoman territory.

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