Turks in Palestine

Mamluk rule (1260-1517)

Ottoman rule (1517-1922)

Turkish Cypriot brides (1920s-1950s)

During the British rule of Cyprus (1878-1950) Turkish Cypriots who remained on the island faced the harsh economic conditions of the Great Depression and its aftermath. Consequently, many families in the poorest villages, facing debt and starvation, married off their daughters to Arabs mainly in British Palestine^[4] in the hope that they would have a better life.^[5][6] A bride price was normally given by the groom to the family of the girls, usually about £10-20, enough to buy several acres of land at the time, as part of the marriage arrangements.^[6][7] Such payments had not been part of Cypriot tradition, and Cypriots typically describe the girls in these forced marriages as having been "sold".^[5] The marriages were sometimes arranged by brokers, who presented the prospective husbands as wealthy doctors and engineers. However, Neriman Cahit, in her book Brides for Sale, found that in reality many of these men had mediocre jobs or were already married with children. Unaware of these realities, Turkish Cypriot families continued to send their daughters to Palestine until the 1950s. Cahit estimates that within 30 years up to 4,000 Turkish Cypriot women were sent to Palestine to be married to Arab men.^[8]