In 1891, ICA bought land
near Smyrna in Turkey and established an agricultural training center, Or
Yehudah, on an area totaling 3,000 hectares, by 1902. Owing to numerous
difficulties, the center was closed in 1926.
A group of Rumanian Jews in Anatolia was assisted by ICA in the early 20th century, and a small-scale Russian immigration led ICA to establish an immigration bureau in Constantinople in 1910. ICA also bought land in Anatolia and Thrace, and founded Messillah Hadashah and two other agricultural settlements for several hundred families. During World War I, the settlers were forced to leave, and in 1928, the colonies were practically liquidated. Only the immigration bureau remained to assist emigrants in transit for Eretz Israel. At the end of the 19th century, ICA also attempted to settle Jews in Cyprus. In 1897, at the request of the British government, it transferred 33 Russian refugee families from England to Cyprus, establishing three small colonies there. This venture failed and after a few years the settlers re-emigrated.