Chapter 6, Part 2: The Loss of the Sanjak of Alexandretta to Turkey, 1937-1939

Turkey had designs on the Syrian Sanjak of Alexandretta, and kept working to cut it off and annex it.

To reach this goal it held fast to the agreement it had concluded with France on 20 October 1921 (mentioned earlier), whose seventh article gave the inhabitants of the sanjak special privileges. It said:

"A special administrative system shall be set up for the region of Alexandretta. The inhabitants of Turkish race in this region shall enjoy every facility necessary for the advancement of their culture, and the Turkish language shall have official status there."

Under a decision issued by the French High Commissioner Sarrail in January 1925, the Sanjak of Alexandretta acquired a special system under which Arabic and Turkish were equal in official dealings. But Turkey kept watching for its chance and making known its wish to take control of the sanjak's affairs out of Arab hands into its own, until the chance came when England and France began courting it in the hope of drawing it to their side. Because of that, France went back on its pledges and the honor of its responsibility, and concluded a token agreement with Turkey providing for the question of Alexandretta to be referred to the Council of the League of Nations. It was France that represented Syrian interests, and France that was at the same time conspiring with Turkey. So the League of Nations approved a special statute for the sanjak and the enactment of a fundamental law, both to come into force from 29 November 1937. At the same time the League of Nations formed an international commission to supervise general elections in the sanjak, made up of a representative each of Belgium, England, France, Sweden and Turkey, to oversee the conduct of the elections.

Attention must be drawn to the fact that the fundamental law drawn up by the League of Nations provided that the Sanjak of Alexandretta would remain part of Syria, enjoying only internal autonomy. This fundamental law also provided for the election of a representative council of forty members, half of them Turks and half Arabs, and laid down a minimum for each group as follows:

8 Turks, 6 Alawites, 2 Arabs, two Armenians and one Greek. The malice in this cannot escape anyone: the Turks never amounted to half the population. What is more, the system treated the Alawites as if they were not Arabs, in a further effort to break up the Arab character of the land.

This agreement left the sanjak's external representation within the competence of the Syrian government, and also provided that its citizens would carry Syrian passports, that it would form a customs union with Syria, and that the Syrian pound would remain its currency. When preparations for these elections began, French and Turkish interference in their course began too, in order to corrupt their legitimate results. The Belgian, Swedish and English representatives protested against this interference, announced their resignation from the international supervisory commission and left the sanjak on 28 June 1938. They submitted a detailed joint report to the League of Nations, in which they showed the extent of the evident manipulation in the drawing up of the electoral rolls, and laid particular emphasis on the methods of pressure and coercion to which the Arab voters had been subjected.

The answer of the French and Turkish states to the protests of the Syrians and the members of the international commission about the election report came very quickly, which confirms that matters had been arranged in secret and prepared in advance. The two states concluded a secret agreement between them on 4 July 1938, signed for France by its ambassador in Ankara, Monsieur Ponsot (formerly its High Commissioner in Syria), and for Turkey by its foreign minister, Rüştü Aras.

This agreement contained France's recognition of the independence of the sanjak and of the predominance of the Turkish element in it. This is contrary to the facts, and a betrayal by France of the international obligations it had undertaken toward the League of Nations and toward Syria, under which it was bound to preserve the integrity and unity of Syrian territory. To cover up this mortal stab, France held sham elections in the sanjak on 23 July 1938 under the supervision of a French-Turkish body.. as a result of which the victory was announced of a "National Assembly" made up of 22 Turkish deputies and 18 Arab deputies.. And so the Arab majority was turned into a minority![1]

With France's consent the Turkish army crossed the border on 25 July 1938 and occupied important positions in the sanjak. Under this double occupation the representative council met, elected a head of the sanjak, and proclaimed the "State of Hatay". But this state of affairs did not last long, for France went on to agree with Turkey that Turkey would finally annex the Sanjak of Alexandretta under the treaty of 13 July 1939, and so it became part of the Turkish state.

Syria never recognized this amputation. I remember that when I was Minister of Education in 1951 and 1955, I sent a large number of students to study at foreign universities on the basis of the governorates, and one of these governorates was the Governorate of Alexandretta. When the results were announced in this form, the Turkish ambassador came to me to protest against this name, as interference in his country's affairs.. But he heard what he did not like, and was shown out without the respect due to an ambassador's rank.

Syria went on strike for a long time in protest at the loss of Alexandretta. What made the country's situation worse was that the efforts made to persuade France to ratify the treaty it had concluded with Syria did not succeed.

A split also took place among the leaders of the National Bloc, and the government of Jamil Mardam resigned on 18 February 1939. The President of the Republic, Hashim al-Atassi, asked Lutfi al-Haffar to form the government, but it lasted no more than 42 days.. The French authority took over direct rule of Syria, and decided to refer those who disturbed public order to the foreign mixed courts from 20 March 1939. President al-Atassi tried to keep up the civilian form of government to spare the people, and asked Nasuh al-Bukhari to form a new government, but the High Commissioner suspended the work of the Chamber of Deputies from 20 April 1939, so al-Bukhari's government resigned on 4 July 1939, and the President of the Republic saw no reason to remain in office, so he too resigned on 7 July 1939. On 8 July the High Commissioner assumed direct rule, suspended the constitution, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies and formed the government of directors under Bahij al-Khatib.

Endnotes:

[1] The official statistics show that the population of the Sanjak of Alexandretta in 1936 was 220 thousand, distributed as follows:
85000 Turks.
62000 Alawite Arabs.
22500 Sunni Arabs.
24000 Christian Arabs.
25000 Armenians.
5000 Jews.
900 various nationalities.
Clearly the number of Arabs is 108500 against 85000 Turks, and the loyalty of the ethnic minorities goes to the Arabs and not to the Turks.