FRENCH MANDATE OF SYRIA

The 'French Mandate of Syria' was a League of Nations Mandate created after the First World War when the Ottoman Empire was split by the Treaty of Versailles. Four mandate territories were created, with the rest of the territory placed under monarchies. The British controlled the Mandates of Palestine and Iraq, while the French controlled the Mandates of Lebanon and Syria. France and Syria signed a Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence in 1936, but the Mandate continued because France failed to ratify the document. Syria was granted its independence in 1943, after Free French and British forces regained it from Vichy France in 1941 during the Syria-Lebanon campaign. The French forces finally left the country on April 17, 1946: this day is celebrated by Syrians as "Independence Day" (Arabic: عيد الاستقلال), it is also referred to as "Evacuation Day" (Arabic: عيد الجلاء).

Contents

History

French mandate of Lebanon

Alaouites

Jabal el Druze

State of Aleppo

State of Damascus

The Sanjak of Alexandretta

History

Following the San Remo conference and the defeat of King Faisal's short-lived monarchy at the Battle of Maysalun, the French under General Henri Gouraud subdivided their new mandate of Syria into five states. They were the states of Damascus, Aleppo, Alaouites, Jebel Druze, and Alexandretta (modern-day Hatay). In June, 1922, France established a loose federation between four of the states: Damascus, Aleppo, Alaouites, and Jebel Druze. On December 1, 1924, France united the states of Aleppo and Damascus into the state of Syria, adopting the federal flag (green-white-green with French canton). Jebel Druze was incorporated into the Syrian republic in 1936 after the unratified Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936. Alaouites was incorporated into the Syrian republic in 1937. Alexandretta (Hatay) was handed over to Turkey by the French in 1939 after complaints by Atatürk about the alleged mistreatment of the Turkish population. Syria has not recognized the incorporation of Hatay within Turkey and the issue has been a source of some tension between the two countries.

French mandate of Lebanon

The French mandate of Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate created at the end of World War I.
On September 1, 1920, General Gouraud proclaimed the establishment of 'State of Greater Lebanon' with its present boundaries and with Beirut as its capital. The new territory was granted a flag, merging the French flag with the Lebanese cedar.
The State of Greater Lebanon existed until May 23, 1926. Despite its short life, it had major significance for contemporary Lebanon; Greater Lebanon set precedent for the recognition of these borders. France carved its territory from the Levantine land mass the League of Nations mandated to France, from Ottoman-occupied Syria, by enlarging the "safe haven" Ottoman province of Lebanon that had been created for the local Maronite population.

Alaouites

Alaouites, or the 'Alawite State', was a French mandate in the coastal area of present-day Syria after World War I. It was renamed Latakia in 1930 and became part of Syria in 1937. Population was 278,000 in 1930, mostly belonging to the Alawite sect of Shi'a Islam.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the war brought on a scramble to take control of various provinces of the empire. France occupied Syria in 1918, and received it as a mandate from the League of Nations on September 2, 1920. Initially it was an autonomous territory under French rule, then declared a state September 29, 1923, with the port city of Latakia as its capital.
On September 22, 1930, Alaouites became the Sanjak of Latakia.

Jabal el Druze

Jabal el Druze was a French mandate from 1921 to 1936. It was a former part of the Ottoman Empire, inhabited by Druze (a gnostic off-shoot of Islam) with a population of 50,000, which achieved autonomy on May 1, 1921.
On March 4, 1922 it was proclaimed as the 'State of Souaida', after the capital As Suwayda, but in 1927 it was renamed 'Jabal el Druze' (جبل الدروز, literally ''Druze Mountain'') or 'Jebel Druze State', after the Jabal el Druze mountain. Under the Franco-Syrian Treaty of 1936 it ceased to exist as an autonomous entity and was incorporated into Syria.

State of Aleppo

The State of Aleppo was a French mandate from 1920 to 1925.

State of Damascus

The State of Damascus was a French mandate from 1920 to 1925.

The Sanjak of Alexandretta

The Sanjak of Alexandretta was autonomous from 1921 to 1923, under the French-Turkish treaty of 20 October 1921, due to the presence of an important Turkish community along with Arabs of various religious denominations: Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Maronites. There were also communities of Jews, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians and Greeks. In 1923 Hatay was attached to the State of Aleppo, and in 1925 it was directly attached to the French mandate of Syria, still with special administrative status.
The 1936 elections in the sanjak returned two MPs favoring the independence of Syria from France, and this prompted communal riots as well as passionate articles in the Turkish and Syrian press. This then became the subject of a complaint to the League of Nations by the Turkish government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk concerning alleged mistreatment of the area's Turkish populations. Atatürk demanded that Hatay become part of Turkey, claiming that the majority of its inhabitants were Turks. The sanjak was given autonomy in November 1937 in an arrangement brokered by the League. Under its new statute, the sanjak became 'distinct but not separated' from the French Mandate of Syria on the diplomatic level, linked to both France and Turkey for defence matters.
The allocation of seats in the sanjak assembly was based on the 1938 census held by the French authorities under international supervision: out of 40 seats, 22 were given to the Turks, nine for Alawi Arabs, five for Armenians, two for Sunni Arabs, and two for Christian Arabs. The assembly was appointed in the summer of 1938 and the French-Turkish treaty settling the status of the Sanjak was signed on 4th July 1938.

On 2 September 1938 the assembly proclaimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta as the 'Republic of Hatay', taking as an excuse that rioting had broken out between Turks and Arabs. The Republic lasted for one year under joint French and Turkish military supervision. The name "Hatay" itself was proposed by Atatürk and the government was under Turkish control. The president Tayfur Sökmen was a member of Turkish parliament elected in 1935 (representing Antalya (Greek: Αττάλεια)) and the prime minister Dr. Abdurrahman Melek, was also elected to the Turkish parliament (representing Gaziantep) in 1939 while still holding the prime-ministerial post.
In 1939, following a popular referandum, the Republic of Hatay became a Turkish province.