Hatay State#Proclamation of independence

{{main|Sanjak of Alexandretta}}

Formerly part of the Aleppo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, the Sanjak of Alexandretta was occupied by France at the end of the First World War and constituted part of the French Mandate of Syria.

The Sanjak of Alexandretta was an autonomous sanjak from 1921 to 1923, as a result of the Franco-Turkish Treaty of Ankara, as it had a large Turkish community as well as its Arab and Armenian population. Then it was attached to the State of Aleppo, then in 1925 it was directly attached to the State of Syria, still with a special administrative status.{{cite journal|last=Picard|first=Elizabeth|date=Spring 1982|title=Retour au Sandjak|journal=Maghreb-Machrek|publisher=Documentation française|location=Paris|issue=99|language=fr}}

Marshal Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk), refused to accept the Sanjak of Alexandretta as part of the Mandate and, in a speech on 15 March 1923 in Adana, he described the Sanjak as "A homeland where Turks lived for centuries and can't be a captive at the hands of enemy".{{cite web |url=http://www.antakyarehberi.com/hataytarih/4.htm |title=History of Hatay (In Turkish) |publisher=Antakyarehberi.com |access-date=2012-06-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515164237/http://www.antakyarehberi.com/hataytarih/4.htm |archive-date=2013-05-15 |url-status=dead }} Turkish policy aimed at annexing the Sanjak of Alexandretta when the French mandate of Syria was due to expire in 1935. Turks in Alexandretta initiated reforms in the style of Atatürk's, and formed various organisations and institutions in order to promote the idea of union with the Republic of Turkey.

File:Kemal Ataturk congratulation of the Hatay's decision.png of congratulation sent by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after the proclamation of Hatay State.]]

In 1936, the elections returned two Syrian independentist MPs (favouring the independence of Syria from France) in the sanjak, and this prompted communal riots and passionate articles in the Turkish and Syrian press. In particular, Arab nationalist Zaki al-Arsuzi was influential.

In response, the Atatürk government coined the name Hatay for the Sanjak of Alexandretta, as a reference to Hittites (Syro-Hittite states), and raised the "Issue of Hatay" ({{langx|tr|Hatay Meselesi}}) at the League of Nations. On behalf of the League of Nations, representatives of France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey prepared a constitution for the sanjak. The new statute came into power in November 1937, the sanjak becoming 'distinct but not separated' from Syria on the diplomatic level, linked to both France and Turkey for military matters.

Image:ProtestsAnnexationAlexanderetta.jpg in 1939 by women demonstrators against the secession of the Sanjak of Alexandretta, and its subsequent joining into Turkey as the Hatay Province. One of the signs reads: "Our blood is sacrificed for the Syrian Arab Sanjak."]]

On 2 September 1938, the sanjak assembly proclaimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta as the Hatay State. The State lasted for one year under joint French and Turkish military supervision.

On 29 June 1939, following a referendum, the Hatay legislature voted to disestablish the Hatay State and join Turkey. This referendum has been labelled both "phoney" and "rigged", as the Turkish government organised tens of thousands of Turks from outside Alexandretta to register as citizens and vote.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJHtAAAAMAAJ|title=The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East|author=Robert Fisk|edition=Paperback|publisher=Vintage|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4000-7517-1|page=335}} The French encouraged the annexation, hoping it would act as an incentive to Turkey to reject an alliance with Nazi Germany.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmlX4Y7PMjgC|title=Identity, Conflict and Cooperation in International River Systems|author=Jack Kalpakian|edition=Hardcover|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|year=2004|isbn=0-7546-3338-1|page=130}}

Hashim al-Atassi, the President of the Syrian Republic, resigned in protest at the continued French intervention in Syrian affairs, maintaining that the French were obliged to refuse the annexation under the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936.

The Hatay State Peoples Assembly ({{langx|tr|Hatay Devleti Millet Meclisi}}) consisted of 40 members, consisting of 22 Turks, nine Alawites, five Armenians, two Orthodox Greeks and two Sunni Arabs.

On 7 July 1939, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey approved the law establishing the Hatay Province and incorporating districts from Adana Province (then Seyhan Province) and Gaziantep Province. By 23 July 1939, the last vestiges of the French Mandate authorities had left Antakya, and the territory was fully annexed by Turkey. The result was a flight of many Arabs and Armenians to Syria. The region's Armenian population, having been survivors of the Armenian genocide, migrated to the French Mandate of Syria due to fears of Turkish prosecutions and therefore weren't able to contemplate Turkish sovereignty.{{cite web|title=ARMENIA AND KARABAGH|url=http://www.historyoftruth.com/ebook/kitab20110130094307919.pdf|work=Minority Rights Group|date=1991|access-date=8 December 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903134742/http://www.historyoftruth.com/ebook/kitab20110130094307919.pdf|archive-date=3 September 2013}} Following the annexation, almost the entire Armenian population of Hatay had settled in Aleppo, with many others moving to Lebanon where they founded the modern town of Anjar near the ruins of its historic castle.

According to the estimates of the French High Commission in 1936, out of a population of 220,000, 39% were Turks, 28% Alawite Arabs, 11% Armenians, 10% Sunni Arabs, 8% other Christians and 4% were Circassians, Kurds and Jews. Although Turks formed the largest single ethno-religious group, Arabic speakers, including Sunnis, Alawites and Christians, were more numerous.{{cite book|last=Brandell|first=Inga|title=State Frontiers: Borders and Boundaries in the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GBxQvqTZEAC|access-date=30 July 2013|year=2006|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-076-5|page=144}}

File:Ethnic composition of Hatay (1936).jpg

In 1937, most sources pointed that out of a total population of 186,000 people (which is according to the French government's 1932 report) in sanjak of Alexandretta, 85,000 people were Turks, 25,000 were Armenians, and the remainder was largely made up of Arabs with some Greeks, Jews, Kurds, and Circassians.{{cite journal |title=The Sanjak of Alexandretta |journal=Bulletin of International News |date=23 January 1937 |volume=13 |issue=15 |jstor=25639616 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25639616 |access-date=25 March 2022|author1=H. L |pages=3–7 }}

• Syrian Turkmen
• Kars Republic

{{Reflist}}

• Sökmen, Tayfur: {{lang|tr|Hatay'ın Kurtuluşu İçin Harcanan Çabalar}}, Ankara 1992, {{ISBN|975-16-0499-0}}.
• Dr. Abdurrahman Melek, Hatay Nasıl Kurtuldu, Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1966

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{{French Mandate of Syria}}

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Category:Former countries in West Asia

Category:States and territories established in 1938

Category:History of Hatay Province

Category:1939 in Turkey

Category:Syria–Turkey relations

Category:Former countries of the interwar period

Category:1938 establishments in Asia

Category:1939 disestablishments in Asia

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1939