Coll 6/81 'Syria: Status of Alexandretta and Antioch.' [‎167r] (334/576)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
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EASTERN (Syria).
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CONFIDENTIAL.
0 / u
(14955)
k 7 -
[E 196/3/89]
Section 1.
Copy No.176
Franco-Turkish Dispute over the Sanjak of Alexandretta.
Part I .—Nature and Origins of the Dispute.
THIS administrative district at present forms part of the Territories of the
Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. under French mandate, and is situated in the angle formed by the eastern
shore of the Mediterranean and the Turco-Syrian frontier. It consists of three
distinct regions : (a) A narrow coastal plain, with the town of Alexandretta
and its excellent roadstead (said to be the best sheltered anchorage for many
hundred miles in either direction), backed by the Amanus chain of mountains,
forming a barrier broken only by the important Beilan pass; (ft) the lower valley
of the River Orontes, with the town of Antioch and a hill area on the south;
{c) a wide marshy plain, running north from Antioch to the Turkish frontier.
The district has little value, apart from the potential importance of Alexandretta
as a mercantile port which could serve an extensive belt of territory running
astride the Turkish-Syrian frontier eastwards into northern Iraq and north-west
Persia, or as a possible naval base.
2. The population of the sanjak appears to he about 220,000, comprising a
heterogeneous collection of races and creeds. The largest individual element in
it is certainly Turkish-speaking, although it is very doubtful whether this
element (which in any case is doubtfully of pure Turkish race) either constitutes
a majority in the territory or is as a whole favourable to the present regime in
Turkey, since its culture and traditions have hitherto remained those of the old
Islamic Ottoman Empire, as contrasted with Kemalist Turkey. The following
statistics for the sanjak, calculated on a racial and religious basis, are given by
the French Government:—
Turks (Sunni Moslems)
Alawites (“Arab” race) ...
85,242
62,026
Armenians ... ... ... ....
24,911
Arabs (Sunni Moslems)
22,461
Christians (other than Armenians)
18,051
Circassians
954
Jews ...
474
Others ...
129
Total ... ... ... ... 219,080
The Turkish Government deny the accuracy of these statistics, asserting that
there are at least 150.000 Turks, including almost all of those listed as
“ Alawites ” by religion.
3. The present dispute between the French and Turkish Governments over
the future of the sanjak arises from divergent interpretations of the international
instruments which settled the fate of this district in the years immediately after
the war. The coastal districts of Syria and Cilicia were reserved to France by
the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, but they were occupied by British troops
after the armistice of Mudros with Turkey. In the autumn of 1919 the British
troops gave way to the French under General Gouraud. Meanwhile, in July
1919, the principles of mandates for ££ colonies and territories which, as a
consequence of the late war, have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States
which formerly governed them ” was enshrined in article 22 of the Covenant
of the League of Nations. France was then accorded an ££ A ” type mandate
over “ Syria ” by the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers in April 1920 at
the San Remo Conference. The terms of the actual mandate (which now specified
££ Syria ” and ££ the Lebanon ”) were subsequently laid down in the document
8997 [14420] b