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Coll 6/81 'Syria: Status of Alexandretta and Antioch.' [‎170v] (341/576)

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The record is made up of 1 file (286 folios). It was created in 17 Sep 1936-31 Aug 1939. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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Government proposed that the League should itself take the “ destim ” of the
sanjak into its hands. As a specific conservatory measure the Turkish Govern
ment wished to see the withdrawal of the French and of the native troops at
present in the sanjak and its occupation by an international force under a League
Commissioner. At the same time they considered it necessary that neither France
nor Syria should do anything calculated to change the position of the territory^
23. After mutual assurances of their friendly feelings towards each othei
by the representatives of Turkey and France, the Council proceeded to appoint
the Swedish Foreign Minister, M. Sandler, as rapporteur for the question and
then to adjourn.
24. On the 15th December the French Representative made a long speech of
reply in the Council. M. Vienot stated that the French Government could not
accept the Turkish thesis, since they regarded article 22 of the League Covenant,
and the decision of the Supreme Council allotting the mandate in 1920. a&
defining the juridical position of France in all ex-Ottoman territory which had
passed under her control. France had acquired no sovereignty over this territory,
but merely a mission to develop it in accordance with the mandatory principle.
When the mandate was allotted in 1920 it was necessarily left to France to
organise the administration and to conclude the necessary agreements to fix the
frontiers; one of these agreements was the Franco-Turkish Agreement of 1921
which was confirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The fact that France
had been in military occupation of Cilicia after the war was a question of fact
which could not be held to fix a binding legal frontier; the legal frontier on the
north of the territory allotted to French mandate first came into existence in the
Franco-Turkish treaty of 1921. The fact that it was necessary in article 7 of
that treaty to provide guarantees in favour of the Turkish population actually
proved the intention to embody the sanjak in a wider non-Turkish State.
M. Vienot summed up as follows : In 1921 France had negotiated, and could only
negotiate, with Turkey in her capacity as mandatory for Syria; she had never
received any direct sovereignty over the sanjak and could not have assumed it
through an agreement for frontier delimitation; and the sanjak had no special
juridical claim to independence outside Syria. In any case, he added, the Turkish
Government had not taken exception throughout the last fifteen years to the
treatment given to the i urkish elements in the sanjak or to the participation of
the territory in the national life of Syria. For its part the League Council had
m 1930 approved the Organic Law of Syria, which embodied the existing special
administrative statute of the sanjak.
25. Turning to the future, M. Vienot pointed out that, pending the proposed
entry into force of the Franco-Syrian draft treaty settlement on the entry of
Syria into the League in three years time, Turkey would have full opportunity
to make objections and to propose amendments in the course of the detailed
consideration of the Franco-Syrian settlement by the organs of the League. In
any case the settlement as drafted could not affect the existing rights of the Turks
in the sanjak, since the new Syrian State was contracting, vis-a-vis France, to
respect international obligations entered into on its behalf in the past by the
mandatory Power. For this reason it had not been necessary to make specific
mention of the sanjak in the draft settlement. Furthermore, the population of
the sanjak would benefit by the general minority guarantees embodied in a
Franco-Syrian exchange of notes included in the treaty settlement; and he pointed
out that the French Government would have the right’to intervene, if necessary , in
support of those guarantees.
26. M. Vienot maintained that France had taken all necessary precautions
vis-a-vis the Syrians to safeguard the rights of the population in the sanjak.
ISievei theless, as a token of their friendship towards the Turkish Government, the
French Government would have been ready to offer further guarantees through
the medium of an additional Franco-Syrian exchange of letters. But the Turkish
Government were demanding the erection of the sanjak into an independent
State, a proposal which was inacceptable to the French Government, as it went
far beyond the scope of the 1921 treaty and came into direct conflict with the
mandatory document of 1922, which referred only to States of Syria and the
Lebanon. France had no sovereignty over the sanjak, and could not possibly
negotiate an agreement which would conflict with the terms of the mandate and
with the principles laid down from time to time by the League, e.g., the decision
of the Permanent Mandates Commission at its 24th session (approved by the

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Content

This file documents the British response to developments regarding the status of the Sanjak [administrative district, referred to in Arabic as Liwa] of Alexandretta, including the cities of Alexandretta [İskenderun, Turkey] and Antioch [Antakya, Turkey].

The file features the following principal correspondents: His Majesty's Ambassador, Istanbul (Sir Percy Loraine, succeeded by Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen); His Majesty's Ambassador, Bagdad [Baghdad] (Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, succeeded by Sir Maurice Drummond Peterson); His Majesty's Ambassador, Paris (Sir George Russell Clerk, succeeded by Sir Eric Phipps); the British Consul, Aleppo (Archibald William Davis); the British Consul, Damascus (Gilbert MacKereth); His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Reader William Bullard); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Anthony Eden); officials of the Foreign Office.

The correspondence includes discussion of the following:

  • The demography of the Sanjak of Alexandretta.
  • Turkey's claim for the Sanjak to be given autonomy.
  • The progression of Franco-Turkish negotiations, brokered by the League of Nations and resulting in the Sanjak's new autonomous status (in its internal affairs only), as granted in a League of Nations statute, concluded in January 1937 and brought into force on 29 November 1937.
  • Reports of both Arab and Turkish demonstrations in Alexandretta and Antioch during January 1937 (as well as Arab demonstrations in Aleppo).
  • Pressure from Syria and Iraq for the Sanjak to be partitioned between Syria and Turkey.
  • The reported registration of non-Turkish electors in the Sanjak as Turks.
  • Reported divisions in the Syrian Nationalist Government.
  • The conclusion of a treaty of friendship between France and Turkey in July 1938.
  • The announcement in September 1938 that the Sanjak of Alexandretta will in future be known as the Republic of Hatay, with Antioch as its capital.
  • The Franco-Turkish agreement regarding the change of status of Hatay to that of a Turkish province, concluded in June 1939.

The French language material in the file consists of several items of correspondence, plus copies of the aforementioned Franco-Turkish agreement (dated 23 June 1939) and the Turco-French treaty (dated 4 July 1938).

The file includes two dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (folios 2-3).

Extent and format
1 file (286 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 287; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 6/81 'Syria: Status of Alexandretta and Antioch.' [‎170v] (341/576), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2154, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100049233825.0x000090> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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