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Coll 6/81 'Syria: Status of Alexandretta and Antioch.' [285r] (570/576)
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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
V
c
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
TURKEY.
CONFIDENTIAL.
v >\
[E 6183/688/89]
October 1, 1936.
Section 2.
Copy No. | ( 7
Mi'. Morgan to Mr. Eden.—(deceived October 1.)
''No. 489.)
Sir, Istanbul, September 26, 1936.
I HAVE the honour, with reference to my despatch No. 474 of the
12th September regarding the recently signed Franco-Syrian Agreement, to
inform you that the whole local press is daily devoting a great deal of space to
the future of Alexandretta and Antioch.
2. All the newspapers, while congratulating Syria on obtaining her
independence, remind her that France, in 19*21, took an engagement to grant
local autonomy to the Alexandretta region, and to recognise the right of the
Turkish population there to special treatment. The signature of the recent
agreement does not release either France or Syria from that engagement.
If any change is to be made in the status of the Sanjak of Alexandretta, it can
only be done by agreement between Turkey, France and Syria. Turkey which
dislikes the mandatory system will not view with any favour an attempt to
substitute a Syrian mandate over Alexandretta and Antioch for a French one.
Nor will Turkey be silent if Syria attempts to give the Turks in the autonomous
sanjak “minority treatment.” They are entitled, since 1921, to special
treatment, and any whittling down of their rights would justify a demand on
the part of the Turks of the sanjak for the intervention of the League of Nations
or for the inclusion of the sanjak in the Turkish national boundaries, and its
union to the motherland.
3. Indignation was worked up by the papers when a member of the Syrian
delegation, which had halted for a time at Istanbul on its way from Paris to
Syria, told reporters that Syria would give Alexandretta and Antioch the same
treatment as France had given them. The newspapers pointed out that France
had never kept her promises to Turkey about the Turks of the sanjak. Their life
and culture had not been allowed to develop on Turkish lines. It was true that
they had special schools, but these were staffed by Kurdish revolutionaries,
Circassians, reactionary clerics and anachronistic supporters of obsolete
alphabets. It was true, also, that they had school books from Turkey, but the
picture of Ataturk had been removed from them. Syria must therefore not give
the Turks of the sanjak the treatment which France had given them, but the
treatment which France had been under obligation to give them. The Turks of
the sanjak were looking forward to full local autonomy. If they are
disappointed in this, or even— according to most of the newspapers—if they are
not disappointed in this, they will look forward eagerly to the return of the
sanjak to Turkey, and Turkey, on her side, will not be indifferent to their
yearnings, nor unmindful of their rights.
4. I am sending copies of this despatch to His Majesty’s Ambassador at
Paris and to His Majesty’s consul at Aleppo.
I have, &c.
JAMES MORGAN.
[848 a—2]
About this item
- 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.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2154
- Title
- Coll 6/81 'Syria: Status of Alexandretta and Antioch.'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:5v, 11r:12v, 14r:23v, 26r:81v, 84r:84v, 87r:131v, 133r:170v, 172r:194v, 196r:217v, 223r:236v, 239r:263v, 265r:287v, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence