The Theft Of Alexandretta – Part II 

Part II

After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, Alexandretta was part of the Sykes-Picot partition agreement, which took place secretly between France and Britain in 1916, and was “given” to France. The Ottoman state admitted defeat and recognized that Alexandretta was an integral part of Syria in the Treaty of Sevres on the tenth of August 1920, which took place with the Allied forces. At that time the percentage of Turks in Alexandretta did not exceed 20 percent.

Turkey took advantage of the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, the status quo in Europe, and the Allies’ need for Turkey to be on their side or at least keep it neutral, especially after  the Montreux Convention was signed. The Montreux Convention,[3] is an international agreement governing the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits in Turkey  , which gave Turkey the right to control the straits in wartime. With this important card in hand Turkey announced the final annexation of Alexandretta .

Alexandretta was stripped off its motherland Syria in 1939 and its wealth plundered. Facts were  falsified under a tripartite agreement between Turkey and the French and British occupation at the time. All parties were aware of the falsification of facts but carried on with the agreement none the less and it took place as a form of bribery in exchange for Turkey standing by the Allies in World War II.

According to a secret agreement in 1938 that was later revealed, the Turkish occupation forces stripped the district of Alexandretta after a conspiracy with France, which pledged to guarantee a Turkish majority in the district council, after the Syrians in Alexandretta Qarq Khan, and Antakya had already achieved superiority over the Turks in the number of registered voters- all this was disregarded by the committee sent by the League of Nations to Alexandretta to supervise the voting process in addition to the  cancellation or the restriction of thousands of Syrian voters.

The newly forged Council of Alexandretta held its first session, elected its president, and formed a ministry comprised of Turks and so began a stage of Turkification that included everything in Alexandretta , starting with its name, which became “Hatay” continuing to the displacement of Syrians and tampering with its demographic identity. Education in the Arabic language was wiped out and the Turkish language was forced upon schools .All government transactions in Arabic were cancelled , and the Turkish lira was adopted as official currency, in contravention of the League of Nations, which did not recognized the annexation of Alexandretta  nor was it recognized by its successor, the United Nations.

Editor In Chief

Reem Haddad