| Hatay Cumhuriyeti République de Hatay دولة هتاي |
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Flag |
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| Anthem İstiklâl Marşı |
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| Sanjak of Alexandretta/Hatay State (blue) in the Mandate of Syria. | ||||
| Capital | Antakya (Antioch) | |||
| Language(s) | Turkish (state language), French (second language), Levantine Arabic (commonly spoken) | |||
| Government | Republic | |||
| Head of State | Tayfur Sökmen | |||
| Prime minister | Abdurrahman Melek | |||
| Historical era | Interwar period | |||
| - Independence | September 7, 1938 | |||
| - Union with Turkey | June 29, 1939 | |||
| Area | ||||
| - 1938 | 4,700 km2 (1,815 sq mi) | |||
| Population | ||||
| - 1938 est. | 234,379 | |||
| Density | 49.9 /km2 (129.2 /sq mi) | |||
| Currency | Syrian pound, later Turkish lira | |||
Hatay State (Turkish: Hatay Devleti, French: État du Hatay, Arabic: دولة هتاي), also known informally as the Republic of Hatay, was a transitional political entity that formally existed from September 7, 1938 to June 29, 1939 in the territory of the Sanjak of Alexandretta of the French Mandate of Syria. The State was transformed de jure into the Hatay Province on July 7, 1939 and joined Turkey on July 23, 1939. Hatay Province also includes districts of Erzin, Dörtyol and Hassa in addition to former Hatay State territories.
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Formerly part of the Aleppo province of the Ottoman Empire, the Sanjak of Alexandretta was occupied by France at the end of World War I 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 French-Turkish treaty of 20 October 1921, considering the presence of an important Turkish community alongside with Arab and Armenian ones. 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.[1]
Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk refused to accept the Sanjak of Alexandretta to be part of the Mandate and, in a speech on 15 March 1923 in Adana, claimed, probably in projection to the Turkish Historical Thesis, that it was "a Turkish homeland for forty centuries" that "can’t be a captive at the hands of enemy".[2] Turkish politics aimed at incorporating the Sanjak of Alexandretta when the French mandate of Syria would expire in 1935. Local Turks initiated reforms in the style of Atatürk's, formed various organisations and institutions in order to promote the idea of union with Turkey.
In 1936, the elections returned two Syrian independentist (favoring the independence of Syria from France) MP's in the Sanjak, and this prompted communal riots as well as passionate articles in the Turkish and Syrian press. Particularly, Arab nationalist Zaki al-Arsuzi was influential in anti-irredentist agitation. Atatürk coined the name Hatay for the Sanjak of Alexandretta, and raised the issue of Hatay (Turkish: 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 defence matters.[1]
On July 5, 1938, the Turkish military went into the Sanjak from Payas and Hassa and expelled most of its Arab and Armenian inhabitants.[3] Before this, Alawi Arabs and Armenians made up the majority of the Sanjak's population.[3] Turkey also crossed tens of thousands of Turks into the Sanjak of Alexandretta.[4]
An ethnic voter registration was initiated to determine the repartition of the seats in the sanjak assembly. However, the results seemed to be questionable because it happened for the sole purpose of seat repartition, and Turkish propaganda was very active among Alevis and Circassians, all of whom were considered as Turks by Ankara.[1]
According to the official registration numbers by July 22, 1938, 57,008 voters in the Sanjak were registered, belonging to the following ethnic groups.[5]
40 seats of the sanjak assembly per qadaa were distributed as follows:
Despite the voter registration, no elections were held and an "approved" sanjak assembly was commissioned by Turkish and French authorities. Tayfur Sökmen who was appointed by Atatürk to lead the transition arrived in Antakya from Dörtyol on August 25, 1938.[6]
On September 6, 1938, the constitution was adopted. It resembled strongly the constitution created by the League of Nations for the Sanjak of Alexandretta. The constitution defined the territory as an independent state called "Hatay Devleti" (Hatay State), divided into Antakya and four districts (İskenderun, Ordu (Yayladağı), Kırıkhan, Reyhaniye (Reyhanlı). Turkish was declared the state language, while French retained a status as a secondary language. Schools teaching Arabic could continue to do so.
On September 7, 1938, the Hatay adopted a flag sketched by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. On February 6, 1939, the Hatay legislative adopted all Turkish laws, and on March 13, 1939, made the Turkish lira the official currency.
On June 29, 1939, the Hatay legislative voted on disestablishing the Hatay State and joining Turkey. On July 7, 1939, the Grand National Assembly approved the law establishing the Hatay Province and incorporating districts from Adana Province (then Seyhan Province) and Gaziantep Province. By July 23, 1939, last vestiges of the French Mandate authorities left Antakya and the territory was fully annexed to Turkey.[6]
The State of Hatay was featured as one of the main locations in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In the film, the Holy Grail is discovered in an ancient temple within Hatay, although the location used for the external shots of the temple is the Treasury of the ancient city of Petra, actually located in Jordan.
Aside from the name and location, most of the detail of Hatay within the movie is fictionalised - the flag is incorrect, and the state is shown as a monarchy with a Sultan.
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