Sanjak of Alexandretta

The Sanjak of Alexandretta (Turkish: İskenderun Sancağı, French: Sandjak d'Alexandrette, Arabic: سنجق إسكندرونة Sanjaq Iskandarūn), formerly two qadaas of the Aleppo Vilayet (Alexandretta and Antakya) became an autonomous province of Syria under Article 7 of the French-Turkish treaty of October 20, 1921: "A special administrative regime shall be established for the district of Alexandretta. The Turkish inhabitants of this district shall enjoy facility for their cultural development. The Turkish language shall have official recognition". This was due to the presence of an important Turkish community along with Arabs of various religious denominations: Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Maronites. There were also communities of Jews, Assyrians, Kurds, Armenians and Greeks. In 1923 Alexandretta was attached to the State of Aleppo, and in 1925 it was directly attached to the French mandate of Syria, still with special administrative status.

The 1936 elections in the sanjak returned two MPs favoring the independence of Syria from France, and this prompted communal riots as well as passionate articles in the Turkish and Syrian press. This then became the subject of a complaint to the League of Nations by the Turkish government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk concerning alleged mistreatment of the area's Turkish populations. Atatürk demanded that Alexandretta become part of Turkey, claiming that the majority of its inhabitants were Turks. The sanjak was given autonomy in November 1937 in an arrangement brokered by the League. Under its new statute, the sanjak became 'distinct but not separated' from the French Mandate of Syria on the diplomatic level, linked to both France and Turkey for defence matters.