Northern Syrian regions

Vilayets of Ottoman Syria

The Northern Syrian Provinces, or Cilicia and Upper Mesopotamia, were territories of historical and Ottoman Syria that were annexed by Turkiye following World War 1. In 1921, the Ankara Agreement was finalised between France and the Turkish national government, in which, in exchange for Turkey's recognition of the French mandate over Syria, France would end its centuries old mission of protecting Eastern Christians. In 1923, the Allies adopted this bilateral agreement in the Treaty of Lausanne, which established a new border between Türkiye and the Allies, Britain and France, effectively ceasing vast swaths of Arab land - promised by the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence and affirmed by the King-Crane Commission - to Turkey.

Syria according to the Treaty of Sevres

This treaty came as an amendment to the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, which followed World War I and delineated Turkey's borders with its neighbours. The Treaty of Sevres significantly reduced Turkey's territory compared to the Ottoman Empire, especially in Europe, where most of Rumelia was ceded to Bulgaria and Greece. By dissolving the borders of the Treaty of Sevres, including the hypothetical Kurdish state east of the Euphrates, western Armenia, the international region in the Dardanelles, the Italian occupied areas, and the size of the French mandate, the Allies hoped to secure a more favourable deal for Turkey after the unexpected military resistance.

As a result of the French losses within Anatolia against Turkish nationalists, the Allies were compelled to make concessions to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in order to settle the post-war situation and reach a peace agreement with Turkey. Since Syria was under French mandate, this facilitated the French in making concessions regarding the territories under their control, particularly to repress the Syrians in response to their resistance against the French invasion in the Battle of Maysalun and its aftermath.

Geography

A vast majority of these areas lie to the south the Taurus Mountains, the geographic line separating Eurasia from the Arabian plate, sitting atop the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, encompassing some of the most fertile land in the Near East, irrigated by abundant water sources from the Euphrates, Tigris, and Khabur rivers. Similarly, they lie north of the railway line between Istanbul and Baghdad, which eventually served as the modified border between Turkey and Syria (in the Treaty of Lausanne) up to the current junction of the Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish border. This arrangement placed the following cities (from west to east) within Turkish territory: Mersin, Tarsus, Adana, Maraş, Gaziantep, Kiliz, Birecik, Urfa, Harran, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Nusaybin, and Cizre. Additionally, since the new border ran along the railway line, it cut directly through the cities of Nusaybin, Jarabulus, and Ras al-Ain, dividing them between Syria and Turkey.

The peaks of the Taurus Mountains and the Zagros mountains connecting Diyarbakır (in the northeast), Maraş (in the north-central), and Mersin (in the west) served as the dividing line between Arab lands and Turkey, or the Arabian Plate and Anatolia geographically. The French-British correspondence leading to the Sykes-Picot Agreement explicitly referenced the borders of Syria. In the following text, French President Briand's instructions to his ambassador in London, Paul Cambon, and French negotiator Georges Picot at the French Foreign Office on October 9, 1915, state:

"After presenting this reservation, it appears that the simplest solution may be to establish the current administrative borders of Syria. Thus, its territory will include the provinces or districts of Jerusalem, Beirut, Lebanon, Damascus, and Aleppo, and in the northwest, the entire province of Adana located south of the Taurus."

Connection with the Levant

In the twelfth century, the scholar Al-Idrisi visited these regions and wrote in his book Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaaq at the beginning of the fifth section of the fourth region about this area as follows:

"...Among the lands of the Levant are Tarsus, Latakia, Antioch, Masyaf, Adana, Ain Zarba, Tartus, Qirqos, Hamartash, burned Antalya, modern Antalya, Batara, Mayra, Jun al-Maqri, and the fortress of Istroplis. In the inland areas of the Levant are Famiya, the fortress of Salmiya, Qinnasrin, Al-Qastal, Aleppo, al-Raṣāfa, Raqqa, Al-Rafiqah, Bajrawan, Al-Jisr, Manbij, Maraş, Suruç, Harran, Edessa, Al-Hadath, Samesat, Malatya, the fortress of Mansur, Zabtara, Jarsun, Al-Lin, Al-Badndur, Quwat, and Tulb. All of these lands must be elucidated in our accounts.."

History

Pre-history

This region was first inhabited by ancient populations such as the Emiran culture and the Natufians (12,000–9,500 BCE), who were the first Homo Sapiens to practice sedentary lifestyles. Around 10,000 BCE, Anatolian farmers migrated into the region, bringing the domestication of the horse, donkey, and cow. These pre-historic cultures contribute heavily to the genetic substratum of modern Levantine and Mesopotamian populations, marked by the J and G y-hablogroups.

Antiquity

Before being completely subdued by the Persians and Romans in the 1st century BCE, five notable civilisations thrived in this area, eventually becoming the genetic and cultural foundation of the Kurds, Assyrians, and Armenians.

In the northeast between lakes Van, Sevan, and Urmia, the Armenians, descendants of Urartu and Hayasa, were able to subdue large amounts of the northern Levant under their control and spread Armenian architecture, including Khachkars, and language. Armenians, both descendants of these early conquests and of refugees from the Armenian genocide, remain as a key demographic of Syria and Lebanon. To the south, other kingdoms such as Commagene, Mittani, and Osrhoene served, simultaneously, as a historical buffer and facilitator between the west and the east, due to their strategic location on the Silk Road.

Eventually, the region picked up Syriac as its lingua franca around the same time period that it was subjugated by the Romans and Persians. Around the same time, however, Arab tribes from the western Euphrates basin and the Yemeni highlands began migrating to Upper Mesopotamia. Among the most prominent tribes in the area were the Banu Bakr (after whom Diyarbakır is named), as well as Taghlib and Anaza, all of which belong to the Rabi'ah tribe. Al-Idrisi mentioned these regions in his book Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaaq, writing in one section of the text:

"The regions of the lands of Rabi'ah include Nusaybin, Erzincan, [Diyarbakir], Ras al-Ain, Mardin, Ba'arbay, Sinjar, Qardā, Bazbda, and Tur Abdin."

Medieval era

In 1071, the Turkic tribes migrating westward from Asia crushed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert and began a new era in Middle Eastern history. For the next 400 years, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians would be subdued by Turkic khanates and kingdoms such as the Seljuks, Artuqids, Black Sheep, and the Zengids, a period that facilitated assimilation between all parties involved.

In 1516, upon conquering the Turkic states straddling Cilicia and the Taurus mountains, the Ottomans crushed the Mamluk armies in Syria and thus began their period of hegemony over the Levant, the Hejaz, and North Africa. The Ottomans divided up the Levant into 2 eyalets, Damascus and Aleppo. Eventually, coastal eyalets were crafted to handle international trading, centred around Tripoli al-sham and Sidon.

Ottoman period

Aleppo Vilayet 1892

During the seventeenth century, the Ottomans succeeded in eliminating the feudal estates and hereditary Arab and Turkic principalities north and east of Aleppo, reallocating lands instead to local Janissaries and prominent Ottoman cavalrymen known as Sipahis. In other parts of the country, however, the feudal conflicts that drained the nation's resources and destabilised the provinces persisted. Some historians have noted that the abolition of feudalism and its subjugation to the military represented a prioritisation of Turkish elements over Arab ones. Thus, this period is considered the beginning of the demographic changes that led to the emergence of the issue of the northern Syrian regions.

1892 Ottoman Syria - Deir ez-Zor Vilayet.

Upon diverging interests with the Ottoman Empire, Ibrahim Pasha conquered Syria and the Hejaz between 1832 and 1840, a period noted for the only anti-Jewish pogrom to occur in Ottoman Syria; the Safed massacre. Nonetheless, Ibrahim Pasha insisted during negotiations with the Sublime Porte to include these regions, ie the Northern Syrian Regions, in his father Muhammad Ali Pasha's jurisdiction of Syria to withhold his entry into Istanbul. Sultan Mahmud II ceded these areas to Ibrahim Pasha under the Treaty of Kütahya.

Most of these regions remained part of the Aleppo Province and the Sanjak of Deir ez-Zor, according to Ottoman maps and administrative divisions in the nineteenth century until the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1914. During the Tanzimat period of 1864, the area was divided into the Vilayet of Aleppo, the Vilayet of Syria/Damascus, the Vilayet of Beirut, the Mutassarifate of Mount Lebanon, and the Sanjak of Deir Ez-zor, as outlined in the first map in the article.

Turkish annexation

The regions and the Hatay Province (Iskenderun) were referred to as disputed areas in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. In a letter sent by Hussein bin Ali (the Sharif of Mecca) to Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, on July 14, 1915, it was stated that the northern borders of the future Arab state should extend to Mersin and Adana, including the Iskenderun Province. However, McMahon suggested in his letter to Sharif Hussein on October 24, 1915, to exclude this area, claiming that its inhabitants were not entirely Arab. Sharif Hussein rejected this proposal and insisted on his stance in a letter sent to McMahon on November 15, 1915, but ultimately agreed to concede only Mersin and Adana.

Arab state as promised by the UK.

After World War I, during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire among the victorious Allies, the agreement between France, England, and Italy on August 10, 1920, designated this region as part of the French sphere of influence, as defined by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, which affirmed French sovereignty over the territories between Cilicia and the western bank of the Euphrates. According to the aforementioned August agreement and as stated in Article 7, the cities of Kiliz, Gaziantep, Birecik, Urfa, Mardin, Nusaybin, and Cizre were left to Syria, which was also under French mandate. When the Allies signed the Treaty of Sèvres with Turkey in 1920, Turkey recognized the regions of Iskenderun and Cilicia as integral parts of the Arab territories.

The Arabs were preoccupied with numerous partition issues, including the Jewish migration to southern Syria (Palestine), resulting in few voices opposing the new borders. Nevertheless, the Arabs rejected the annexation of these regions to Turkey, as articulated in the statements from the Syrian General Conference and the first Syrian government formed in 1920, which emphasized the unity and independence of Syria in its entirety. Additionally, Sobhi Barakat and Ibrahim Hanano organized military resistance against the French in those areas.

In defense of their land, the Arab tribes in these areas, alongside Turkish nationalists, together resisted French occupation. This collaboration was driven by a shared desire to oppose colonial rule and maintain their sovereignty, reflecting the complexities of regional politics during that period.

Demographics

1927

Unlike the relatively stable demographic makeup of the Levant in the early Ottoman period, comprising primarily of Sunni Arabs, Sunni Turks, Alawi Arabs, Druze Arabs, Alevi Turks, Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, and Christian Arabs, Assyrians, and Armenians, a shift towards a predominantly Sunni Arab and Turkish core began to take place in the period extending from Frances invasions in 1810 until the independence of Turkey in 1923. During the Tanzimat period, following the Syrian Civil War, the demographics of the Levant were drastically altered as Maronites, Armenians, Jews, and Assyrians were killed in the thousands or forced to flee in large numbers, primarily to Latin America and other regions. After World War I, the region witnessed the aftermath of four genocides—against the Maronites, Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians—as well as several massacres, including the Hamidian and Dersim attacks, along with multiple assaults on Jews in the Holy Land. This context provides the backdrop for the earliest census regarding the modern municipal boundaries of Turkey’s provinces, which offers valuable insights into the ethnolinguistic composition of the region during this period.

Province	Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians as a percentage (%)
Adana (incl. Osmaniye)	40.5%
Mersin	6%
Diyar Bakr	4%
Mardin (incl. western Shirnaq)	40%
Şanli Urfa	20%
Ghazi Antep (incl. Kiliz)	3.2% (city proper only)
Siirt (incl. Batman and northern Shirnaq) - İsmet İnönü referred to the city as an Arab city, with a Kurdish countryside, eager to get Turkified.	69.5%
Hatay	62%

1965

After decades of Kemalist policies, Arabs remained as a considerable minority in these lands.

Province	Total Population	Arabs and other Semites	Percentage (%)
Adana (incl. Osmaniye)	896,707	22,435	4.5%
Mersin	500,207	9,579	4%
Diyar Bakr	474,991	2,671	2.6%
Mardin (incl. western Shirnaq)	383,344	71,958	20.8%
Şanli Urfa	448,401	51,092	13.40%
Ghazi Antep (incl. Kiliz)	509,899	895	2.2%
Siirt (incl. Batman and northern Shirnaq)	276,381	1,040	2.4%
Hatay	485,868	128,215	28.4%
Total in Turkey	31,391,421	365,340	1.2%