Hatay Province

Coordinates: 36°25′49″N 36°10′27″E / 36.43028°N 36.17417°E / 36.43028; 36.17417
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hatay Province
Hatay ili
St. Paul's Church, Antakya
Official logo of Hatay Province
Location of the province within Turkey
Location of the province within Turkey
CountryTurkey
SeatAntakya
Government
 • MayorLütfü Savaş (CHP)
 • ValiMustafa Masatlı
Area
5,524 km2 (2,133 sq mi)
Population
 (2022)[1]
1,686,043
 • Density310/km2 (790/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+3 (TRT)
Area code0326
Websitewww.hatay.bel.tr
www.hatay.gov.tr

Hatay Province (

French Mandate of Syria in the years following Syria's occupation by France after World War I.[5]

History

Antiquity

Church of Saint Peter in Hatay Province.

Settled since the early Bronze Age, Hatay was once part of the

Neo-Hittite
peoples that later gave the modern province of Hatay its name.

The Neo-Hittite kingdom of Palistin was also located here.

The area came under the control of Assyrians (except for a brief occupation by Urartu), and later the Neo-Babylonians and the Persians.

The region was the center of the Hellenistic

Apamea, and Laodicea). From 64 BC onwards the city of Antioch became an important regional centre of the Roman Empire
.

Among the famous archaeological sites in the province are Alalakh, Tell Tayinat, Tell Judaidah, and Antioch.

Medieval era

The area was conquered by the

Timur (Tamerlane)
at the start of the 15th century.

Sanjak of Alexandretta

By the time it was taken from the Mameluks by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I in 1516, Antakya was a medium-sized town on 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) of land between the Orontes River and Mount Habib Neccar. Under the Ottomans the area was known as the sanjak (or governorate) of Alexandretta. Gertrude Bell in her book Syria: The Desert & the Sown published in 1907 wrote extensively about her travels across Syria including Antioch & Alexandretta and she noted the heavy mix between Turks and Arabs in the region at that time.

Ethnic groups in the Balkans and Asia Minor, early 20th Century, Historical Atlas, 1911

Many believe that Alexandretta had traditionally been a part of Syria. Maps as far back as 1764 confirm this.[7] During the First World War in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated most of Syria was occupied by the British forces. But when the Armistice of Mudros was signed at the end of the war, Hatay was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, after the armistice it was occupied by the British forces an operation which was never accepted by the Ottoman side. Later like the rest of Syria it was handed to France by the British Empire.

After World War I and the

French mandate of Syria
, still with special administrative status.

Turkish borders according to the Treaty of Lausanne, 1923

Despite this, a Turkish community remained in Alexandretta, and

Abbasid Empire and captured Baghdad.[11] Resident Arabs organised under the banner of Arabism, and in 1930, Zaki al-Arsuzi
, a teacher and lawyer from Arsuz on the coast of Alexandretta published a newspaper called 'Arabism' in Antioch that was shut down by Turkish and French authorities.

The 1936 elections returned two MPs favouring 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

French mandate of Syria
on the diplomatic level, linked to both France and Turkey for defence matters.

Hatay State

Hatay State (

Arabic
: دولة حطاي Dawlat Ḥaṭāy), also known informally as the Republic of Hatay, was a transitional political entity that 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 of Turkey on July 7, 1939, de facto joining the country on July 23, 1939.

Hatay Province of Turkey

On 29 June 1939, following a referendum, Hatay became a Turkish province. This referendum has been labelled both "phoney" and "rigged", and is seen as a way for the French to cede the area to Turkey, in the hope that they would turn on Hitler.[14][15] For the referendum, Turkey moved tens of thousands of Turks into Alexandretta so they could vote.[16] These Turks were born in Hatay but now they were living in other regions of Turkey. In two government communiqués which were issued in 1937 and 1938, the Turkish government asked all local government authorities to make lists of all of their employees who were originally from Hatay. Those employees whose names were listed were then sent to Hatay so they could register as citizens and vote.[17]

Syrian President

Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936
.

The

Hassa district of Gaziantep, Dörtyol district (Erzin was nahiya of it) of Adana were then incorporated into Hatay. As a result of the annexation, a number of demographic changes occurred in Hatay. During the six months following the annexation, inhabitants over the age of 18 were given the right to choose between staying and becoming Turkish citizens, or emigrating to the French Mandate of Syria or Greater Lebanon and acquiring French citizenship. If they chose to emigrate, they were given 18 months to bring in their movable assets and establish themselves in their new states. Almost half of the Sunni Arabs left. Many Armenians also left and 1,068 Armenian families were relocated from the six Armenian villages of Musa Dagh to the Beqaa Valley which is located in Lebanon. Many of these Armenians had fled for their lives and settled in the French Mandate of Syria because they were survivors of the genocide which had previously been committed against their people by the government of the Ottoman Empire. The total number of people who left for Syria was estimated to be 50,000 including 22,000 Armenians, 10,000 Alawites, 10,000 Sunni Arabs and 5,000 Arab Christians.[18][19]

Turkish–Syrian dispute

For much of its premodern history,

Kemal Atatürk
but was granted a special autonomous status because it contained a Turkish plurality. However, culminating a series of border disputes with France-mandated Syria, Atatürk obtained in 1937 an agreement with France recognizing Alexandretta as an independent state, and in 1939 this state, called the
Republic of Hatay, was annexed to Turkey as the 63rd Turkish province following a controversial referendum. Syria bitterly disputed both the separation of Alexandretta and its subsequent annexation to Turkey.[20][page needed
]

Syria maintains that the separation of Alexandretta violated France's mandatory responsibility to maintain the unity of Syrian lands (article 4 of the mandate charter). It also disputes the results of the referendum held in the province because, according to a League of Nations commission that registered voters in Alexandretta in 1938, Turkish voters in the province represented no more than 46% of the population.[21] Syria continues to consider Hatay part of its territory as of the 2010s, and shows it as such on its maps.[22][23] At the same time, Turkey and Syria have strengthened their ties and opened the border between the two countries.

Protests in Damascus in 1939 by women demonstrators against the secession of the Sanjak of Alexandretta, and its subsequent joining into Turkey as the Hatay Province. One of the signs reads: "Our blood is sacrificed for the Syrian Arab Sanjak."

Syrians hold the view that this land was illegally ceded to Turkey by France, the mandatory occupying power of Syria in the late 1930s. Syria still considers it an integral part of its own territory. Syrians call this land Liwa' aliskenderun (

Arabic: لواء الاسكندرون) rather than the Turkish name of Hatay. Official Syrian maps still show Hatay as part of Syria.[22][23]

Under the leadership of Syrian President

Bashar al Assad from 2000 onwards, there was a lessening of tensions over the Hatay issue. Indeed, in early 2005, when visits from Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened a way to discussions between two states. These discussions resulted with the Syrian government agreeing to end its demand that the province should be returned under Syrian sovereignty as a condition to end hostilities; however, there was no official announcement by the Syrians relinquishing their rights of sovereignty.[24]

Following changes to Turkish land registry legislation in 2003 a large number of properties in Hatay were purchased by Syrian nationals, mostly people who had been residents of Hatay since the 1930s but had retained their Syrian citizenship and were buying the properties that they already occupied. By 2006 the amount of land owned by Syrian nationals in Hatay exceeded the legal limit for foreign ownership of 0.5%, and

There has been a policy of cross border co-operation, on the social and economic level, between Turkey and Syria starting in the 2000s. This allowed families divided by the border to freely visit each other during the festive periods of

Euphrates Rivers. Turkey asked Syria to publicly recognize Hatay as a Turkish territory before signing on to the agreement.[28]

Apart from maps showing Hatay as Syrian territory, the Syrian policy has been to avoid discussing Hatay and giving evasive answers when asked to specify Syrian future goals and ambitions with regard to the area. This has included a complete media silence on the issue.[29] In February 2011 the dispute over Hatay was almost solved. The border separating Syria from Hatay was going to be blurred by a shared Friendship Dam on the Orontes river and as part of this project the two states had agreed on the national jurisdiction on each side of the border. Only weeks before the outbreak of the Syrian uprising and later war, groundbreaking ceremonies were held in Hatay and Idlib. As a result of the Syrian war and the extremely tense Turkish-Syrian relations it brought, construction was halted. As part of the ongoing war, the question of the sovereignty of Hatay has resurfaced in Syria and the Syrian media silence has been broken. Syrian media began broadcasting documentaries on the history of the area, the Turkish annexation and Turkification policies. Syrian newspapers have also reported on demonstrations in Hatay and on organizations and parties in Syria demanding an "end to the Turkish occupation".[30] However, although the Syrian government has repeatedly criticized the Turkish policies towards Syria and the armed rebel groups operating on Syrian territory, it has not officially brought up the question of Hatay.[31]

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes

Earthquake damage in Hatay

Hatay Province was heavily damaged by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes.[32] The province registered 23,065 earthquake-related fatalities and 30,762 injuries.[33][34] More than 13,500 buildings collapsed, 67,346 were heavily damaged and 8,162 had to be demolished.[35] The most affected areas were Antakya, Kırıkhan and İskenderun.[36]

Geography

Castle ruins at Bağras in Hatay

Hatay is traversed by the north-easterly line of equal latitude and longitude. 46% of the land is mountain, 33% plain and 20% plateau and hillside. The most prominent feature is the north-south leading

Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and runs through Syria and Hatay, where it receives the Karasu and the Afrin River. It flows into the Mediterranean at its delta in Samandağ. There was a lake in the plain of the Amik Valley but this was drained in the 1970s, and today Amik is now the largest of the plains and an important agricultural center. The climate is typical of the Mediterranean, with warm wet winters and hot, dry summers. The mountain areas inland are drier than the coast. There are some mineral deposits, İskenderun is home to Turkey's largest iron and steel plant, and the district of Yayladağı
produces a colourful marble called Rose of Hatay.

Climate

Köppen climate classification map of Hatay Province and surrounding regions:[37]
  •   
    Csb
  •   Dsa
  •   Dsb

Hatay has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) or a dry-summer humid subtropical climate (Trewartha: 'wet' Cs or Cf) which has hot, long and dry summers and mild, rainy winters.

Climate data for Hatay (1991–2020, extremes 1940–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 20.5
(68.9)
26.6
(79.9)
30.5
(86.9)
37.5
(99.5)
42.5
(108.5)
43.2
(109.8)
44.6
(112.3)
43.9
(111.0)
43.5
(110.3)
39.2
(102.6)
32.5
(90.5)
25.1
(77.2)
44.6
(112.3)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 12.5
(54.5)
14.9
(58.8)
19.0
(66.2)
23.0
(73.4)
27.0
(80.6)
29.7
(85.5)
31.6
(88.9)
32.5
(90.5)
31.4
(88.5)
28.2
(82.8)
20.3
(68.5)
13.9
(57.0)
23.7
(74.7)
Daily mean °C (°F) 8.2
(46.8)
9.9
(49.8)
13.6
(56.5)
17.4
(63.3)
21.6
(70.9)
25.1
(77.2)
27.6
(81.7)
28.3
(82.9)
26.1
(79.0)
21.5
(70.7)
14.3
(57.7)
9.5
(49.1)
18.6
(65.5)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 5.0
(41.0)
5.9
(42.6)
9.1
(48.4)
12.6
(54.7)
16.9
(62.4)
21.3
(70.3)
24.4
(75.9)
25.2
(77.4)
21.7
(71.1)
16.2
(61.2)
9.8
(49.6)
6.2
(43.2)
14.5
(58.1)
Record low °C (°F) −11.8
(10.8)
−6.8
(19.8)
−4.2
(24.4)
1.5
(34.7)
7.7
(45.9)
11.6
(52.9)
15.9
(60.6)
15.4
(59.7)
7.9
(46.2)
2.3
(36.1)
−3.0
(26.6)
−6.6
(20.1)
−11.8
(10.8)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 179.5
(7.07)
162.0
(6.38)
145.1
(5.71)
108.4
(4.27)
89.8
(3.54)
20.3
(0.80)
8.1
(0.32)
5.4
(0.21)
61.7
(2.43)
56.0
(2.20)
99.2
(3.91)
188.7
(7.43)
1,124.2
(44.26)
Average precipitation days 13.57 12.07 11.20 9.73 5.67 1.83 0.80 0.80 4.33 7.70 8.03 11.40 87.1
Mean monthly sunshine hours 105.4 130.0 186.0 219.0 282.1 327.0 341.0 319.3 273.0 217.0 156.0 102.3 2,658.1
Mean daily sunshine hours 3.4 4.6 6.0 7.3 9.1 10.9 11.0 10.3 9.1 7.0 5.2 3.3 7.3
Source: Turkish State Meteorological Service[38]

Districts

Districts of the Hatay Province

Hatay province is divided into 15 districts,[39] listed below with their populations officially estimated as at 31 December 2022:[1]

Demographics

Late 20th – early 21st century language distribution.
• Turkish  
• Arabic speakers   are shown by religious affiliation: Alawite (circle), Christian (triangle), Sunni (square), Bedouin Sunni (rectangle), Jewish (rhombus).[40][a]

The majority of the population adheres to

Mustafa Kemal University and his "Hatay Association for the Protection of Universal Values".[44]

During the

Syrian refugees lived in the province.[45]

Language

As of 2016, 85% of Arabic-heritage-speaking people in relevant parts of Hatay, specifically those who hear and may use the language on a daily basis, believed its use was decreasing; the rest disagree. The Arabic-speaking Antiochian Greek Christian minority has the right to teach Arabic under the Treaty of Lausanne; however, they tend to refrain from doing so to avoid sectarian tensions as the treaty does not apply to the Muslim majority.[46]

Population

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1940246,138—    
1950296,799+1.89%
1960441,209+4.04%
1970591,064+2.97%
1980856,271+3.78%
19901,109,754+2.63%
20001,253,726+1.23%
20101,480,571+1.68%
20201,659,320+1.15%
20211,670,712+0.69%
20221,686,043+0.92%
Source:Turkstat[47][48][49]

Education

Mustafa Kemal University is one of Turkey's newer tertiary institutions, founded in İskenderun and Antakya
in 1992.

Transport

The province is served by Hatay Airport, as well as inter-city buses.

Culture

Cuisine

Hatay is warm enough to grow tropical crops such as

künefe (kanafeh), squash cooked in onions and tomato paste (sıhılmahsi), aubergine and tahini paste (Baba ghanoush), chickpea and tahini paste hummus and dishes such as kebab
found throughout Turkey. Particular spice mixes and herb mixes are popular. Pastes include:

Animal products include spicy

surke
.

Syrup of pomegranate (nar ekşisi) is Hatay's hallmark salad dressing.

Landmarks

Films

Notable people

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    Map does not show all existing Hatay settlements and their linguistic composition. Arnold Werner states that his research only covered half of the Arabic speaking villages (some 50 out of a 100). Arabic and Turkish speaking villages shown on map are only those covered by Werner's research and map. The map excludes the northern more Turkish-speaking parts of the province.

References

  1. ^
    TÜİK
    . Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  2. . In the southernmost corner of Turkey, near Ceyhan, lies the province of Hatay, a pocket of land bounded to the west by the Mediterranean and to the south and east by Syria.
  3. ^ "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  4. ^ Bağırsakçı, Semir. "Antakya'nın Adı "Hatay" mıdır?". İskenderun Gazetesi. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  5. ^ Darke, Diana (24 January 2018). "How historical Afrin became a prize worth a war". www.bbc.com. BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Antakya".
  7. ^ "Map of Iskenderun, Joseph Roux, 1764". huji.ac.il. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  8. , 9780714650715
  9. ^ "Syria – Turkey Boundary" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  10. . (In 1921 there were only 87,000 Turks amid a population of 220,000 that was primarily Arab)
  11. ^ Duiker & Spielvogel 2012, 192.
  12. . According to official French statistics of 1936 the total population (219,080) was made up as follows: Turks 38% Alawite Arabs 28% Sunni Arabs 10 Christians Arabs 8%
  13. . Retrieved 30 July 2013. According to estimates provided by the French High Commission in 1936, out of a population of 220,000 39 per cent were Turks, 28 per cent Alawites, 11 per cent Armenians, 10 per cent Sunni Arabs, 8 per cent other Christians, while Circassians, Jews and Kurds made up the remaining 4 per cent.
  14. .
  15. ^ Robert Fisk (19 March 2007). "Robert Fisk: US power games in the Middle East". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 10, 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  16. .
  17. .
  18. Minority Rights Group. 1991. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 3 September 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  19. .
  20. ^ Arnold Twinby, 1938 Survey of International Affairs p. 484
  21. ^ a b parliament.gov.sy – معلومات عن الجمهورية العربية السورية Archived 2007-06-02 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ a b "The Alexandretta Dispute", American Journal of International Law
  23. ^ Navon, Emmauel (20 December 2018). "Withdrawing from the Golan talks". www.jpost,com. Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  24. ^ "Hatay'da yabancılara gayrimenkul satışı durduruldu". hurriyet.com.tr. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  25. ^ [1]"World Bulletin [ Eid-al-Adha greetings at Turkey-Syria border ]". Archived from the original on 2009-01-11. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  26. ^ "Interior Minister Inspects Bab al-Hawa Border Center, Emphasizes Ministry's Keenness on Providing Facilities :: Syrian Arab news agency - SANA - Syria : Syria news ::". Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
  27. ^ PM vows to build model partnership with Syria Today's Zaman 23 December 2010
  28. ^ Lundgren Jörum, Emma: "The Importance of the Unimportant" in Hinnebusch, Raymond & Tür, Özlem: Turkey-Syria Relations: Between Enmity and Amity (Farnham: Ashgate), p 114-122.
  29. ^ "Syria's "Lost Province": The Hatay Question Returns". carnegieendowment.org. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  30. ^ Lundgren Jörum, Emma: Beyond Syria's Borders: A history of territorial disputes in the Middle East (London & New York: I.B. Tauris), p 108
  31. ^ "Hatay province, Turkey from PHOTOS: Rescues continue after massive earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria". ABC News. February 2023. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
  32. ^ "Türki̇ye - Earthquake Response 2023: Hatay Humanitarian Snapshot (2 May 2023)". ReliefWeb. 7 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  33. ^ "Lütfü Savaş: Hatay'da 21 bin 910 kaybımız var" [Lütfü Savaş: We have 21 thousand 910 casualties in Hatay] (in Turkish). Ege'de Sonsöz. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  34. ^ "Hatay earthquake report released: 89,025 buildings lost". Gercek News. 8 April 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  35. ^ "Hatay'da son durum: '2 bine yakın yıkılmış bina var, kayıplarımız çok fazla'" [The latest situation in Hatay: 'There are nearly 2,000 destroyed buildings, our losses are too high']. BBC News (in Turkish). 6 February 2023. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  36. ^ "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution". Nature Scientific Data. DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214.
  37. ^ "Resmi İstatistikler: İllerimize Ait Mevism Normalleri (1991–2020)" (in Turkish). Turkish State Meteorological Service. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  38. ^ Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  39. .
  40. ^ Kalkan, Ersin (2005-07-31). "Türkiye'nin tek Ermeni köyü Vakıflı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2007-02-22.
  41. .
  42. ^ Radikal-çevrimiçi / Türkiye / Samandağ'da 'Alluş'la dans Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
  43. ^ Spiritual leaders speak up in Hatay for global peace – Turkish Daily News Sep 27, 2005 Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  44. ^ "Mültecilerin Şartları Kötü, Hatay'da Herkes Tedirgin" (in Turkish). Bianet. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  45. ^ "For reasons out of our hands: A Community identifies the causes of language shift – Cultural Survival". culturalsurvival.org. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  46. ^ Genel Nüfus Sayımları
  47. ^ Turkstat
  48. ^ "The Results of Address Based Population Registration System, 2020". Turkish Statistical Institute. Archived from the original on 2021-10-28. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  49. ^ "Kaleler" (in Turkish). Hatay Directorate of Culture and Tourism. Retrieved 13 May 2016.

Bibliography

External links

Turkish

36°25′49″N 36°10′27″E / 36.43028°N 36.17417°E / 36.43028; 36.17417