France and the Turkish nationalist government signed the Treaty of Ankara, ending major fighting between them. A key provision called for a “special administrative regime” in the district of Alexandretta, including official recognition for Turkish language and protections for cultural development—planting the seeds for later international disputes over the area’s status.
After World War I, the League of Nations approved France as the mandatory power for Syria and Lebanon. This created the legal framework in which borders and local administrations—including Alexandretta—were managed under French authority rather than by a sovereign Syrian state.
In the 1920s, the district of Alexandretta was administered within France’s mandate-era Syrian state structures while retaining special arrangements. These compromises tried to balance local communities and France’s diplomatic commitments to Turkey, but they left the final border question unresolved.
In the mid-1930s, France began steps toward reducing or ending its mandate role in Syria through negotiations for independence. Turkey argued that any change in Syria’s status required a clear decision about Alexandretta’s future, and it raised the question at the League of Nations.
A League of Nations process produced a Statute and “Fundamental Law” for the Sanjak of Alexandretta, approved by the League’s Council. The arrangement made the Sanjak distinct in administration while still linked to the French Mandate of Syria at the diplomatic level, and it set out rules on governance and minority protections.
The League-backed Statute for the Sanjak entered into force, putting the new autonomous framework into operation. It included provisions such as demilitarization and protections for inhabitants “without distinction” of language or religion, reflecting international oversight meant to limit conflict between Turkey and Syria.
Elections were held in the Sanjak as part of the autonomy plan. The vote became highly contentious because the results and voter rolls affected whether the territory would remain linked to Syria, gain greater independence, or move toward union with Turkey—raising tensions across the border.
The Sanjak’s assembly proclaimed the Hatay State, transforming the autonomous Sanjak into a short-lived state entity. This step marked a major shift away from a “distinct but not separated” status and toward a political structure more compatible with transfer to Turkey.
France and Turkey concluded an agreement in Paris that accepted Hatay’s incorporation into Turkey and set conditions for French forces to withdraw. For France, this was also a strategic decision in the late-1930s European security crisis, while many Syrians viewed it as a loss of territory before full independence.
Hatay’s legislature met in extraordinary session and voted unanimously to end the Hatay State and join Turkey. This vote provided the internal legal step used to present the transfer as a decision made by Hatay’s own representative body, even as the process remained politically disputed in the region.
Following the June vote, Hatay’s top officials left the territory as administrative control shifted. French troops began moving out, signaling that the transfer was being implemented on the ground as well as on paper.
French forces completed their departure, effectively ending French administrative and security involvement in Hatay. With the evacuation finished, the border change became a settled fact in practice, shaping later Turkish-Syrian relations and leaving a long-term legacy of dispute over the 1939 transfer.
Sanction, administration, and transfer of the Sanjak of Alexandretta / Hatay (1921–1939)