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Turkey vs. Syria: A Culture of Enmity

(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Col. (res.) Dr. Dan Gottlieb and Lt.-Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar - Enmity between Turkey and Syria is a longstanding component of the modern Middle Eastern political arena with deep roots. In 1936 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk demanded that the town of Alexandretta in Syria and its surrounding area be handed over to Turkey on the grounds that the majority of the inhabitants there were Turks. A complaint was made at the League of Nations, and a Turkish military column entered Alexandretta on July 5, 1938, annexing the area as the 63rd Turkish province. To this day, Syria considers Alexandretta part of its territory and shows it as such on its maps. On Turkish maps, this area is called Hatay. For many years, any Syrian official who dared mention the Alexandretta/Hatay issue was barred from entering Turkey. As the risk of being placed on a Turkish blacklist was too high for Syrian officials, media silence on the issue has rendered the Syrian man in the street unaware that the issue even exists - unlike, for example, the Golan Heights, which is always referred to by the Syrian government and media as "the occupied Syrian Golan." Ever since Syria was established in 1943, the Turkish people have viewed it, along with Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, as states founded on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks have never forgotten the collaboration of the Arabs and the British Empire, which brought about the demise of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. At the same time, memories of 400 years (1517-1917) of oppression by the Ottomans remain deeply etched in Arab culture.
2020-04-03 00:00:00
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