سنجق الإسكندرونة

سنجق الإسكندرونة (تركية: İskenderun Sancağı, فرنسية: Sandjak d'Alexandrette, إنگليزية: Sanjak of Alexandretta) كان سنجق في سوريا الانتداب مكون من قضائين من ولاية حلب السابقة (الإسكندرونة وأنطاكية, present day İskenderun and Antakya) and became autonomous under Article 7 of the المعاهدة التركية الفرنسية في 20 أكتوبر 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 Turkish community along with Arabs of various religious denominations: Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Syriac Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Maronites. There were also communities of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, and Kurds.

في 1923, Alexandretta was attached to the State of Aleppo, and in 1925 it was attached to the combined State of Syria, still with special administrative status.

Map showing the states of the French Mandate from 1921-22

The 1936 elections in the sanjak returned two MPs favoring استقلال سوريا عن فرنسا, and this prompted communal riots as well as passionate articles in the Turkish and Syrian press. 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.

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 السكان

According to the estimates of the French high commission in 1936, out of a population of 220,000 39% were Turks, 28% Arabic-speaking Alawites, 11% Armenians, 10% Sunni Arabs, 8% other Christians and 4% were Circassians, Kurds and Jews. Although Turks formed the largest single ethno-religious minority, Arabic speakers including Sunnis, Alawites and Christians were more numerous.

سكان دولة هاتاي في 1936 حسب التعداد الفرنسي
الجماعة العرقية	السكان	%
العرب	101,200	46%
علويون	61,600	28%
عرب سنيون	22,000	10%
الملكانيون ومسيحيون آخرون	17,600	8%
أتراك	85,800	39%
أرمن	24,200	11%
شركس، يهود، أكراد	8,800	4%
الإجمالي	220,000	100%

 تسجيل الناخبين و"الانتخابات" 1938

طابع بريدي سوري، مختوم بعبارة "سنجق الإسكندرونة" للمنطقة.

Turkish forces under Colonel Şükrü Kanatlı entered İskenderun on July 5, 1938.

The allocation of seats in the sanjak assembly was based on the 1938 census held by the French authorities under international supervision: out of 40 seats, 22 were given to the Turks, nine for Alawi, five for Armenians, two for Sunni Arabs, and two for Antiochian Greeks. This repartition was the result of a Turkish military intervention from Payas and Hassa just beforehand, on July 5, 1938, with the ethnic cleansing of most of its Arab and Armenian inhabitants who constituted the majority of the population. Turkey had also crossed tens of thousands of Turks into the Sanjak of Alexandretta to register as citizens and vote. Moreover, the results seemed to be questionable because it happened for the sole purpose of seat repartition, and Turkish propaganda was very active among Alevis and Circassians, all of whom were considered as Turks by Ankara.

According to the official registration numbers by July 22, 1938, 57,008 voters in the Sanjak were registered, belonging to the following ethnic groups.

• أتراك: 35,847
• العلويون: 11,319
• أرمن: 5,504
• Greek Orthodox: 2,098
• Arabs (Sunni Muslim): 1,845
• "آخرون": 359

40 seats of the sanjak assembly per qadaa were distributed as follows:

• Antakya: 14 Turks, 7 Alawis, 2 Armenians, 2 Sunni Arabs, 1 Greek Orthodox
• İskenderun: 3 Turks, 2 Alawis, 1 Armenian, 1 Greek Orthoxo
• Kırıkhan: 5 Turks, 2 Armenians
• Total: 22 Turks, 9 Alawis, 5 Armenians, 2 Sunni Arabs, 2 Greek Orthodox

Despite the voter registration, no elections were held and an "approved" sanjak assembly was commissioned by Turkish and French authorities. Tayfur Sökmen who was appointed by Atatürk to lead the transition arrived in Antakya from Dörtyol on August 25, 1938.

 دولة هاتاي

Protests in Damascus by women demonstrators against Turkey's annexation of the Sanjak of Alexandretta in 1939. One of the signs reads: "Our blood is sacrificed for the Syrian Arab Sanjak."

المقالة الرئيسية: دولة هاتاي

On September 2, 1938, the assembly proclaimed the Sanjak of Alexandretta as the Hatay State. The State lasted for one year under joint French and Turkish military supervision. The name "Hatay" itself was proposed by Atatürk and the government was under Turkish control. The president Tayfur Sökmen was a member of Turkish parliament elected in 1935 (representing Antalya Province) and the prime minister Dr. Abdurrahman Melek, was also elected to the Turkish parliament (representing Gaziantep Province) in 1939 while still holding the prime-ministerial post. The Hatay State became the Hatay Province of Turkey in 1939.