Northern Syrian regions
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The Northern Syrian Provinces, or Cilicia and Upper Mesopotamia, were territories of historical and Ottoman Syria annexed by Turkiye following World War 1. In 1921, the Ankara Treaty was finalised between France and the Turkish national government; in exchange for Turkey's recognition of the French mandate over Syria, France would end its centuries-old mission of protecting Eastern Christians.[1] The Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923, formally adopted this bilateral agreement, thereby establishing a new border between Turkey and the Arabs. This ultimately culminated in Turkey acquiring vast swaths of Arab land - regions promised by the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence and affirmed by the King-Crane Commission.[2]
| Part of interwar period and Turkish War of Independence | |
Clockwise: Mitanni museum in Nusaybin, UNESCO Church of Yoldat Aloho in Midyat, sunset in Mardin, Göbekli Tepe anthropological site, Euphrates in Aintab, and view from Urfa Castle. | |
| Date | 30 October 1921 - Ongoing |
|---|---|
| Location | OETA, Syria, Aintab plateau, Upper Mesopotamia |
| Outcome | Republic of Turkiye annexes Northern Syrian regions |
Background
The Treaty of Lausanne came as an amendment to the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, which followed World War I and delineated Turkey's borders with its neighbours.[3] 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.
As a result of the unexpected French losses 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 for their resistance against the French invasion in the Battle of Maysalun and its aftermath.[4]
Thus, by dissolving the borders of the Treaty of Sevres - including the proposed Kurdish state, western Armenia, the international "Zone of the Straits" 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 and thus end hostilities in the Middle-Eastern theatre.
Geography
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A vast majority of these areas lie to the south of the Taurus Mountains, which seperate Eurasia from the Arabian plate. With the Taurus to ites north and the Zagros to its east, the Fertile Crescent encompasses some of the most fertile land in the Near East, irrigated by abundant water sources from the Euphrates, Tigris, Orontes, Yarmuk, Jordan and Khabur rivers. Similarly, the Northern Syrian Regions lie north of the railway line between Istanbul and Baghdad, which eventually served as the modified border (in the Treaty of Lausanne) between Turkey and Syria up to the current junction at the Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish border near
This new arrangement placed the following Syrian cities (from west to east) within Turkish territory: Mersin, Tarsus, Adana, Maraş, Aintab, Qiliz, al-Bīra, Urfa, Harran, Diyarbakr, Mardin, Nusaybin, and Jazirat ibn-Umar. 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.[5]
The cities of Urmia (in the northeast) Diyarbakır (in the north), Maraş (in the north), and Mersin (in the west), which straddle the peaks of the Taurus Mountains and the Zagros Mountains, have served as the dividing line between Arab lands and Turkish/Armenian/Kurdish ones, 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."[6][7]
Largest cities
Today, the largest metropolitan areas in the region are Adana, Urfa, Aintab, Diyarbakr, Mersin, Marash, Viranşehir, Siirt, Midyat, and Mardin.
Ancient and Medieval accounts
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In the twelfth century, the scholar Muhammad Al-Idrisi visited Syria and wrote in his book Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaaq at the beginning of the fifth section of the fourth region about the northern regions as follows:
"In the Levantine sea are two islands: Rhodes and Cyprus; 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.."[8]
In the 10th-century geographical treatise Aḥsan al-Taqāsim fī Maʿrifat al-Aqālīm ("The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions"), al-Maqdisi, a native of Jerusalem and considered the father of Palestinian nationalism as an identity separate to that of the northern Levant (Syria)[9], delineates the region of al-Shām by enumerating its principal cities:
"The cities of al-Shām are: Damascus, Hims, Hama, Baalbek, Tripoli, Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramla, and Ascalon... Among the cities of al-Jazīra are Harrān, Raqqah, Raḥbah, and Edessa (al-Ruhā)."[10]
History
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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.[11]
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,[12] 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 refugees from the Armenian genocide, remain 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 period 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.[13] 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."[14]
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, and 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, namely the Ramadanids and Dulkadirids, 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 established to manage international trading, centred around Tripoli al-sham and Sidon.
Ottoman period
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.
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.
City of Urfa
According to Strabo in his Geographica, Arab deities were worshipped in Urfa and Manbij, which housed a Kaaba similar to the one venerated in Mecca. Also, Urfa's Tektek Mountains were governed by Arab chieftains as far back as the 1st century.[15] In the 5th century, there were many churches in the city and monasteries in the area and three major Christian theological schools. The Armenians, the Syrians, and the Assyrian Persians. The latter were relocated to Nusaybin.[16] With the arrival of the Arab Muslims, Urfa was placed within the Bilad al-Sham province, and, particularly under the Umayyads, Urfa was still a major Christian city. The city reportedly had 300 or 360 churches, and there were many monasteries. The population was mostly Syrian Orthodox but with significant Melkite and Jewish minorities; there were relatively few Muslims.[17]
During the Crusading era, the crusaders' subjects were a mix of Armenians and Syrians. The city itself was entirely Armenian, while the countryside entirely Syrian. This was recent however, as during the 11th century there was a large influx of Armenian immigrants into the region, especially the towns where they supplanted Syrians as the leading citizens and wealthiest landowners.[16] Eventually in 1083, following the recent Armenian immigration, the citizens of Edessa elected an Armenian named Smbat, the first Armenian leader in Northern Syria since Tigranes. Before the Mamluk's arrived in the area, it was guarded by large Arab contingents, gathered from local Bedouin tribes, against marauding Turkish and Arab highwaymen,[18] and was known as the headquarters of Arab raiding missions in Cilicia. The County of Edessa, which comprised the whole area south of the Taurus and around the Aintab Plateau, "was still inhabited by many Christians" [by 1150].[17]
During Saladin's reign, the cathedral of the Melkites was demolished, while in Nur al-Din’s reign, the Zengid ruler built the "rather plain" Great Mosque, which was on the site of an earlier church.[16] In the Siege of Urfa in 1144, the Franks realising they were trapped, attempted to retreat out of the city but it ended in disaster and they were slaughtered as they tried to escape.[19] Moreover, the city's population was massacred – the men were put to death, while the women and children were sold into slavery.[20] The city's Christian community, one of the oldest in the world, had been destroyed and never recovered since.[21]
During Ottoman times, it welcomed around 8-10 thousand Turks fleeing the Russian occupation of Western Armenia and up to 5 thousand Kirkuk Turkmen in the 1800s and 1700s respectively, altering the demographics in favour of a large Turkish presence.[22] Until the Hamidian Massacres in October 1895, 20,000 of the cities 60,000 population was Armenian, and by the end of the month over 4000 Armenians were either starved, slaughtered, or burned alive in the Church of Saint Astvatsatsin.[23] Two decades later, the Armenian genocide was the camel that broke the camels back in that it completely destroyed the two-millennium Christian essence of the city, where 40,000 Christians were murdered in Urfa and its surroundings.[24]
Turkish annexation
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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.[25]
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 Qiliz, Aintab, al-Bīra, Urfa, Mardin, Nusaybin, and Jazirat ibn-Umar 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 defence 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.[26]
Current Situation
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Despite the Turkification that occurred since the Seljuk Turks and culminating in the annexation in 1921 and 1939, these regions maintained a culture distinct from the Turkish culture found in Ankara, Konya, the Aegean, and the Black Sea.
Aintab, today known as Ghazi Antep, is the financial capital of the Northern Syrian regions. It is renowned in Turkish culture as the "sister city of Alep (Aleppo)" and for its unique blend of Turkish and Levantine culture. For example, "there are several types of exclusively Armenian soups in Aintab cuisine. These include vardapet soup and omız zopalı".[27] Further, "the local Turkish dialect of Gaziantep is an integral part of the native identity of the city and is being preserved through often humorous plays by theatrical troupes, such as Çeled Uşaglar (lit. naughty children). The dialect carries influences mainly from Armenian and Arabic."[28] There are also influences evident in the local cuisine, as both Aintab and Urfa are famous in Turkiye for their Patlıcan kebap, (/pɑːˈdɯˈɪŋʒɑːn keˈbaːp/; Arabic: كباب باذنجان; eggplant kebab), a dish identical to the "maldoum" offered in Aleppo.[29] Gaziantep province and its daughter province of Qiliz both host 575,000 Syrian refugees.
Urfa, the birthplace of the Syriac language and the centre of the Syriac Orthodox and Catholic Churches for over a millenium, traces its Arabic heritage to 49 AD[30], with the arrival of Arab Tribes from the Euphrates basin. However, Arabic culture remains a key cornerstone of the city. For example, the Arabic sounds 'ayn, ghayn, and qāf are pronounced the same in Urfa as they are in Arabic, which is not done in standard Turkish.[22] The current name of Urfa only came to predominate by the 1800s, with only the city's Arab Christians still calling it "al-Ruha".[17] With the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, more than 3 million Syrians crossed the border into Turkey, and according to official data from the Şanlıurfa Provincial Migration Administration, more than 275,000 Syrians currently reside in Urfa Province. About 79% of Syrian refugees in Urfa were Arabic-speakers, while the other 21% were Kurdish-speakers.[31] In July 2019, local authorities removed all Arabic-language signs on Syrian-owned businesses in Urfa and made Turkish-language signs mandatory, furthering the record of ethnic assimilation.[32]
Mardin, on the other hand, traces its Arabic heritage back to the migration of the Banu Rabiʕah and Banu Mudar in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Many of those tribes eventually migrated to what is today Diyarbakr, whose namesake is the Arabic tribe Banu Bakr, a branch of the Banu Rabiʕah. It is situated near the region of Tur Abdin, "Mountain of the Servants of God", which lies at the crossroads between the Levant and Mesopotamia centred around Midyat, and is home to the largest Assyrian-Syriac community in Turkey. Mardin hosts 90,000 Syrian refugees and until today spoken Arabic is second only to Kurdish in the province, with more than 35% of the population being fluent.
Further, over 771 villages and towns in Turkiye have a majority Arab or Assyrian population, with hundreds more with significant Arab minorities.[33] This provides a combined estimated population of 1.5 million Anatolian Arabs. Although only 600,000 are native in Anatolian Arabic[34][35], others are native in other dialects - 100,000 in Bedouin/Harranian/Edessan Arabic, 200,000 in Qeltu Arabic, and another million fluent in North Levantine Arabic (all figures excluding recent refugees).[36]
As of 2025, The Syrian Arab Republic only asserts sovereignty over the Sanjaq of Iskenderun, which was given to Turkey in 1939—a transfer that is not recognised internationally—yet does not claim the entire region. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) is currently the only political organisation claiming the larger northern areas.
Demographics
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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 area 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% [37] |
| Şanli Urfa | 20% |
| Ghazi Antep | 3.2% (city proper only) [38] |
| 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%[39][40][41] |
| Hatay | 62%[42] |
1965
After decades of Kemalist policies - such as changing the names of the cities of the Northern Syrian regions, where Marash became Kahramanmaraş in 1973, Urfa became Şanlıurfa in 1984, Aintab became Gaziantep in 1921, Ra's al Ain became Ceylapinar in 1946, Tel Abyad became Akcakale, Jarabulus became Karkamish, Qiliz to Kilis, Tişrin became Cermik, al-Bīra became Birecik, Jazirat ibn-Umar became Cizre, Saʕrad became Siirt, Kafr Buran became Dargeçit, Dara became Oğuz, Arab Fulmen became Onculer, Naʕime became Naimler, Qarʕ yʕun became Tinget, Ayn Ras became Tosunpinar, Melefa became Tuzlagozu, Fiskin became Doloharman, Fersefa became Akyamac, Beth Kustan became Alagoz, so on - Arabs remained 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. Qiliz) | 509,899 | 895 | 2.2% |
| Siirt (incl. Batman and northern Shirnaq)[43][44][45] | 276,381 | 1,040 | 2.4% |
| Hatay | 485,868 | 128,215 | 28.4% |
| Total in Turkey | 31,391,421 | 365,340 | 1.2% |
References
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