Subhi Bey Barakat

Subhi Bey Barakat al-Khalidi (Arabic: صبحي بك بركات الخالدي; Turkish: Suphi Bereket; 1889–1939) was a Turkish-born Syrian politician who served as the first president of Syria from 1922 until his resignation in 1925. He served during the French Mandate where the French controlled the country. He also served as the fourth prime minister during his tenure as president.

Subhi Bey Barakat
صبحي بك بركات
Official portrait, c. 1922
President of Syria
In office 29 June 1922 – 21 December 1925
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Office established; Faisal I (As King of Syria)
Succeeded by	François Pierre-Alype (acting) Ahmad Nami
Prime Minister of Syria
In office 29 June 1922 – 21 December 1925
President	Himself
Preceded by	Jamil al-Ulshi
Succeeded by	Ahmad Nami
Personal details
Born	Suphi Bereket 1889 Antakya, Ottoman Empire
Died	1939 (aged 49–50) Antakya, Turkey
Political party	Independent

Part of the reason the French supported his candidacy as president of the Syrian Federation was because as neither a native of Damascus nor a very strong Arabic speaker (Turkish was his mother tongue), he did not seem to pose a nationalist threat to French rule.^[1]

Initially, he was a partner of Ibrahim Hanano in his revolt. He played a major role in merging the States of Aleppo and Damascus into one state,^{[citation needed]} and he quit the presidency of Syria in 1925 in protest to the French position regarding the fate of the Alawite and Druze States,^{[citation needed]} which France refused to add to Syria because it feared that might endanger the independence of the newly created Lebanon.

Personal life

Barakat was married to Halide; They had three sons (named Rıfat, Halit, and Selahattin) and three daughters (Süheyla Mukbile, Zehra, and Saniye). Süheyla Mukbile married Refik Koraltan's son Oğuzhan Koraltan. Zehra married Turkish diplomat Vahit Melih Halefoğlu. Saniye married to Turkish businessman Fazıl Tüzemen.

See also

• Mandate for Syria and Lebanon
• Hatay State