Vahram Shemmasian
The Sanjak of Alexandretta/Iskenderun was an autonomous
province within Syria during the interwar years. Its inhabitants included a
significant number of Armenian natives and refugees, among them the indigenous
population of Musa Dagh near Antioch. A political crisis beginning in 1936 shook
Sanjak society to its core, as winds of change from a French mandate to Turkish
suzerainty increasingly caused panic. The turmoil grew to alarming proportions
for the Arabs, Alawites, and Christians when a farcical “election” in the summer
of 1938 installed a Turkish majority in the Sanjak’s legislature. A year later
Turkey annexed the area. This was the final straw that compelled the
overwhelming majority of Armenians, among other groups, to seek refuge in other
parts of Syria as well as Lebanon, refusing to live under Turkish rule.
