Hatay State
| Hatay State | ||||||||||
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Hatay Devleti État du Hatay دولة خطاي |
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Anthem İstiklâl Marşı |
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| Capital | Antakya | |||||||||
| Languages |
Turkish (official) French (second) Levantine Arabic |
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| Government | Republic | |||||||||
| Head of State | Tayfur Sökmen | |||||||||
| Prime Minister | Abdurrahman Melek | |||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | |||||||||
| • | Independence | September 7, 1938 | ||||||||
| • | Union with Turkey | June 29, 1939 | ||||||||
| Area | ||||||||||
| • | 1938 | 4,700 km² (1,815 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | ||||||||||
| • | 1938 est. | 234,379 | ||||||||
| Density | 49.9 /km² (129.2 /sq mi) | |||||||||
| Currency | Turkish liraa | |||||||||
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| a. | Preceded by the Syrian pound. | |||||||||
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Hatay State (Turkish: Hatay Devleti, French: État du Hatay, Arabic: دولة خطاي Dawlat Khaṭāy), also known informally as the Republic of Hatay, was a transitional political entity that existed from September 7, 1938, to June 29, 1939, in the territory of the Sanjak of Alexandretta of the French Mandate of Syria. The state was transformed de jure into the Hatay Province of Turkey on July 7, 1939, de facto joining the country on July 23, 1939. Hatay Province includes districts of Erzin, Dörtyol and Hassa in addition to former Hatay State territories.
Formerly part of the Aleppo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, the Sanjak of Alexandretta was occupied by France at the end of World War I and constituted part of the French Mandate of Syria.
The Sanjak of Alexandretta was an autonomous sanjak from 1921 to 1923, as a result of the French-Turkish treaty of October 20, 1921, considering the presence of an important Turkish community along with Arab and Armenian ones. Then it was attached to the State of Aleppo, then in 1925 it was directly attached to the State of Syria, still with a special administrative status.
Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk refused to accept the Sanjak of Alexandretta to be part of the Mandate and, in a speech on March 15, 1923 in Adana, claimed, that it was "a Turkish homeland for 40 centuries" and that "can't be a captive at the hands of enemy". In truth, the Turks first appeared in Anatolia during the 11th century when the Seljuk Turks occupied the eastern province of the Abbasid Empire and captured Baghdad. Turkish politics aimed at incorporating the Sanjak of Alexandretta when the French mandate of Syria would expire in 1935. Local Turks initiated reforms in the style of Atatürk's, formed various organisations and institutions in order to promote the idea of union with Turkey.
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