Martyrs' Day (Lebanon and Syria)
| Martyrs' Day عيد الشهداء |
|
|---|---|
| Observed by | Syrians and Lebanese |
| Type | National |
| Significance | Syrian and Lebanese nationalists executed in Damascus and Beirut by the Ottomans |
| Observances | Flowers, moment of silence |
| Date | May 6 |
| Next time | 6 May 2018 |
| Frequency | annual |
Martyrs' Day (Arabic: عيد الشهداء) is a Syrian and Lebanese national holiday commemorating the Syrian and Lebanese nationalists executed in Damascus and Beirut on May 6, 1916 by Jamal Pasha, also known as 'Al Jazzar' or 'The Butcher', the Ottoman wāli of Greater Syria. They were executed in both the Marjeh Square in Damascus and Burj Square in Beirut. Both plazas have since been renamed Martyrs' Square.
The Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) ruled over Lebanon and Syria from its conquest in the sixteenth century, year 1516, until the end of World War I in 1918. It was during Ottoman rule that the term "Greater Syria" was coined to designate the approximate area included in present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Israel.
In the beginning of the 20th century, a new wave of Turkish nationalism started seething in Istanbul. It came to be known as Jön Türkler, from French "Les Jeunes Turcs" (The Young Turks) where for the first time Turks spoke of specific Turkish nationalism against the generalized Islamic Ottoman Empire. The movement resulted in an unlikely union of reform-minded pluralists, Turkish nationalists, Western-oriented secularists, and indeed anyone who accorded the Sultan political blame for the harried state of the Empire. The movement grew and resulted in the Young Turk Revolution, which began on 3 July 1908 and quickly spread throughout the Empire.
Inspired by the Young Turk Revolution, Arab delegates and political figures of the Empire started speaking of the Western notion of Arab nationalism (Arabic: القومية العربية) as well. The Arabs' demands were of a reformist nature, limited in general to 'autonomy', 'greater use of Arabic in education', and 'changes in conscription in the Ottoman Empire in peacetime for Arab conscripts' that allowed local service in the Ottoman army. At this stage Arab nationalism was not yet a mass movement, even in Syria where it was strongest. Many Arabs gave their primary loyalty to their religion or sect, their tribe, or their own particular governments. The ideologies of Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism were strong competitors of Arab nationalism.
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Wikipedia