REFLECTIONS IN THE TURKISH PRESS OF POLICIES TOWARDS THE NUSAYRIS DURING HATAY’S INCORPORATION PROCESS INTO TURKEY HATAY’IN TÜRKİYE’YE KATILIM SÜRECİNDE NUSAYRÎLERE YÖNELİK POLİTİKALARIN TÜRK BASININDAKİ YANSIMALARI

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YILDIRIM KIRIŞ Ö.

Turk Kulturu ve Haci Bektas Veli - Arastirma Dergisi, sa.119, ss.255-285, 2026 (Scopus, TRDizin)

Özet

This study aims to explain the role of Nusayrī communities during the process of Hatay's accession to Turkey and to examine the social impacts of the policies implemented by Turkey and the French Mandate administration within the framework of identity politics and social integration processes. In this study, the term "Nusayrīs" is used to refer to the Alawite communities living in the Hatay region. Turkey employed the press as a critical instrument in the Hatay Sanjak question and sustained propaganda and informational activities uninterruptedly until Hatay's accession to Turkey. During this period, while France sought to maintain its dominance through ethnic and religious groups in the region, Turkey carried out intensive political and cultural efforts to secure the support of Nusayrī communities. The Turkish government developed arguments asserting the Turkish origin of the Nusayrīs and supported this policy through educational, cultural, and organizational activities. In news reports and commentaries published in the press, a strong discourse emerged that associated the Nusayrīs with Turkish identity and emphasized their integration into Turkey. In contrast, the policies of the French Mandate administration that deepened sectarian divisions, along with the pressures, threats, and tensions they generated, were conveyed in a critical tone. The French Mandate sought to weaken the national consciousness of the Alawites by classifying them along sectarian lines; in contrast, Nusayrī Alawites integrated into Turkish identity and played an active role in Hatay's accession to Turkey. In Syria, the repressive practices of the French Mandate administration and local collaborators sought to displace the Alawites, suppress them religiously, and promote their conversion to Christianity; in contrast, Alawites in Hatay identified themselves with Turkish identity and acted in solidarity with the Turkish population. The Turkish press emphasized the propaganda activities in Hatay and the growing rapprochement between Turks and Alawites, while simultaneously reporting on anti-Turkish campaigns orchestrated by French and Arab nationalist circles. The study draws on archival documents, national newspapers of the period, official correspondences, and relevant scholarly works.