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Loyalty at Stake: Armenians, Revolt and Violence in French Mandatory Syria
Abstract
Interwar Syria became home for thousands of displaced Ottoman Armenians, Assyrians and Kurds. The settlement of these refugees took place at a critical historical juncture marked by post-World War uncertainties, the formation of the Syrian state under the French tutelage and, therefore, the frustrated attempts to create an independent Arab state as per European promises made during World War I. Inevitably, the incoming refugees played an important role – either directly or indirectly – in the state and nation-building processes that shaped modern-day Syria throughout the Mandate years (1920-1946). The mere presence of the refugees, who were often considered as French colonial tools, often put the loyalty of these refugees in question, which occasionally resulted in violent ethnic outbursts. While most scholars have focused their attention on the struggle between the Arab nationalists and the French colonial rulers, refugees have been studied from a state-centred perspective, often reduced to mere historical outcomes or victims with no agency on their own. Drawing from primary source material from the French mandate records, British and American diplomatic records, communist and Armenian Revolutionary Federation political party archives, as well as Arabic and Armenian newspapers, this paper seeks to examine the participation of the Armenian refugees in the Great Syrian Revolt (1925-1926). The Revolt, which started as local discontent against French rule, quickly became a nation-wide uprising shaking the foundations of the French rule in Syria. Although it was eventually suppressed, it resulted in the worst anti-Armenian pogroms in Syria’s modern history. The participation of Armenians in this conflict has been contested until today, and there are few academic studies about it. The Armenian community officially maintained a position of neutrality during the Revolt, whereas communist partisans within the community sided with the rebels. Nevertheless, the community as a whole was perceived as siding with the French and implicated in the suppression of the Revolt. This perception ultimately led to the attack on the Armenian refugee camp in Damascus which left fifty dead and resulted in Damascus being emptied of its Armenian population. This paper aims to shed new light on the events that led to the attack and to reveal the roles played by different segments of the Armenian refugee population in the Revolt, deconstructing, for the first time, the myth that Armenians as a group cooperated with occupying French forces to defeat the revolt.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Syria
Sub Area
Middle East/Near East Studies