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.

The French Mandate in Syria was a period of intense stress and transformation for Aleppo’s Jewish community. This politically marginalized, yet prosperous, community was battered by the great famine of World War I, and the prolonged economic and political crises that followed. After the occupation of Aleppo by French forces, the French Mandate administration, the Syrian Arab nationalist movement that grew up to oppose it, and the burgeoning Zionist movement all competed for and demanded the Jewish community’s allegiance. The French authorities needed Jewish support to justify their claim that they were in Syria to protect religious minorities from their Muslim neighbors; Syrian nationalists needed Jewish support to refute that claim; and Zionist activists needed Jewish support for their contention that Jews could only be safe and free in their own nation-state. Because Aleppo’s Jews were in a position to do great damage to the legitimacy of all three of these actors, the demands for their allegiance became increasingly threatening over time. At the same time, the Jewish community itself was divided by internal power struggles between its existing notable class, its religious establishment, and a new generation of Western-educated professionals. These “enlightened men” saw their community’s temporal and spiritual leadership as corrupt and backwards, and themselves as the vanguard of progress and civilization for “eastern” Jews. At stake in this conflict was control over the Aleppine Jewish community’s autonomous governing bodies, established in the Tanzimat era, which managed the community’s schools, welfare programs and collective property. The conflict between these two groups were exacerbated by the French authorities’ refusal to regulate the functioning of these governing bodies, as the Ottoman authorities had done. This conflict weakened the community at precisely the moment when a worldwide economic depression and rising political conflict in the region posed the greatest danger. Already in the mid-1930s, Aleppo’s Jewish leaders saw the growing number of people from their community emigrating as an existential threat. This paper uses the correspondence of two headmasters of the Alliance Israélite Universelle schools in Aleppo, as well French and British diplomatic sources and Arabic periodicals, to explore these internal conflicts and external pressures. It seeks to reveal the local factors behind the destruction of Syria’s Jewish communities after 1948, a tragedy that is often discussed only in reference to the creation of the State of Israel.

The Assyrians emerged from the First World War a damaged and beleaguered people. Harrowing massacres and deportations destroyed ancient Assyrian communities in the Ottoman Empire and Iran. Many of the destitute genocide survivors were stranded in refugee camps, the most infamous of the British-run camp in Baqubah, Iraq. Until now, historians of this period have primarily neglected to examine the Assyrians’ political enterprises in the context of the post-war period, which saw many nations negotiating their claims before the international community. The Assyrians were active participants – rather than hapless victims – attempting to forge their political destiny in the post-World War I period. This paper examines the monthly periodical "The New Assyria", a monthly Assyrian news journal published in New Jersey from 1915 to 1919 by Charles Dartley and Rev. Joel Werda. "The New Assyria" embodied Wilsonian-inspired ideas and framed programs of self-help along the lines of self-determination. The editors and contributors for "The New Assyria" covered World War I and the postwar peace period intensely. The periodical served as a vehicle of the political hopes of conscious-minded Assyrian activists. While the activists associated with "The New Assyria" worked to establish an Assyrian state under British or American mandate, they were ultimately unsuccessful. Nevertheless, they played a leading role in elevating the Assyrians from a little-known community in the Middle East to an international political “Question.”