The short-lived Syrian federalism experiment of 1922
Although it scored some achievements, the Syrian Union was controversial from the start and became a huge headache for the French Mandate, which dissolved it after two years
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Subhi Barakat was elected as the Syrian Union's first president—a notable from Antioch who had served as MP in Syria’s first parliament, known as the Syrian National Congress of 1919.
The short-lived Syrian federalism experiment of 1922
Did you know that in 1922, the capital of Syria was Aleppo, not Damascus? That was during the French Mandate years in Syria's short-lived federal government.
When occupying Syria in 1920, the French carved up the country into city-states: the state of Damascus (including Homs and Hama), the state of Aleppo (including Raqqa, Al Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor), the state of the Druze Mountain with Suwayda as its capital, and the state of the Alawites which included Masyaf and Tartus, with its capital in Latakia. Although Alawite by name, it was cross-sectarian. According to a 1923 French census, its population stood at 101,000 Alawites, 94,000 Sunnis, 34,000 Christians, and 5,000 Ismailis.
In June 1922, just short of two years before the mandate’s second anniversary, French High Commissioner Henri Gouraud decided to institutionalise the partition of Syria, choosing a name that was alien to the Syrian political lexicon, Itihad al-Duwwal al-Souriyya (Union of Syrian States), sometimes abbreviated as Dawlet al-Itihad (State of the Union).
Officially inaugurated on 28 June 1922, it created a federal union between the states of Damascus, Aleppo, and the Alawites, loosely based on the Switzerland model. The people of Damascus were shocked to learn that the new state's capital would be Aleppo rather than Damascus. Future prime minister Fares al-Khoury objected, writing in his memoirs: “If they don’t please the Damascenes, the situation will never stabilise in Syria. You will never rest if the heart of Damascus remains broken.”
The Syrian Union federalised many important government sectors, such as finance, justice, public works, land registry, religious endowments (awqaf), postal and telegraph services, education, and the gendarmerie. Each state would keep its own school curriculum, flag, stamps, land ownership papers, and birth certificates.
On French maps, each state had distinct borders and was required to contribute 50% of its annual income to other members of the union. The new state observed the main Muslim and Christian holidays in all three states, including Christmas, Easter, New Year’s and Bastille Day (14 July), the anniversary of the French Revolution.
The Syrian Union federalised many key government sectors, and each state had its own flag, curriculum and stamps
Gouraud chose 15 delegates for the Syrian Union's first council (five for each), who in turn were required to elect a federal president while keeping Kamil al-Qudsi and Haqqi al-Azm at their respective posts as governors of Aleppo and Damascus. Each of the three states got one single vote on any matter of federal concern, which needed a simple majority to pass. Delegates had to meet twice yearly, and their decisions were binding to all three member states.
First president
The 15 delegates elected Subhi Barakat as their first president—a notable from Antioch who had served as MP in Syria's first parliament, known as the Syrian National Congress of 1919.
Damascenes were furious with an Antiochian president, although Barakat had tried pleasing them by appointing one of their notables, Sami Pasha Mardam Bey, as vice-president of the Syrian Union. That was still not enough to win their blessing or silence their opposition, given that they were also upset by the fact that they had been put on equal footing with the Alawites and the Aleppines.
"They strove to humiliate Damascus", al-Khoury angrily wrote in his memoirs. Barakat saw himself as more Ottoman than Arab, making him more difficult to accept for the Damascenes, who took great pride in their Arab history and considered themselves guardians of Arab nationalism.
He held cabinet meetings in Ottoman Turkish—a language he had a better command of—rather than Arabic. This became a point of ridicule in Damascus, where newspapers intentionally published his inauguration speech verbatim, riddled with grammatical mistakes, without correcting a single word.
For their part, the Aleppines also did not think too highly of the federal system despite their city being declared its first capital. They had little affection for the Alawites or the Damascenes. Many did not want to share their wealth with fellow Syrians, fully aware that Aleppo was far more prosperous than the other two states. Aleppo was once called the "milch cow" of the Syrian Union.
The first Syrian Union president, Subhi Barakat, saw himself as more Ottoman than Arab, making it more difficult for Damascenes, who were proud Arabs, to accept him
Taxes from Aleppo funded the Damascus-based Arab Faculties of Law and Medicine and agricultural development projects in the Alawite State. The Aleppines demanded that their wealth remain in their city's coffers and be used only for its development. They also complained that salaries were higher in Damascus than in Aleppo because of the higher cost of living.
Reduced rainfall that year meant a poorer harvest of fruits, wheat, and barley from the plains of Aleppo. Turkey was no longer importing anything from Aleppo due to the French-imposed border tariffs, hence worsening the city's plight. Aleppo was already suffering from major economic challenges due to 40,000 Armenian refugees who arrived and permanently settled there from 1915 onward, fleeing persecution and death at the hands of the Ottomans.
For their part, Alawite notables were also suspicious of the new federal government, as it gave the Damascenes and Aleppines an upper hand in the new Syria, taking away the privileges they had briefly enjoyed with the autonomous Alawite State of 1920-1922, like the Alawite Sharia Courts.
President Barakat created a small cabinet of four directors (ministers)—two from Damascus and two from Aleppo. No minister was chosen from the Alawite State. The new state got a new flag composed of green and white banners in reference to the Rashidoun and Umayyad caliphates. Drawn in the middle was the tri-colour of the French Flag. "I don't see any reason to insert a French flag", argued al-Khoury. "The mandate is temporary, after all, while the Syrian Flag is permanent."
1923 elections
The 15 Syrian representatives of the three states assembled for their first meeting in Aleppo on 11 December 1922. In June 1923, the new high commissioner, Maxime Weygand, called for general elections in all three Syrian states. The two-tier electoral system would only be open to adult males aged 25 and above. Candidates had to meet a six-month residency requirement in their respective states before accepting their nominations.
Rural dwellers were purposely given a disproportionate number of electors in the primaries, given that they were less politicised and, therefore, less likely to vote for candidates with an anti-French agenda. There was little politics in the Syrian countryside or along the coast, only overwhelming poverty and illiteracy. Residents had no access to the political dailies that came out in Damascus, which were filled with anti-French editorials.
A photo dating back to 1900 shows a general view of the Syrian capital with the famous Hamidiyeh Market (front) and the old Damascus Citadel (back) at the turn of the 20th century.
Despite everybody's reservations about the Syrian Union, Syrians took the parliamentary elections very seriously. Three powerful parties competed for political office that autumn. The first was headed by President Barakat, campaigning against the governor of the State of Damascus, Haqqi al-Azm and ex-prime minister Ali Rida al-Rikabi.
Challenging their ambitions was Fawzi al-Ghazzi, a professor of law and frontline nationalist, and Abd al-Rahman Shahbandar, another nationalist figure and former foreign minister. Both worked to disrupt the elections and called for a general boycott, claiming they legitimised the mandate system.
The boycott worked, but only in Damascus, where only 25% of registered voters (49,000) cast their ballot. In Aleppo, Homs, and Hama, where Shahbandar and al-Ghazzi's influence was no match for Subhi Barakat's, voter turnout was 49%. In the countryside of Aleppo, it stood at 99%, and in the Alawite territories, at 77%.
The elections took place on 29 October 1923. Al-Azm won most of Damascus's 11 seats, while al-Rikabi was defeated. In Aleppo, Barakat won 16 out of the 19 seats and his allies in the Alawite State took 10 out of 12 seats reserved for the Latakia province. His bloc now stood at an impressive 28 MPs, becoming the largest in parliament.
Shahbandar tried pressuring newly elected deputies to resign before the Syrian Union Parliament held its first session, resorting to thuggery and intimidation. Masked men broke into the home of newly elected Damascus MP Sheikh Abdulhamid al-Attar and roughed him up. Al-Attar was a preacher of the Umayyad Mosque in Old Damascus, and Shahbandar encouraged worshippers to walk out of his sermon.
Another Damascus MP, Rushdi al-Sukkari—an influential merchant at the Bzurieh Market—suffered a citywide boycott of his goods. Shahbandar said he would only call it off if al-Sukkari stepped down from the Union Parliament.
End of the Union
Realising that the French had gone too far in courting Aleppo at the expense of everybody else, the Syrian Union decided to permanently restore the capital to Damascus on 30 October 1923. But by then, it was almost too late for the union and Barakat.
A US soldier poses with French General Maxime Weygand (C) and his wife Marie-Renée-Joséphine Weygand, on May 5, 1945 at Itter Castle in Austrian Tyrol, shortly after its liberation by the US Army.
Weygand began to lose faith in the project due to ceaseless complaints from the three states and their inhabitants. He did not want to pay the price for a political experiment that he had not devised, which bore the name of his predecessor, Henri Gouraud. When the unity of Syrian lands was discussed in the union parliament, delegates from Damascus and Aleppo voted in favour, along with Abdul Wahab Haroun, a Sunni MP from Latakia representing the Alawite State.
On 5 December 1924, Weygand issued a decree abolishing the Syrian Union in accordance with a majority vote at its Chamber of Deputies. Before returning to France, the High Commissioner signed two decrees: one that established Etat de Syrie (State of Syria) instead of Itihad al-Duwwal al-Souriyya and the other that restored full autonomy of the Alawite State.
Barakat then became president of the Syrian state rather than the Union state before resigning on 21 December 1925, in objection to a French bombing of Damascus earlier in October during the Great Syrian Revolt.
And although it existed for only two years, the Union state boasted some memorable feats—principally the merging of the faculties of law and medicine in Damascus into one institution of higher education, the Syrian University, in 1923.
Months before the union dissolved, work began on drawing fresh drinking water from the Ain al-Fijah Spring to the aqueducts and homes of Damascus. The Syrian Union oversaw the creation of the modern Syrian police and cancelled all special court privileges granted to European citizens since Ottoman times.
