SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate Turkish-Syrian relations in the period 1908-14, and to trace their role in the origins and developnent of the Arab nationalist movement. The Revolution of July 1908 put the Ottoman Empire under the rule of the Young Turks. In 1914 the Empire entered the First World War, a step which was to bring about its ultimate defeat and destruction. During this clynamic period Turco-Syrian relations underwent various stages of development, and the effective Arab movement began. However, signs of such a movement, incoherent and half-conscious, may be seen in the literary and political writings of some Syrians throughout the second half of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth century. This is discussed in the introduction which also gives definitions of terms such as "Syria" and "the Syrians", Chapter I analyses the events between July 1908 and the counter-coup of April 1909. From those events stemmed the Syrian opposition to the Young Turk regime. This opposition grew throughout the period under consideration, and several phases in its growth nay be discerned. Chapter II deals with the increasing dissatisfaction of the Syrian Arabs with the policies of the Young Turk regime and exanines the attempt of the leading Syrians to enumerate and redress their grievances against that regime in the years 1909-12. Arab societies in Istanbul as well as the Arab parliamentary lobby played a significant, but often overlooked, role in affecting the relations of the Syrian Aarabs with the Young Turk governments. The assessment of this role is the subject natter of Chapter III. Perhaps the nost important phase of the Syrian-Turkish controversy was the agitation of the Syrians for the introduction of a decentralised form of government in their vilayets. The origins, nature and development of this agitation are investigated in Chapter IV. The attempt of the Syrians to secure their political rights within the framework of the Ottoman Empire reached their climax with the convening of Paris Congress in June, 1913. This Congress and the events following it are examined in the fifth and last chapter. The study ends with a conclusion in which some general views about the subject are ventured.