Abstract:

After the second half of the 18th century; the imperialist policies of the states such as England, Russia and Austria on the Ottoman Empire, caused significant changes in France's strategy in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. Although the Ottoman Empire tried to carry out its foreign policy with its balance policies until the end of the century, it couldn’t prevent the transfer of population to the western states in order to establish colonies under the name of commercial activities in its territory. The privileges granted by the capitulations with the 1839 Tanzimat and 1856 Islahat edicts, known as the enactment movements in the Ottoman Empire, increased the population of a new western settler dealing with trade under the name of "Levantine (eastern)" in the Ottoman lands. As well as the missionary schools opened in the region with this population, organized and supported by the separatist Arab population in Lebanon and Jordan. Despite the great defeat of the Ottoman Emperor against Russia in 1878 and the subsequent Berlin Congress, France set its sights on the North African lands (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt) and occupied them one by one. Although this occupation, France had to withdraw from Egypt, three years later, which was on the eastern trade route of England. By the First World War, France's eastern strategy became clear with the Sykes-Picot Agreement signed between two other allies, England and Russia. Along with Syria and Lebanon, France seized the opportunity to gain control over Çukurova, which has become a center of attraction for the French Levantines since 1860 and also the raw material warehouse of many industrial products. The occupation of this region, which was of vital importance for the French industry, which lost most of its Western and African colonies to England, would be a very valuable gain. The aim of this study is to analyze the strategy of the Çukurova Region, which was the basis of France's eastern strategy and also was occupied by the Syria Alliance with Britain after the First World War.

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