What is the Importance of Aleppo Province for Turkey?

A map published in the Ottoman Empire in 1907 bears the title ‘Aleppo Province’. The map on the cover photo was a map showing the provinces of the Ottoman state.

In the Ottoman administrative structure, sanjaks corresponded to today's provinces, while vilayets were large regional administrations to which sanjaks were subordinate.

This large province, the centre of which is Aleppo Sanjak, is today divided between Turkey and Syria. The most important commercial connections of the cities included in this Aleppo-centred province were with the city of Aleppo. 

The 1907 map of Aleppo province shows that Aleppo province was neighbouring Adana province to the northwest, Sivas and Mamuret el Aziz (Elâzığ) provinces to the north, Diyarbakır province to the northeast, Deiruz Zor sanjak to the east, Syria province to the south and Beirut province to the southwest.

The centre of Aleppo province was Aleppo sanjak. The provinces of Hatay, Kilis, Gaziantep, Urfa and Maraş, which are now in Turkey, were located in Aleppo province. As of 1908, Aleppo, Marash, Antep and Urfa sanjaks were located in the province. 

After the First World War, the French forces occupying Aleppo wanted to occupy the other sanjaks of the province, namely Urfa, Maraş and Antep. After these cities resisted the French occupation forces with arms, the French army had to leave these cities.

These cities, which resisted the French with their lives, were given titles expressing heroism by the National Assembly because of these sacrifices. Antep city was renamed Gaziantep, Maraş city Kahramanmaraş and Urfa city Şanlıurfa. 

The cities of Antakya and Iskenderun, which had also been under the French mandate, became independent under the name of Hatay after a referendum organised with the pressure of Turkey and then joined Turkey.

Before 1918, Maraş sanjak and Antep sanjak in Aleppo province were completely in Turkish territory. Only the Raqqa district of the Urfa sanjak remained in Syria, all other districts were in Turkish territory. 

In Aleppo sanjak, Iskenderun, Antakya and Belen kaza were in Turkish territory. The central Aleppo accident, Idlib, Al-Bab and Jisr al-Shughur accidents remained in Syria. 

Due to the developments in the Syrian civil war, the history of the province of Aleppo and its place within the borders of Misak-ı Milli is a current and intriguing issue.