The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian territories, Cyprus, Turkey's Hatay Province and sometimes Iraq or the Sinai Peninsula, and corresponds roughly to the historic area of Greater Syria.

For one example, the Hatay Province was transferred to Turkey from Syria after the majority-Turkish population complained of mistreatment.

This friction has been due to disputes including the self annexation of the Hatay Province to Turkey in 1939, water disputes resulting from the Southeastern Anatolia Project, and Syria ’ s support for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party ( PKK ) and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia ( ASALA ), but relations have improved greatly since October 1998 ; when PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was expelled by Syrian authorities.

As a result of the Treaty of Lausanne, the former Ottoman Sanjak ( province ) of Alexandretta ( present-day Hatay Province ) was ceded to the France which administered it on behalf of the League of Nations.

Syria does not recognize the addition of Hatay Province to Turkey and continues to show it as a part of Syria on its maps.

* 5, 403 km < sup > 2 </ sup > — Hatay Province, Turkey

Category: Geography of Hatay Province

Category: History of Hatay Province

The roots of the long-lost C. foliosa, an endemic of Hatay Province ( Turkey ), are used in folk medicine, and other species are presumably too.

Category: Populated places in Hatay Province

Some Grecian " ancient synagogal " priestly rites and hymns have survived partially to the present in the distinct church services of the Melkite and Greek Orthodox communities of the Hatay Province of Southern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and the Holy Land.

Hatay Province (, ) is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast.

sco: Hatay Province

tl: Hatay Province

* Hatay Province ( Turkey ) camps for refugees of the Syrian civil war ( opened 2011 )

Erdemir has Port of Erdemiralso acquired the steel plant at İskenderun, Hatay Province in southern Turkey.

Alalakh ( Hittite: Alalaḫ ) is the name of an ancient city-state near modern Antakya in the Amuq River valley of Turkey's Hatay Province.

Category: Geography of Hatay Province

Category: History of Hatay Province

Some Grecian " ancient synagogal " priestly rites have survived partially to the present, notably in the distinct church service of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Melkite Greek Catholic communities of the Hatay Province of Southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.

Counting members of the surviving minorities in the Hatay Province of Turkey and their relatives in the diaspora, there are more than 1. 8 million Antiochite Greco-Melkite Christians residing in the Northern-MENA, the US, Canada and Latin America today.

Atassi's resignation was also influenced by the French decision to cede the Syrian province of Alexandretta ( current day Iskenderun in Hatay Province ) to Turkey, enraging Syrian nationalists.

The novel focuses on the defense of a small community of Armenians living in the mountainous region of Hatay Province of the former Ottoman Empire — now part of present-day southern Turkey on the Mediterranean coast — as well the events in Istanbul and provincial capitals, where the Young Turkish government orchestrated the deportations, concentration camps, and massacres of the empire's Armenian citizens.

Despite this, a Turkish community remained in Alexandretta and Atatürk claimed that Hatay had been a Turkish homeland for 40 centuries.

The province is part of Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region that covers the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, and Hatay.

Atatürk demanded that Hatay become part of Turkey claiming that the majority of its inhabitants were Turks.

On the other hand, the Turkish government, too, made efforts to collaborate with other ethnic groups, especially the Alawis, whom they considered part of the Turkish community in Hatay.

In Ottoman times, Hatay was part of the Vilayet of Aleppo in Ottoman Syria.

After World War I, Hatay ( then known as Alexandretta ) became part of the French Mandate of Syria.

Syria continues to consider Hatay part of its territory, and shows it as such on its maps.

Official Syrian maps still show Hatay as part of Syria.

The Sanjak of Alexandretta, which was a part of Aleppo from 1920 to 1923 and then a part of the Alawite State from 1923 to 1938, did not have its own flag until it became independent as the State of Hatay.

This mandate included Lebanon ; Hatay ( a former Ottoman Alexandretta sandjak ) broke away from it and became a French protectorate until it was ceded to the new Republic of Turkey.

* June 23 – Talks are completed in Ankara between French Ambassador René Massigli and Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu, resolving the Hatay dispute in Turkey's favor.

In 1923 Hatay was attached to the State of Aleppo, and in 1925 it was directly attached to the French mandate of Syria, still with special administrative status.

Accordingly, some original inhabitants of Southern Turkey including those surrounding Antakya were of Hittite ancestry, hence the name Hatay ( this is close to the French pronunciation ).

In January 1939, negotiations were opened between the French and Turkey over resolving the Hatay dispute.

* History of Syria: French Mandate of Syria, Franco-Syrian War, and the Hatay State

In early 1920s, the British and French control of these territories became formalized by the League of Nations ' mandate system, and France was assigned the mandate of Syria on September 29, 1923, which included modern Lebanon and Alexandretta ( Hatay ) in addition to Syria proper.

The French mandate of Syria lasted until 1943, when two independent countries emerged from the mandate period, Syria and Lebanon, in addition to Hatay which had joined Turkey in 1939.

Hatay State (,, Dawlat Hatay ), also known informally as the Republic of Hatay, was a transitional political entity that formally existed from September 7, 1938, to June 29, 1939, in the territory of the Sanjak of Alexandretta of the French Mandate of Syria.