Sarah D. Shields. Fezzes in the River: Identity Politics and European Diplomacy in the Middle East on the Eve of World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. xi + 306 pp. $39.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-539331-6.

Reviewed by David Getman

Published on H-Empire (November, 2011)

Commissioned by Charles V. Reed (Elizabeth City State University)

Sarah Shields’s Fezzes in the River is the sec‐ nal and “cosmopolitan society” in the Sanjak ond book-length study in English of the 1936-39 through its reinscription as ethnically Turkish in contest between French-occupied and Tur‐ the name of regional stability, international peace, key over possession of the former Ottoman Sanjak and, ironically, the principle of national self-deter‐ () of Alexandretta, known since 1939 as mination (p. 244). the southern Turkish province of Hatay.[1] Broad‐ Shields’s contribution to the historiography ly, Shields argues that the trend of European rests on her assertion that the Sanjak of the 1930s diplomacy toward appeasement in the 1930s was not, as Yücel Güçlü has argued, home to any rapidly eroded the willingness of France and the ethno-linguistic majority population, be it Turkish ability of the to guarantee the or otherwise. Rather, she argues, the network of right to self-determination in the Sanjak--extend‐ overlapping afliations that characterized the ed to its residents by the League as a corner of Sanjak’s urban centers, “where people often spoke France’s mandate for Syria in 1920--against the ir‐ more than one language, where Kurds married redentist ambitions of neighboring . In ad‐ Turks, Arabs married Kurds, and the church dition to ofering a valuable reexamination of in‐ steeples were easily visible from neighboring ternational relations in the troubled years leading minarets,” represented a living antithesis to the up to the Second World War, however, Shields prevailing European assumption that “the lan‐ also attends to the impact of those relations on the guage of a territory’s population indicated a dis‐ delicate balance of post-Ottoman identity politics tinct ethnic identity” that could be defned as “na‐ among the Arab, Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, and tional” (p. 7). As Shields demonstrates, however, it Circassian residents of the Sanjak itself. What was precisely the polyglot and cosmopolitan char‐ emerges is a painstaking reconstruction of the vi‐ acter of Sanjak communities that enabled French olent “dismemberment” of a deeply intercommu‐ and Turkish negotiators to barter with the San‐ H-Net Reviews jak’s sovereignty in 1921, 1937, and 1938 despite British and United States government records, their ostensible commitment to self-determina‐ however, to reconstruct Turkey’s eforts to in‐ tion as members of the League of Nations. scribe Turkish identity upon the largely reluctant In her introductory and concluding chapters, residents of the Sanjak over the book’s seven Shields ofers an overview of the “Sanjak ques‐ chronological chapters. Although largely excavat‐ tion” from 1920 to 1939, focusing on the ideologi‐ ed from the accounts of French administrators, cal assumptions and political concerns that would League ofcials, and scattered Turkish docu‐ drive the region’s transition from an Ottoman ments, Shields consistently foregrounds the daily province to a corner of France’s mandate for Syria experience of Sanjak residents and reads deeply in 1920, an independent entity in 1937, and fnal‐ for evidence of shifting perspectives on individual ly, a province of Turkey in 1939. With its linguis‐ and communal identity. Her inclusion of a broad‐ tic, cultural, religious, and economic ties to the er set of international perspectives also lends Syrian city of Aleppo, the inclusion of the Sanjak weight to the argument that European interests as a part of France’s mandate for Syria in 1920 and not the principle of national self-determina‐ was considered to be in conformity with the tion ultimately determined the fate of the Sanjak. League’s commitment to providing for minority Nevertheless, the absence of a more thorough ex‐ representation within ethno-linguistically defned amination of how League of Nations ofcials in national entities. When Turkey demanded a “spe‐ Geneva perceived events in the Sanjak or reacted cial administrative regime” for the Sanjak’s Turk‐ to what Shields describes as a “travesty of the ish-speaking communities as a condition of the League’s stated principles about self-determina‐ Franco-Turkish agreement of 1921, however, the tion” is a missed opportunity (p. 11). compromise was viewed as an expression of the In the frst chapter, Shields describes a series League’s commitment to stabilizing international of cafe brawls, street fghts, and public demon‐ relations through territorial settlements, rather strations during which the ethnically diverse com‐ than an encroachment upon Syrian national munities of the Sanjak often resorted to headgear sovereignty (p. 20). The renewal of Turkish claims in order to signify their support or rejection of to the Sanjak after the 1936 announcement of Syr‐ Anatolian nationalist sentiment, on the rise in the ia’s pending independence came at a delicate mo‐ Sanjak since the early 1920s. With the announce‐ ment in European relations in which, Shields ar‐ ment of Syria’s pending independence in 1936, gues, “France judged the cession of the Sanjak a Shields demonstrates, pro-Turkish activists transi‐ small price to pay” for a Mediterranean ally in the tioned their protests, from symbolically casting event of a second Great War (p. 246). Accordingly, their fezzes into the river to more direct and even French administrators began to work collabora‐ violent coercion, only to have their European- tively with Turkey to coerce Sanjak residents into style brimmed hats knocked from their heads by formally identifying themselves as Turkish, rather anti-Turkish or pro-Syrian demonstrators in re‐ than Syrian, as a means of legitimating yet anoth‐ turn. er transfer of sovereignty before the League of In the second and third chapters, Shields il‐ Nations and the international community. lustrates how Turkish ofcials capitalized on the As Shields notes, ofcial Turkish documents violent clashes provoked by Turkish agents in or‐ pertaining to the Sanjak question remain closed der to compel the League of Nations to intervene to scholars. Shields has made innovative use of fa‐ and France to acquiesce to their demands in the miliar source materials from French government Sanjak. Although French ofcials were confdent archives, League of Nations documents, and in their case for the Sanjak, riotous demonstra‐

2 H-Net Reviews tions accompanying the arrival of the League’s In‐ In chapters 6 and 7, Shields documents the ternational Mission of Observers in January 1937 registration process itself. By the arrival of the raised international concerns that “disputes over League of Nations Electoral Commission in April revisionism, irredentism, ethnic minorities, and 1938, Shields illustrates, French administrators the efcacy of the League of Nations” had the po‐ had become fully committed to realizing a Turk‐ tential to erupt on a global level (p. 76). It was pre‐ ish majority in the Sanjak. Under the gaze of the cisely these concerns, Shields argues, that has‐ bewildered, though impotent, Electoral Commis‐ tened the private agreement between France and sion, French ofcers turned a blind eye to the in‐ Turkey to recognize the Sanjak as a “distinct enti‐ creasingly violent intimidation of non-Turkish ty” independent from the new state of Syria and residents, suppressed anti-Turkish activism, re‐ to turn the organization of its government over to placed anti-Turkish ofcials with Turkish agents, the League within a month of the mission’s ar‐ and declared marshal law. Frustrated by the fail‐ rival. ure of even these measures to gain a Turkish ma‐ Chapters 4 and 5 compare the international jority, Turkish ofcials accused French adminis‐ contests between France, Turkey, and the League trators of permitting the intimidation of Turkish over how the political identity of Sanjak residents registrants, denounced the Electoral Commission would be defned in the context of the political and the League as French instruments, and mobilization taking place in the streets of the San‐ threatened to occupy the Sanjak militarily in or‐ jak itself between pro-Syrian and pro-Turkish ac‐ der to ensure the completion of the registration tivists seeking to maximize their proportional rep‐ process without foreign interference. resentation in the coming parliamentary elec‐ When the commission fnally resigned in dis‐ tions. Although Shields leaves little doubt that the gust on June 23, France and Turkey privately ne‐ “bloody spectacle on the Sanjak stage” that en‐ gotiated a new Franco-Turkish Treaty of Friend‐ sued was primarily a product of Turkish aggres‐ ship within a fortnight in which France acknowl‐ sion, she argues that the League’s insistence upon edged “a preponderance of the Turkish element in a “proportional representation system” of govern‐ the Sanjak” in exchange for Turkey’s agreement to ment--under which Sanjak residents would be re‐ forego an alignment against France in any future quired to register as belonging to one of seven war that might occur (p. 231). With international ethno-linguistic communities--opened the way for relations stabilized, the way was opened for Tur‐ Turkey’s coercive tactics (p. 10). Determined to key to formally absorb the Sanjak as the sixty- use the registration process to manufacture a third province of Turkey within a year. For Turkish majority, Shields argues, Turkish agents Shields, however, the exodus of 80 percent of the imported Turkish registrants, fooded the Sanjak Sanjak’s Christian population along with thou‐ with pro-Turkish propaganda, and bribed, co‐ sands of anti-Kemalist Turks and Arabs to erced, and intimidated non-Turkish residents into Lebanon and Syria during that period speaks to adopting a pro-Turkish afliation. Fearing the col‐ the bankruptcy of self-determination as either a lapse of their relations with Turkey, she demon‐ guiding principle for the international community strates, French administrators overlooked Tur‐ or a foundation for Turkish government in the key’s campaign of intimidation and even blocked new province of Hatay. pro-Syrian retaliation within the limits of main‐ Notes taining a minimum of order in both the Sanjak [1]. The frst book-length study of the “Sanjak and an increasingly enraged Syria. question” is Yücel Güçlü, The Question of the San‐ jak of Alexandretta: A Study in Turkish-French-

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Syrian Relations (Ankara: Turkish Historical Soci‐ ety Printing House, 2001).

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Citation: David Getman. Review of Shields, Sarah D. Fezzes in the River: Identity Politics and European Diplomacy in the Middle East on the Eve of World War II. H-Empire, H-Net Reviews. November, 2011.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=34429

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