SYRIAN FOREIGN POLICY FROM INDEPENDENCE TO THE BAATH PARTY’S ACCESSION TO POWER: 1946-1963 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY NURĠ SALIK IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS JUNE 2012 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha ALTUNIġIK Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin BAĞCI Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özlem TÜR Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Meliha ALTUNIġIK (METU, IR) Prof. Dr. Recep BOZTEMUR (METU, HIST) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özlem TÜR (METU, IR) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name: Nuri SALIK Signature : iii ABSTRACT SYRIAN FOREIGN POLICY FROM INDEPENDENCE TO THE BAATH PARTY’S ACCESSION TO POWER: 1946-1963 Salık, Nuri M.Sc., Department of International Relations Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özlem Tür June 2012, 159 pages In this thesis, pre-Baath period of Syrian foreign policy between 1946 and 1963 is analyzed. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the main characteristics of the Syrian foreign policy. This thesis argues that foreign policy perception of Syrian politicians regardless of their class, ideology and political orientations depended on historically rooted pragmatism in which interest calculations, shifting alliances and external patronage had special importance. In order to understand pragmatism in Syrian foreign policy, determinants of Syrian foreign policy will be examined by looking at three interacting environments: the domestic, regional and international. It will be showed that Syrian foreign policy was shaped by these interlinked environments and pragmatic responses of Syrian policymakers to opportunities and challenges coming from these environments. Syrian politics from 1946 to 1963 can be marked by excessive political instability in the form of factionalism, successive coup d’états and counter-coups. This thesis also examines the relationship between coups and foreign policy and whether coups affected Syrian foreign policy or not. Key Words: Syrian Foreign Policy, Pragmatism, Domestic, Regional and International Determinants of Foreign Policy, Coups and Foreign policy. iv ÖZ BAĞIMSIZLIKTAN BAAS PARTĠSĠ’NĠN ĠKTĠDARA GELĠġĠNE KADAR SURĠYE DIġ POLĠTĠKASI: 1946-1963 Salık, Nuri Yüksek Lisans, Uluslararası ĠliĢkiler Bölümü Tez DanıĢmanı: Doç. Dr. Özlem Tür Haziran 2012, 159 sayfa Bu tezde, 1946 ve 1963 arasında Baas öncesi dönem Suriye dıĢ politikası analiz edilmektedir. Tezin ana hedefi Suriye dıĢ politikasının temel karakteristiğini incelemektir. Bu tez, Suriyeli politikacıların dıĢ politika anlayıĢının onların sınıf, ideoloji ve politik yönelimlerine bakılmaksızın, içerisinde çıkar hesapları, değiĢen ittifaklar ve dıĢ patronajın özel bir yere sahip olduğu tarihsel kökleri olan bir pragmatizme dayandığını savunmaktadır. Suriye dıĢ politikasında pragmatizmi anlamak için, Suriye dıĢ politikasının unsurları birbiriyle etkileĢim halinde olan iç, bölgesel ve uluslararası çevrelerine bakılarak incelenecektir. Suriye dıĢ politikasının birbiriyle bağlantılı bu üç çevre ve Suriyeli politikacıların bu çevrelerden gelen fırsatlar ve sorunlara verdikleri pragmatik cevaplar tarafından Ģekillendirildiği gösterilecektir. 1946 ve 1963 arasında Suriye politikası, hizipçilik, peĢ peĢe gelen darbeler ve karĢı darbeler Ģeklinde aĢırı bir istikrarsızlık olarak karakterize edilebilir. Bu tez ayrıca darbeler ve dıĢ politika arasındaki iliĢkiyi ve darbelerin Suriye dıĢ politikasını etkileyip etkilemediğini incelemektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Suriye DıĢ Politikası, Pragmatizm, DıĢ Politikanın Ġç, Bölgesel ve Uluslararası Unsurları, Darbeler ve DıĢ Politika. v To my wife AyĢe and my family vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özlem Tür for her patience, advice, criticism, encouragements and insight throughout the research. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. This thesis would never have been completed without her contributions. I would also like to thank to the other examining committee members Prof. Dr. Meliha Benli AltunıĢık and Prof. Dr. Recep Boztemur for their participation in the defense of the thesis. I greatly appreciate their valuable comments, suggestions and contributions to the thesis. I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my father Recep, my mother Raziye, and my elder brother Salih. I owe my success to their unlimited help and support throughout my life. Finally, words fail me to express my appreciation to my wife AyĢe who has been a source of inspiration and encouragement throughout my research. She has given me her love, support, sacrifice and great patience at all times. My wife is my source of strength and energy, without her support this thesis would never have started much less finished. For any errors or inadequacies that may remain in this work, of course, the responsibility is entirely my own. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM....................................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................iv ÖZ........................................................................................................................................v DEDICATION....................................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................vii TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................1 2. HISTORICAL SETTING .......................................................................................... 12 2.1. Legacy of the Ottoman Empire in Syria until the Tanzimat Era: Historical Formation of the Urban Sunni Elites and Syrian Political Culture .................................. 12 2.2. Syria in the Age of Tanzimat Reforms: Ottomanism, European Intervention and Inter-communal Violence ....................................................................................... 19 2.2.1.The Land Code of 1858 and the Provincial (Vilayet) Law of 1864……………..23 2.3. Syria and the Emergence of Arab Nationalism: The Christian Arabs and Islamic Modernists as the Forerunners of Arab Nationalism....................................................... 26 2.4. Syria from Cooperation to Separation: The CUP Regime, the First World War and the Dismantling of the Ottoman Empire .................................................................. 29 2.5. The Rise and Fall of Faisal’s Kingdom in Syria (1918-1920): Between Domestic and International Constraints ......................................................................................... 34 2.6. Syria under the French Mandate: Emergence of Truncated Syrian Entity ................ 39 2.6.1. The Emergence of Inter-Arab Politics and Early ‘‘Struggle for Syria’’ during the Mandate Period…......................................................................................... 44 2.6.2. Syria’s Way to Independence: Second World War and Its Aftermath ............... 49 3. SYRIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE WAKE OF INDEPENDENCE: 1946-1949……………. ................................................................................................. 51 3.1. Domestic Determinants of Syrian Foreign Policy: Factionalism, New Opposition Groups and Weak-State Formation ...................................................... 51 3.1.1. Dominance of Urban-Sunni Families in Syrian Politics: Aleppine and Damascene Factions ...................................................................................................... 51 viii 3.1.2. Emergence of Radical Parties in Syria: the SSNP, the Youth Party and the Baath Party…………………………………………………………………………...54 3.1.3. Syria’s Weak State Formation and Its Impact on Foreign Policy....................... 58 3.2. Regional Environment of Syrian Foreign Policy: Inter-Arab Struggle for Syria and the Emergence of Israel .......................................................................................... 59 3.2.1. Inter-Arab Struggle for Syria: The Hashemites versus the Saudi-Egyptian Camp……………………………………………………………………………………..59 3.2.2. The Birth of Israel and the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948: Repercussions of the Palestine Catastrophe in Syria .................................................................................. 61 3.3. International Environment of Syrian Foreign Policy: The Core-Periphery Relations and the Emergence of the Cold War ............................................................... 65 4. SYRIAN FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP: 1949-1954……………….. ...........................................................................................