12 Facts About Hatay

Hatay was captured from the Mongol-Armenian alliance by the Mameluks in 1268, who subsequently lost it to Timur at the start of the 15th century.

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.

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

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

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

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However, culminating a series of border disputes with France-mandated Syria, Ataturk obtained in 1937 an agreement with France recognizing Alexandretta as an independent state, and in 1939 this state, called the Republic of Hatay, was annexed to Turkey as the 63rd Turkish province following a controversial referendum.

However, out of 50 agreements signed between Turkey and Syria in December 2009, the Hatay dispute stalled a water agreement over the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

The border separating Syria from Hatay was going to be blurred by a shared Friendship Dam on the Orontes river and as part of this project the two states had agreed on the national jurisdiction on each side of the border.

Hatay is traversed by the north-easterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

Hatay has a humid Mediterranean climate which has very hot, long and dry summers with cool rainy winters.

Hatay province is divided into 12 districts: Altinozu, Antakya, Belen, Dortyol, Erzin, Hassa, Iskenderun, Kirikhan, Kumlu, Reyhanli, Samandag and Yayladagi.

Unlike most Mediterranean provinces, Hatay has not experienced mass migration from other parts of Turkey in recent decades and has therefore preserved much of its traditional culture; for example, Arabic is still widely spoken in the province.