France: seeking old mandate in Syria
Russia’s decision to use its Air Force in Syria was a necessary step
that is essential in order to maintain the balance of power in the
Eastern Mediterranean. There is no alternative: Russia’s geopolitical
interests dictate to block the Islamic State and other terrorist groups’
advance to the Mediterranean coast. This is not about messianism,
although historically St. Petersburg, and later Moscow, have always been
sensitive to stimuli coming from the Middle East. Meanwhile, the West
is pulling out maps from the archives that date back to the French
mandate for Syria and Lebanon (1923-1946). This means that not only the
border between Syria and Lebanon is being questioned, but also the
Turkish border as well.
Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv totally controlled the Syrian
crisis – until July 14, 2015. After the Iran deal was signed in Vienna,
Tehran then emerged at the forefront of a major game being played over
gas supplies, and military activity intensified on the Lebanese-Syrian
border. Paris and Tel Aviv saw this move as a challenge and carried out a
series of air strikes over Syria in late September. When former French
President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing offers his opinions,
he speaks in the spirit of the colonial wars of the 19th century,
urging UN forces headed by a French general to be sent to the Arab
republic turning President Assad into only a nominal ruler, a dignitary
who could be trotted out when needed to bless Paris’s restoration of
that mandate. This is rapid progress. The historical figure of General Henri Gouraud leaps to mind, who in 1920 bested King Faisal I of Iraq (a member of the Hashemite dynasty) at the Battle of Maysalun,
thus capturing Damascus. Gouraud was so ruthless in his conquest of the
Arab Kingdom of Syria that in 1921 he was able to carve out from its
vast territory the État de Damas, the État d’Alep, the Alawite State
(known as the Sanjak of Latakia), Jabal al-Druze (the Druze State), the
Sanjak of Alexandretta (present day İskenderun and the Hatay Province in
southern Turkey), and also Greater Lebanon (1920). Those unifications
endured, in various incarnations, until 1946, when Paris withdrew its
troops under pressure from Arab nationalists.
