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I deliberately avoided the term "cartography", as to not disrespect it. I really havent much to say here tbh? Welcome to my little mapping corner. Hope you dont get burned by the awful quality, I won't stop making them that way though. The look of this page is obviously still a WIP, although I do want the final result to have a somewhat unpolished look. More specifically, one of those pages you find researching obscure subjects at 2am that have a dubious source but sound legit and you couldnt find the info anywhere else. Fun! If you're reading this before I added all of my past creations in and the table of contents in, Im sorry. Without further ado, Ill start with my latest.
Syria! Can you spot the difference? It has the Turkish "Hatay" province. While writing this, I've decicided I'm going to assume a relative lack of knowledge from the reader, although im sure that you specifically are a "smart cookie". Back to the point, the region contains two quite important historical cities; Antioch and Alexandretta, which today are Antakya, İskenderun respectively. During the French occupation of Syria, the region was part of the French mandate, at times autonomous, but the period of French rule in Syria is a whole mess in regards to administritive division and I'm frankly scared to look into it. The region was, and still is, rather mixed ethnically. In recent history, the Arab (further divided into Alawites and not) and Turkish people are the two main ethnicities in the region, with sizeable Armenian and various other Christian communities, echoing the regions past. Naturally, the local Turkish population sought reunification with the Turkish state, further fueled by the sweeping Kemalist reforms, which were still fresh in their minds. The region was officially annexed by Turkey in 1939, which was actually supported by the French in hopes that it would discourage the Turkish from joining in on the Axis powers. The annexation happened following a, phoney, referendum. On this map I gave the whole modern Hatay region to Syria, which goes beyond the French mandate. I hadnt really thought of that while I was making it to be frank, hah. Probably one of my cleaner looking maps, which probably isn't a good look, actually. I nearly forgot to add, the provinces are the same as modern day, save for one blacksheep, which I leave as an easter egg to the reader.
