Damascus: Difference between revisions

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On 1 October 1918, the forces of the [[Arab revolt]] led by [[Nuri as-Said]] entered Damascus. The same day, Australian soldiers from the 4th and 10th [[Light Horse]] Regiments reinforced with detachments from the British [[Yeomanry Mounted Division]] entered the city and accepted its surrender from the Turkish appointed Governor Emir Said (installed as Governor the previous afternoon by the retreating Turkish Commander)[http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_10555.asp][http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3541/diana_bell.html]. A military government under [[Shukri Pasha]] was named. Other British forces including [[T. E. Lawrence]] followed later that day, and [[Faisal I of Iraq|Faisal ibn Hussein]] was proclaimed king of Syria. Political tension rose in November 1917, when the new [[Bolshevik]] government in [[Russia]] revealed the [[Sykes-Picot Agreement]] whereby Britain and France had arranged to partition the Arab east between them. A new Franco-British proclamation on 17 November promised the "complete and definitive freeing of the peoples so long oppressed by the Turks." The [[Syrian Congress]] in March adopted a democratic constitution. However, the [[Versailles Conference]] had granted [[France]] a [[League of Nations mandate|mandate]] over Syria, and in 1920 a French army commanded by the General [[Mariano Goybet]] crossed the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, defeated a small Syrian defensive expedition at the [[Battle of Maysalun]] and entered Damascus. The French made Damascus capital of their [[League of Nations]] Mandate of Syria.
 
When in 1925 the [[Druze revolt]] in the [[Hauran]] spread to Damascus, the French suppressed it brutally, bombing and shelling the city. The area of the old city between [[Al-Hamidiyah Souk|Souk al-Hamidiyya]] and Souk Midhat Pasha was burned to the ground, with many deaths, and has since then been known as ''al-Hariqa'' ("the fire"). The old city was surrounded with barbed wire to prevent rebels infiltrating from the Ghouta, and a new road was built outside the northern ramparts to facilitate the movement of armoured cars.
 
On 21 June 1941, Damascus was captured from the [[Vichy French]] forces by the Allies during the [[Syria-Lebanon campaign]].