1/ This is for you dear @Iyadboustany from June 1920, 3 full months before #GeneralHenriGouraud capitulated to @bkerki & #PatriarchHoyek (may God forgive him insisting on the suicide-pact that was #GreaterLebanon.)
Contrary to what historically-illiterate #PostColonialists say,
Contrary to what historically-illiterate #PostColonialists say,
2/ France wanted no part of #GreaterLebanon, and long into the eleventh hour, the Quai d'Orsay kept insisting on #PetitLiban. Here's a little snippet from a classified memo #Grouraud sent to the #MAE in June 1920, reflecting France's UNDERSTANDING of #History in the #LongueDurée:
3/ “Lebanon, with proud traditions and a millennial history all its own, ought to remain free, and shan’t be constrained to enter into any regional union. It may wish to be associated economically in a joint customs and monetary regime with a future Syrian federation,
4/ but this ought to be the outcome of negotiations conducted and agreed upon by sovereign states recognizing the imperative that is #Lebanese independence in a #PetitLiban, but also conciliating the marked particularisms of certain Syrian regions (Aleppo for instance)
5/ vis-à-vis Damascus. Any serious study of the Syrian region will reveal that only a federal system is adequate to reconcile & harmonize discord, prevent antagonisms, & guarantee unity in diversity--as demonstrated in the examples of the USA & the Helvetic confederations.”
End/
End/
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