page_title: Alawite State
section_title: 1946–63
hierarchical_section_title: Alawite State / Aftermath / 1946–63
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing the presence of Alawites in the three countries where they are found (2012): Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon.
context_page_description: The Alawite State, officially named the Territory of the Alawites, after the locally-dominant Alawites from its inception until its integration to the Syrian Federation in 1922, was a French mandate territory on the coast of present-day Syria after World War I. The French Mandate from the League of Nations lasted from 1920 to 1946.
  The use of "Alawite", instead of "Nusayri", was advocated by the French early in the Mandate period and referred to a member of the Alawite religion. In 1920, the French-named "Alawite Territory" was home to a large population of Alawites.
context_section_description: The French left Syria in 1946 and the new, independent government lasted for three years (until a 1949 military coup). The Syrian army was dominated by recruits from Alawite, Druze and rural Kurdish Sunni communities, a holdover from the French Mandate Levant Army (which became the Syrian army after independence). Beginning after the 1949 coup, Alawites dominated the officer and governmental corps during the 1960s. Former president Hafez Asad and his son, Bashar (the current president), are of Alawite descent.
caption: Distribution of Alawites in the Levant
exif: {}