Syrian Delegation signing the Franco-Syrian Treaty in Paris in 1936
Signed	9 September 1936 (1936-09-09)
Signatories	Syria France

TheFranco-Syrian Treaty of Independence, also known as theViénot Accords, was a treaty negotiated betweenFrance andSyria to provide for Syrian independence from French authority.

In 1934, France attempted to impose a treaty of independence that was heavily prejudiced in its favor. It promised gradual independence but kept the Syrian Mountains under French control. The Syrian head of state at the time was a French puppet,Muhammad 'Ali Bay al-'Abid. Fierce opposition to this treaty was spearheaded by senior nationalist and parliamentarianHashim al-Atassi, who called for asixty-day strike in protest. Atassi's political coalition, theNational Bloc, mobilized massive popular support for his call. Riots and demonstrations raged, and the economy came to a standstill.

The newPopular Front-led French government then agreed to recognize the National Bloc as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and invited Hashim al-Atassi to independence negotiations inParis. He traveled there on 22 March 1936, heading a senior Bloc delegation. The resulting treaty called for immediate recognition of Syrian independence as a sovereign republic, with full emancipation granted gradually over a 25–year period.

The treaty guaranteed incorporation of previously autonomousDruze andAlawite regions into theregion of Syria, but notLebanon, with which France signed a similar treaty in November. The treaty also promised curtailment of French intervention in Syrian domestic affairs as well as a reduction of French troops, personnel and military bases in Syria. In return, Syria pledged to support France in times of war, including the use of itsair space, and to allow France to maintain two military bases on Syrian territory. Other political, economic and cultural provisions were included.

Atassi returned to Syria in triumph on 27 September 1936 and was electedPresident of the Republic in November.

The emerging threat ofAdolf Hitler induced a fear of being outflanked byNazi Germany if France relinquished its colonies in theMiddle East. That, coupled with lingering imperialist inclinations in some levels of the French government, led France to reconsider its promises and refuse to ratify the treaty. Also, France ceded the province ofAlexandretta, whose territory was guaranteed as part of Syria in the treaty,^[1] toTurkey. Riots again broke out, Atassi resigned, and Syrian independence was deferred until afterWorld War II, when the last French troops evacuated in 1946.

• History of Syria
• League of Nations Mandate
• Hashim al-Atassi
• French colonial flags
• French Colonial Empire
• List of French possessions and colonies
• Sykes-Picot agreement

• Sami Moubayed (2006): "Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900–2000" (Cune Press, Seattle,ISBN 1885942419)^[2]

• Encyclopædia Britannica

• 1936 in Mandatory Syria
• French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon
• Treaties of the Syrian Republic (1930–1963)
• Interwar-period treaties
• Treaties concluded in 1936
• Treaties of the French Third Republic
• France–Syria relations

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