Lebanese Turkmen
In the 1920s, the harsh economic conditions of the Great Depression led some Turkish Cypriot families to "sell" their daughters as brides in Lebanon.
The Assafs were the descendants of Turkmen tribesmen settled in the Keserwan area of central Mount Lebanon, north of Beirut under the early Mamluk rulers.
According to the local chronicler Tannus al-Shidyaq (d. 1861), the Turkmens were settled there by the Mamluk governor of Damascus, Aqqush al-Afram, following his punitive expedition against the rebellious Alawites, Twelver Shia Muslims, Druze and Maronites of Keserwan and the neighboring Jurd area to the south in 1305.
[5] The rebels were decisively suppressed by January 1306, their lands were transferred as iqtas to Mamluk emirs in Damascus and later that year the Turkmens were settled there.
[8] At least part of them were resettled in Beirut by the strongman of the Mamluk Sultanate, Yalbugha al-Umari, to reinforce the Damascene troops stationed there to defend the town against a potential Crusader attack in the aftermath of the Cypriot raid on Alexandria.
[13] Lebanon became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1516, and Turks were brought into the region along with Sultan Selim I’s army during his campaign to Egypt and were settled in the conquered lands.
[15] After World War I, the Ottoman Empire lost Lebanon, however, some of the Cretan Turks remained in Tripoli where their relatives lived.
In the 1920s, the harsh economic conditions of the Great Depression led many Turkish Cypriot families in the poorest villages, facing debt and starvation, to marry off their daughters to Arab men- mainly in Palestine, but also to other Arab-majority regions such as neighbouring Lebanon.
[4] In the 1950s, thousands of Turks left the city of Mardin and headed for Lebanon because of the economic crisis and high unemployment rate in Turkey.
[22] In 2011 Al Akhbar reported that the number of Turks in Lebanon who descend from settlers who arrived in the region during the late Ottoman period was 80,000.
[24] More recent Turkish arrivals to modern Lebanon from Turkey and Syria (Syrian Turks) live in Beirut[24] and Arsal.
Because of confusion over its name with the Future Movement, its office sustained damage during the 7 May 2008 armed clashes in Beirut between pro-Hariri and pro-Hezbollah forces.
