Moreover, not many Lebanese know that Syrian President Hafez Assad was imprisoned there in 1961 after he fled to Lebanon from Syria via the port of Tartous, following the Egyptian-Syrian unity coup. He was then turned over to the Syrian authorities, who imprisoned him in Mezzeh. Afterward, he left prison and took up official posts, finally becoming president of the republic.
Before Assad’s flight to Lebanon and after he was turned over to the Syrian authorities, the borders between the two countries were closed dozens of times. Sometimes they were indefinite measures, before the borders would be reopened. Usually it was for a few days, but in some cases it would last for three months. Amid these repeated closures, there was absolute chaos on the borders between the two countries. This situation became completely “normalized” with the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, even if official crossings maintained their prestige and carried out entry and exit measures according to the laws in force. After the Syrian withdrawal the borders were organized to a degree. But when the “Arab spring” arrived the border situation became chaotic. Lebanese came to know new, unofficial crossings, through which terrorists and tons of goods and weapons were smuggled, and naturally thousands of refugees.
The problem of the two countries’ borders is as old as Independence. In their capitals, talk about the border is different than that of residents of the border area, stretching from the Nahr al-Kabir in the north to Shebaa in the south. This problem has undergone several phases: “From complete separation to completing unity” to “One people in two countries” during the era of Hafez Assad to today’s “Two peoples in half a country.”
Between Lebanon and Syria everything is possible, except borders. Since their formal, legal appearance, there has been flight in both directions. There are entire areas of Syria established by Lebanese. In Lebanon, there are large economic sectors founded by Syrians. Even the currency of the two countries was issued by a single bank, the Bank of Syria and Lebanon, which was neither Lebanese nor Syrian, but French. Prior to this, the French Mandate enforced the Egyptian currency, which is where we get the word “masari” today, meaning money. Before that, the Ottoman Piaster was the currency.
Things remained thus until the mid-20th century, when the currencies were split and the two countries differed over how to appraise their money. This dispute, as usual, led to a closure of the borders - we mean the official ones, not the unofficial ones which have remained open to all, in both directions, looking for work or other needs.
Because of the disparity in prices between the two countries, their governments differed and the borders were closed once again. Sometime, the borders would be closed because of Lebanese customs duties at the ports of Beirut and Tripoli, which raised the prices of goods coming from Syria. At other times, it would take place because Lebanese companies were sole importers of various goods needed by Syrians, and Lebanese controlled this trade.
On one occasion the borders were closed because of contending political stances by the two governments and their contradictory policies during the era of Syrian coups d’etat. They were also closed because of the sharp criticism of the Syria regime appearing in Lebanese newspapers. The two countries tried to organize the movement of labor coming from Syria and enforced certain fees and specified the amount of currency that could be held by individuals crossing the borders. On one occasion, President Shukri Quwatli prevented Arab tourists from going to Lebanon, where they would spend their summers in the town of Aley. The Syrian finance minister, Khaled al-Azm, was the “star” of the decisions to close the borders in the 1940s and 1950s, but he ended up exiled from Syria to Lebanon.
The border measures also saw difficult days that ended up in a total rupture, with a decision by the larger country usually the reason. But despite the crises and political estrangement between Lebanon and Syria their relations remained distinguished and never led to a total break, or a distance that would allow the passing of a decision such as the one to impose a visa – even if Lebanon’s General Security considered it a measure to regulate the entry of Syrians.
The course of the crisis between the two countries, which has led to the visa requirement, is not the product of the current developments. Naturally, things have accumulated since the Civil War up to the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and the stance on the war in Syria. In the last four years we have seen posters informing Syrian workers about nighttime curfews, in Lebanese towns and villages, whether Christian or Muslim, and whether they are pro- or anti-resistance. In other villages, it has been illegal to rent to Syrians and some have even banned their entry. These discriminatory measures are political ones par excellence and confront Lebanese with the test of seeing their political clannishness turn into racism against Syrians, with the innocent on both sides paying the price.
What has taken place is a stain on the country’s honor, one that will weigh heavily on future generations.