FRONTIERS RIGHTS SEEKING NATIONALITY THE JUDICIAL ODYSSEY OF APPLICANTS HISTORICAL CAUSES Stateless of Ottoman origin This group is mainly composed of children and grandchildren of ancestor who were Ottoman citizens living in Lebanon before the creation of the modern state of Greater Lebanon in 1920. They are stateless because their ancestors failed to register in the 1932 population census and/or to opt for a specific of one of countries that were created in the region after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Hence, they lost the opportunity to be obtain the Lebanese nationality. The reasons for the non-registration in the census is not completely known, but it appears that there are a number of factors including failure of the census enumerators to reach them either intentionally or due to the lack of a final demarcation of the borders of the State of Lebanon that led to confusion as which area belong to Lebanon, Syria or Palestine, and lack of an actual place of habitual residence in Lebanon; or due to their ignorance of the importance of the census and wrong believe that the aim of the census is to enlist them in military service, or to avoid being subject to taxes; or for ideological and political reasons mainly their refusal to accept the breakdown of the Grand Syria and to belong to either of the newly created States. The second group are Bedouins nomads who travelled regularly and frequently freely between Lebanon and neighboring countries. They too did not register in the census or opted for the nationality of another newly created country in the region. The reasons are not clearly known, but it appears that many of them could not meet the legal provisions of proving habitual residency in Lebanon for more than 6 months during the year.18 A number of them were later register with the Lebanese General Security and obtained Qayd adDars residency permits in early 1960s. The third group includes refugees who came to Lebanon before 30 August 1924 fleeing the persecution from countries newly separated from the Ottoman Empire - mainly Armenians and Kurds from Turkey, Assyrians and Kaldenians from Syria and Iraq. The reason for the statelessness of the children and grandchildren of this group is similar to first group. Their ancestors did not register in the 1932 population census.19 The fourth group are children and grandchildren of refugees who came to Lebanon after 1924. The ancestors of these children belonged to minorities that either never had a nationality in their country of origin/ residence or were stripped of their nationality for ethnic, sectarian, or political reasons. They did register in the census. However, they did not meet the legal provisions to register as Lebanese. They were considered as stateless foreigners and were registered under the category of stateless “without a nationality”. Since the creation of Greater Lebanon, the country saw several waves of refugee influx of minority groups from neighboring countries or due to the complete disappearance of their country. The biggest waves of refugees were from Palestine who were forcibly displaced by the Israeli occupation in 1948, and the residents of the Lebanese Southern villages known as the Seven Villages.20 SEEKING NATIONALITY | PART 1 There are hundreds of thousands historical stateless It is worth noting persons who have originally and historically inherited that 61% of the their statelessness from their ancestors who were total number of themselves either stateless or denied country of people in the residency nationality. They are completely “invisible” historical category citizens. They have no civil records with the Lebanese (1852 people in our authorities. These do not have civil records with the Lebanese authorities. The majority lives in remote rural sample) were born underprivileged areas, particularly in border areas with to a mother who Syria, such as Wadi Khaled and Eastern Beqaa. It is holds a nationality worth noting that 61% of the total number of people but cannot register in the historical category (1852 people in our sample) her children under were born to a mother who holds a nationality but her civil record. cannot register her children under her civil record. The majority (54.6%) were born to a Lebanese mother and (6.4%) were born to a mother who holds a foreign nationality mainly Syrian, few Gulf countries, and Jordanian nationalities. This category is heterogeneous, in terms of origin and historical reasons for statelessness. As such, they will be grouped below on basis of common denominator of origin. Stateless of non-Ottoman origin Another group of stateless consists of people of non-Ottoman origins who were in Lebanon without any identified nationality, either because they have never had such a nationality, or they were stripped of their nationality, or they had cut ties with their countries of origin for generations and lost their nationality as a result. These were registered in the census as “foreigners without nationality”. 32