THE ARMENIAN LEGION AND ITS DESTRUCTION OF THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF CILICIA[1]

Stanford J. Shaw

As the Allied armies occupied Turkey starting in late November 1918, Turks reacted largely with silent acquiescence. They were willing to accept that since the war had left their country devastated and most of its people starving, the victorious Powers of Europe occupied their country in order to help them rebuild it in the lands of the Ottoman Empire that remained with large Turkish majorities, in accordance with Point Twelve of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points declared earlier the same year. As was the case in western Anatolia, however, where Allied intentions to deprive the Turks of their homeland combined with Greek atrocities against the settled population drove the Turks to support a Turkish national resistance, so also those in Cilicia were soon driven to resist violently against the abuses and atrocities which the French occupation troops inflicted on them during the two years that followed.[2] Many of these troops were poorly organized and lacked sufficient numbers to maintain order. Some of their officers seem to have treated the occupation mainly as an occasion for personal enrichment.[3]Most of the soldiers, moreover, were only nominally French since the French army had been decimated on the Western Front during the World War that had just come to an end, and the people of France were unwilling to sacrifice more in order to secure nebulous conquests in far off lands such as Turkey. Some of the soldiers were in fact Tuaregs from Algeria. Most, however, were members of a section of the French Légion d'Orient called the Armenian Legion (Légion Arménienne), commanded by French General Louis Romieu. The Armenian Legion had been organized starting in 1916 under Romieu's command in Cyprus, until 1878 part of the Ottoman Empire but starting on 4 November 1914, transformed into a base for assaults against the Islamic Middle East. Training and provision of arms was carried out largely under British auspices, at a base located near Monarga (Boğaztepe), north of Magosa, chosen because of the existence of an Armenian monastery nearby. Turks on the island were severely restricted under a regime of martial law to prevent them from interfering. Their arms were confiscated and turned over to the Legion, depriving the Cypriot Turks of the ability to defend themselves against the long-standing attacks against them by the local Greek population.[4]Substantial military support was provided by the French and British forces training nearby in preparation for their assault on Gelibolu (Gallipoli) along with arms brought with the British expeditionary force sent from Egypt. Financial resources for arms and other equipment for the Armenian Legion, as well as for the salaries of officers and men, came largely from popular subscription campaigns mounted throughout the war in the United States and Great Britain nominally intended to feed `starving Armenians', but which in fact were used to mount terrorist attacks against Turks throughout Anatolia as soon as an Ottoman defeat and Allied occupation of the country made it possible.[5]Cypriot Greeks contributed substantially to the Legion, providing food, clothing and logistical support for the soldiers while they were in training. Large numbers of young Armenians came to Cyprus to join the Legion, mostly as a result of recruitment campaigns organized by the son of the former Prime Minister of Egypt, Boghos Nubar Paşa, who stirred them with romantic tales of establishing an Armenian empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean while at the same time, gaining revenge against Turks and other Muslims. Armenian soldiers who had served in the Ottoman army during the war and had been captured by the British and imprisoned in concentration camps in Cyprus also were separated from their Turkish colleagues and enrolled in the Legion. As time went on, the initial force of Armenian refugees was enlarged by the transfer to it of Armenian soldiers in the British and French garrisons on the island and in Egypt as well as Armenians captured by General Edmund Allenby's army that was advancing from the Sinai Peninsula through Syria during most of 1917. Difficulties in disciplining and training the Armenians prevented the Legion from being used in any of the campaigns mounted against the Ottomans in the latter stages of the war except for a few who were sent to Allenby's force, largely to help get local Syrian Arabs and Armenians to support the campaign in cooperation with the Bedouin raids coming out of the desert as part of the Arab Revolt. The Armenian Legion therefore remained on Cyprus until the armistice was signed. In the end it was brought to Turkey, not by the British, but as part of the French army sent to occupy Syria and south-eastern Anatolia as a result of the Armistice imposed on the Ottomans at Mondros in late October 1918. When it entered Turkey as part of the French army, this Armenian force consisted of four battalions of 4368 soldiers and 66 officers. Starting with their initial landings at İskenderun (Alexandretta) a month later, and continuing as the French army moved into Anatolia, members of the Armenian Legion indiscriminately assaulted and pillaged Arab and then Turkish villages and towns, killing hundreds of Muslims in the process. Local Armenians remaining in Cilicia, together with Armenians brought from southern Russia and central Anatolia also joined the French forces as they attacked the Turks, initially in the areas of İskenderun and İslahiye, later extending to the areas of Toprakkale-Dörtyol, Mersin, Adana, Tarsus, Pozantı and Maraş.[6]6 As the surviving Muslims fled into the adjacent hills to escape massacre, members of the Armenian Legion pillaged their homes and shops and left village after village in flames. When their French officers attempted to stop the atrocities, the Armenian soldiers mutinied and often deserted their units, joining local Armenians and Armenians arriving in Cilicia from central and western Anatolia in continuing their attacks on the remnants of the settled Turkish population.[7]

The Ottoman army and gendarmerie made numerous reports to the Ministry of War, the Gendarme Department, and the Prime Minister's office based on communications sent by local mayors, district and religious officials, describing the carnage inflicted by 8 Armenian soldiers wearing French uniforms:[8]

Atrocities perpetrated by Armenians wearing French uniforms against the population of Maraş.

  It has been established that nearly all the French soldiers who supplanted the British soldiers are Armenians. These soldiers have used force to strip off the veils of Muslim women and assault them in the marketplace, leading the local Muslims to resist. They also have insulted the people. The French commanders have been encouraged by the Armenians to sieze the arms and ammunition of the Muslims. In each convoy of French soldiers occupying Maraş, about three to five hundred Armenians have come, disguised as French soldiers. The Armenians at Zeytun also were armed. As the French soldiers were occupying Maraş, the Armenians welcomed them shouting 'Long live Armenia' while randomly shooting Muslims in the streets and insulting Turkish national values. 19 Safar 1338 (13 November 1919)[9]

Armenians attached to the French Occupying Army at Maraş have been attacking Muslim civilians in the neighboring villages as well. During the incidents that occurred as a result of the French action of lowering the Ottoman flag from the government house at Maraş, an Ottoman gendarme was killed. In Adana, an Armenian soldier killed three persons and three other Muslims were thrown out of a passing train and also were killed. Armenian soldiers attached to the French army entering the village of Lefkeni in the neighborhoods of Ulukişla wounded all the men in the village and raped some of its women. Seven people were attacked in the vicinity of Ömerli village. Their eyes were carved out and they were then bayoneted. 26 Safar 1338 (20 November 1919)[10]

Protected by the French, Armenians attacked the Muslim population in Adana. Contradicting their claim that they have come to establish peace and freedom, the French armed forces that entered Adana behaved treacherously against the Muslim population. This emboldened the Armenians who while continuing their attacks on Muslims, set up a mock court with fake judges and extorted the properties and goods of the Muslim people. On the allegation that they were Unionists or had injured Christians, local Muslims were jailed and exiled with their families from their homes. In Gavurdag, bandits claiming they were Muslims, who had in fact no political identity, raided Muslim villages. When, however, they came to raid the village of fieyh Murad, which was inhabited almost entirely by Armenians, incidents broke out and spread, resulting in the murder of five Muslims and the wounding of five others. After that, security forces and British soldiers intervened and prevented further attempts to murder Muslims. Following these disorders the French sent Armenian forces to pursue the bands of brigands and to destroy Muslim villages. An Armenian band charged with pursuing brigands raided the Muslim villages of Inepli, Kayali and Arapköy, looting goods and properties, beating innocent people they saw working in their fields and then killed them. Following the occupation of Adana by the French armed forces, Armenians began killing one or two Muslims each night. Attacking Muslim religious leaders, they arrested the Müfti (Muslim jurist-consult) of the district of Dörtyol and interfered with the appointment and dismissal of other Müftis. Families, which previously had converted to Islam, were forcibly taken from their homes and sent to the headquarters of the Armenian delegation together with Muslim orphaned children. In the village of Kurtkulagi in the district of Yumurtalik, Armenian soldiers have prohibited the daily Muslim ritual calls to prayer for the past seven months.

14 Rebiülevvel 1338 (7 December 1919)[11]

Armenians kill Muslim travelers and attack Muslim women near Haçin.

Armenians killed some Muslim travelers from villages near Haçin and kidnapped their wives; Armenians dressed in French uniforms savagely killed three villagers who were on their way to Antep. In the township of Magara they assaulted, abducted, and raped almost all the Muslim women. Since the French has disarmed the Muslims, they are exposed to Armenian attacks without ability to defend themselves. Muslims living in Maraş and Elbistan, however, are determined to get ready and be prepared to defend themselves. 9 Rebi II 1338 (1 January 1920).[12]

Turkish local notables demand that French stop the atrocities perpetrated against Muslims by Armenians serving in the French Army.

In a meeting held between a French major appointed to care for the civil and administrative supervision of Maraş, the commandant of the Eastern Province, French General Kert and the notables and ulema (Muslim doctors of law and interpreters of the Qur'an) of the region, it has been agreed that in order to restore peace and order, the attacks against Muslim villages must stop and Armenians dressed in French uniforms who have killed Muslims must be discharged from the French Army. Otherwise, it is clear that the atrocities perpetrated against Muslim villages will intensify, more blood will be shed and the French will be held responsible. 1 Cemazi I 1338 (22 January 1920)[13]

French and Armenians bombard Marash.

A telegram sent by the Governor's office of Marash states that the French together with Armenians opened machine gun fire on and bombarded Muslims from churches, where they took up their positions. There were many casualties among the Muslims and fires broke out in the city. 8 Cemazi I. 1338 (29 January 1920)[14]

Atrocities committed by Armenians and French soldiers against Muslims in the areas of Antep, Maraş and Adana.

A French detachment of a hundred and fifty soldiers, including Armenians, entered the village of Büyükarablar in area of Antep, breaking down the doors of houses, dishonoring women, and looting goods. In reaction, the Muslim villagers fled into the mountains. As they returned to their houses in the morning the detachment fired on them with machine guns. In Marash Armenians joined the French soldiers in slaughtering the population, which unable to leave, remained in the city as it was destroyed by the detachment's artillery. In addition many people who attempted to bring help to Marash were barred by French cannons and machine guns fire from entering the city. The situation in Adana and neighboring villages became unbearable for the Muslims, many of whose villages were burned. Armenian villagers were armed and sent to attack Muslims. The horrors perpetrated in Maraş aroused great indignation and the Muslim population staged large demonstrations demanding that such incidents be brought to an end. (1 February 1920)[15]

Massacre perpetrated by Armenians against Muslim population in Kozan and Feke. According to information received from more than five-hundred emigrants who fled to Develi the destiny of the notables and ulemas (Muslim interpreters and doctors of law) taken away from Kozan by Armenians remain unknown, the Muslim population having the throats slit on the streets; many Muslim women had been raped and Feke besieged; the massacre planned by Armenians has been already carried out in Maraş; urgent measures should be taken to stop the massacre. 12 C. 1338 (3 March 1920)[16]

In Marash Armenians in collaboration with occupying French forces assaulted the population and committed massacres.

Part of the Armenians who were deported to other areas began to return to Maraş once the Mondros Armistice was signed. At the same time many armed Armenians included among the French detachments were inflicting all kinds of cruelties upon Muslims, harassing women and forcing them to remove their veils. Stored arms and ammunition were distributed to Armenians and a Turkish detachment, which saw these acts, was fired on. The French shot down a barber named Ökkeş. The Turkish flag hoisted over the citadel of Maraş was lowered and many persons were killed by Armenian collaborationists. Under pretext of searching for arms they broke into houses and mosques while inflicting tortures even on children; Muslims carrying arms were sentenced to death. A letter sent by the Maraş section of the Society for the Defense of Rights called for the necessary measures to be taken to stop these inhumane acts. 27 Cemazi II. 1338 (18 March 1920)[17]

An American naval officer working along the coasts in Syria and Cilicia reported to Admiral Mark Bristol, commander of the American fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean and American High Commissioner in Istanbul, that American missionaries were playing an important role in the slaughter by spreading antiMuslim hatred stirring up the local Christians against their Muslim neighbors and providing hiding places for the arms and ammunition which was being used against the settled Turkish population: "Dr. Nichols I consider a very dangerous man who can do a great deal of harm if given a free hand. He is a religious fanatic apparently, and anxious to have something sensational take place between Turks and Americans, in order to influence public opinion in the United States. He impressed me as rather glorying in the fight between the Armenians and Turks at Aintab...[18]...[I]t developed that the first shots fired at the American Orphanage were by armed Armenians from the orphanage with the full knowledge and encouragement of some Americans.... [19]...Turkish police and army searches found antiMuslim propaganda along with arms and ammunition hidden in American missionary centers in various parts of Anatolia".[20]Bristol relied on this report to inform the Department of State in Washington: "Particular attention is called to the remarks contained in this report regarding Dr. Nichols, who is in charge of the Near East Relief work for the territory embraced within Syria and Cilicia. There are some few of our Americans in Turkey who take this attitude". The overall French military commander in Syria and Cilicia, General Hamelin, had anticipated trouble from the Armenian troops right from the start on the basis of the British accusations of cowardice and indiscipline against the Armenian troops who fought with the British expeditionary force at Baku earlier in 1918. His requests for their replacement by French troops were, however, rejected on the grounds that French soldiers had to be sent back to their homes now that the war on the western front was over. "Hamelin saw clearly", reports the official French military history of the occupation, that "it was to put powder and the detonator together to send the Armenian legionnaires to Cilicia and Alexandretta. The incidents and the disorders followed without delay".[21]

His fears were fulfilled right from the start. The French army confirmed the Ottoman military reports, with even more detail than that provided by the local Ottoman officials, reporting that wherever the Armenians went, they terrorized the Turkish and Arab civilian population, starting the day they first landed in Iskenderun (Alexandretta), and during the early months of 1919 going on to the principal points along the islahiye-Adana railroad, in particular at Pozanti, Dörtyol and, finally at Adana itself, where they began killing, raping, ravaging and robbing everyone and everything, attacking even the Muslim French Algerian soldiers who were brought in to at least attempt to curb their excesses.[22]Many of the latter were so outraged by the atrocities being committed against their religious brothers that they deserted the French army, joined the Turkish national forces, and remained in Turkey after the war as citizens of the new Republic established under the leadership of Mustafa Kemâl Atatürk, who classified as Turks all those who accepted citizenship in the new national state regardless of their ethnic or religious origins. Imitating the complaints of the British officers regarding their Armenian allies at Baku, the French officers in Cilicia complained that the Armenian forces lacked all sense of discipline and refused to follow the orders of their own Armenian officers, let alone those of the superior French officers, desperately asking that at least some real French troops be sent to help control the situation: "On the whole, the native populations -Turks, Turkomans, Kurds, Circassians- greeted us well. We wanted to conciliate them with us, but they saw with a very bad eye the occupation of their lands by Armenian troops, even though dressed as French soldiers. They therefore normally accused the latter of all the misdeeds, and even invented some or even provoked them to secure the departure of the Armenians....If it had involved real Frenchmen", said the Imperial procureur of Adana to the commander of the Armenian Legion during the course of an investigation, "we would have said nothing, but things arrange themselves, make the Armenians leave".[23]"Until the arrival of the first [French] reinforcements in June of 1919, the Armenian Legion was the only French force in Cilicia. The history of the French Army in the territory during that period was merged with the history of the Legion; it is, unfortunately, especially marked by acts of indiscipline and violence, which did a great wrong to our influence".[24]Hamelin regularly reported to Paris on the misconduct and indiscipline of his Armenian troops, though he did attempt to justify their actions as acceptable revenge for Turkish and Kurdish attacks on Armenians in Anatolia during World War I: "The [Armenian] battalions have been only begun to be organized -an officer per company, a depot with two officers for eight hundred men- without cavalry, without artillery, without food service, without sanitary organization. I was going to cover Cilicia with posts composed of Armenian soldiers burning with a desire to take vengeance for the exactions which they had experienced for so many years, and put them into contact with the Turkish population and soldiers in the same place that ravages had been committed by the Ottomans, notably at Adana in 1909. It would require discipline of iron to force them to act as French soldiers, and I had only one French battalion to enforce their obedience in case of a carrying out of the Armenian reaction, and to restore order in case of the serious troubles that were still possible. In such conditions, I considered myself very fortunate to have succeeded by intimidation and without serious incident to get the administrative and military authorities of Cilicia to submit to the French occupation...."[25]"Since then, the President of the [Armenian] Committee of Egypt has sent emissaries to the Armenian soldiers, they have had the occasion to invite their co-religionists to renounce their attachment to the French force so that they can carry out individual reprisals against the Ottoman population....Both during their stay in Syria and since their arrival in Cilicia there has not been a day when I have not been apprised by the local Ottoman administrative authorities or by the British authorities, of complaints, unhappily most often very well founded, against the Armenians' excesses of all kinds toward the local populations (thefts, armed attacks, pillages, murders)...."[26]He hoped, however, Armenians' behavior: that training would improve the

"In fact, when I applied myself to this matter and succeeded in sending the Armenian legionnaires toward the theater of their legitimate aspirations, their conduct avoided the latter.... "The officers of the Armenian Legion were not, however, discouraged; they continued to devote themselves entirely to the military instruction of their Legionnaires, to their moral education and their well-being. The majority gave them all satisfaction and answered with good conduct and a good attitude. I hope therefore to see the legion acquire the military discipline and value that will permit them to become the elite troop among the Armenian contingents".[27]This hope was shared by British Brigadier-General Archibald Wavell, who reported to the British High Commissioner in Istanbul that many excesses were being committed in Cilicia by "...certain portions of the French Armenian troops", but that disciplinary action had been taken. The "worst elements in these Armenian battalions" were being removed, and the situation in Cilicia "was much improved", to which a Foreign Office minute responded: "General Allenby's report that the French Armenians were unsatisfactory seems more than justified, and I expect that this is a very mild account of what really took place".[28]Robert Zeidner's brilliant study of the French occupation of Cilicia, The Tricolor over the Taurus, summarized the French reports: "If...Allenby and the `easterners' on his staff were sufficiently calculating to foresee the great embarrassment France's Armenian troops were destined to cause her in Cilicia and vicinity, they could scarcely have chosen a better vehicle to discredit French rule in the Levant that permit the expansion of the Armenian element within the Légion d'Orient. Although they fought valiantly during the Palestine campaign, the Armenians of the Legion repeatedly revealed a propensity for brawling when off duty. Their French officers found them grossly undisciplined and dangerously divided in loyalty among several extremist parties. Many were Marxists or nihilists of varying persuasions, complying with orders only after reference to their respective soldiers' soviets...."[29]The official French military history of the period concluded that these efforts to curb the Armenians by training them were largely

unsuccessful because they were being inspired to attack Turks and other Muslims by Armenians outside the country, particularly in Egypt: "The hopes of General Hamelin were to be unfulfilled. As the incidents multiplied and became worse, discipline became harder, the condemnations by military courts more numerous. But the Armenian legionnaires continued to understand only that we were defending the Turks, our previous enemies, against the Armenians who were always our friends. Monseigneur Mouchegh, Armenian Archbishop of Adana, after going around among the Armenian legion units, wrote on 28 April 1919: 'They [the Armenian soldiers] see with what tolerance and what friendship, France treats the Turkish nation, criminal and enemy. They only see the obstacles with which one surrounded the brightness of the Armenian nation that had valiantly fought on the field of battle beside their Allies'. The rancor or hatred therefore turned against us, excited by the Armenian committees, which, abandoning open action of intervention, undertook a secret action of inciting the Armenian soldiers to 'disobedience, revolt, vengeance or patient resignation while waiting the right hour to throw off the yoke of the French oppressors of their country'. The letters, proclamations, and newspaper articles were principally the work of the Comité d'Egypte, inspired from Port Said by Madame Mazraff, a true 'Armenian passionaria', who preached 'revenge of blood, not of misery', but also by a huge correspondence coming also from America. The postal censors kept letters that were of a nature to disturb order and discipline, but some of them reached their addresses hidden in packages and newspapers, and their influence was felt.[30]

"I earnestly request that the French Government be approached regarding their re-occupation of Cilicia and asked if they do reoccupy whether they will use French troops or Colonials and Armenians. This would be a very serious decision as affecting the safety of our citizens and also as regards the conditions throughout Turkey. Therefore I request that I be informed as soon as possible regarding the action the French will take. The French are peculiarly silent as regards their actions past and future, but this is typical...Bristol".[31]In a proclamation issued on 12 November 1919 by Mustafa Kemâl in the name of the Representative Committee for the Defense of National Rights In Anatolia and Rumelia, he pointed out that the Allied occupation of Cilicia had violated the conditions of the Mondros Armistice: "The localities of Urfa, Maraş and Aintab, which were occupied by the English, contrary to the provisions of the armistice and were recently evacuated, have now again been occupied by the French. The Entente Powers therefore are in no way renouncing their plan of depriving our nation of these, the most beautiful parts of our country, and they are carrying out their schemes on the grounds apparently that this occupation is provisional and preventive, without awaiting the decisions of the conference. "They are unwilling to take into consideration the glorious history of the Ottoman Empire, dating from seven centuries ago, or the circumstances and elements of its prompt and powerful development, or its rebirth. They are working to establish an equilibrium of interests among themselves by dismembering our country. The acts of these Powers are inhuman and such as to be an offense against justice and right, against the principles proclaimed with all pomp and ceremony in the Peace Conference, and against the promises made to Turkey before all the world by article 12 of the principles of Wilson. The massacres, oppression, and atrocities and the policy of extermination carried out in the vilâyet of Aidin, which was given to the Greeks to occupy with a view to opening the way to a division of Turkey, are identical with those perpetrated in the localities of Marash, Urfa, and Aintab, dependencies of the vilâyet of Adana, which the French have occupied, using the Armenians as their instrument. These acts are the last of a series of flagrant injustices of a political nature. "We protest with all our energy against the illegal proceedings of the Entente Powers up to date, and we hope that they will of their own accord return to more humane and equitable sentiments towards our country and our nation, which will continue resolutely to defend its existence and its lawful rights with all the material and moral forces at its command, rather than consent to dismemberment and slavery. "We wish to advise the Powers of the Entente that our whole nation, in the widest sense of the word, is united in this legitimate and sublime decision; a continuation of this inhuman policy which the Entente Powers, deaf to the legitimate voice of our nation, are following may entail fatal consequences, not only for a few countries, but also possibly for the two hemispheres. The responsibility before Providence and humanity of such a disaster lies naturally with the Entente Powers. "We are here acting as interpreters of the desire for unity cherished by our nation, whose only object is the defence of its rights to exist. We wish our legitimate cries to reach the nations of Europe and America, and we are convinced that they will not give their support to all this injustice".[32]Turkish protests to the local French authorities had little effect.[33]Hundreds of public protests to the High Commissioners, to the Paris Peace Conference, to the Istanbul Government, to whomever seemed to have some authority, came from Turkish citizen groups throughout the south-east, condemning the French occupation, stating, according to French intelligence, that "the French troops, which are composed of Armenians, are attacking the honor of Turkish women and causing the Muslim population to submit to all sorts of tortures". Even the French authorities at Istanbul accepted them and transmitted them to Paris.[34]

"Just as Greek and Turkish peasants who had lived side by side for generations in western Anatolia became bitter enemies when the former cheered the invading Greek army at izmir and joined in its ravages, so also relations between Turks and Armenians became very tense throughout Anatolia as a result of the ravages of the Armenian Legion in Cilicia, which also encouraged local Armenians to take up arms against their neighbors with the certainty that the occupying powers would not punish them. Mustafa Kemâl moved to defend the Turks of Cilicia as soon as the Sivas Congress authorized the Representative Committee to act as a virtual government, coordinate the National Forces, and organize national resistance. As a first step, on 11 September 1919, the Representative Committee ordered all Turks and their supporters in Cilicia to institute a mass boycott against Christians living and doing business in areas of Maraş and Antep. Turks also were forbidden to move out of the area, however much they were pressured to do so by the invaders. If lands and other properties had to be sold, they could be transferred only to other Turks, so that Christians and foreigners would not be given any opportunity to legally take over property. All Turks were required to devote all their efforts and property to the achievement of the national goals, with assistance houses being established to help those in need because of their work for the national cause".[35]

The Turks initially responded to the atrocities in Cilicia with boycotts of Armenian businesses and shops throughout Anatolia in the same way that they had boycotted Greek merchants in the country following the Greek invasion of izmir and expansion into south-western Anatolia. The boycotts soon developed into widespread attacks on returning Armenians and Greeks alike, who after having been initially welcomed by the Ottoman authorities, were subjected to beatings, robberies, and killings despite the repeated warnings sent out by the Ottoman Government that such actions would only hurt Turkey's position at the Paris Peace Conference. Turks living at Bitlis and other places in north-eastern Anatolia located near the Caucasus border began to assault caravans of Armenian refugees seeking to enter the country from the Russian Caucasus in accordance with assurances of protection given them by the occupying Powers.[36]This situation in turn made it relatively easy for Armenian nationalists to convince thousands of Armenians in central Anatolia to react to the boycotts and attacks by immigrating to Cilicia, where French High Commissioner in Syria, Georges Picot, encouraged them to come and settle and promised that the French army would give them all the protection needed to establish an Armenian state to supplant that of the Turks.[37]At the same time, Greek nationalists transported Greek peasants from central Anatolia either to the Izmir occupation area or to the Black Sea coast, where they sent out hundreds of terrorist bands who devastated town and country alike in order to kill or drive out the settled Turkish population to establish a homogenous Greek Pontus state.[38]Boghos Nubar Paşa sent some of the Armenian settlers from among the refugees gathered in Iraq, Syria and Egypt and from Armenians living in Europe and America. Most, however, were sent by Armenian nationalist organizations from Kayseri, Erzincan, Erzurum, Samsun, izmit and Adapazari, which they left because of their quite justified fears that their lives were in danger as a result of their cooperation with the Allied occupation armies. The French also sent several thousand refugees who had settled in Syria and Beirut during the war in order to remove what had become a disruptive element in the population. About 120,000 Armenian settlers were thus brought to Cilicia during these years, of whom 70,000 alone were placed in Adana, 12,000 in Dörtyol, 8,000 in Saimbeyli, and the remainder in Osmaniye, Kadirli and Kozan, in addition to the 50,000 Armenians who had come from Istanbul and elsewhere in Anatolia to Antep, Maraş and Zeytun, all for the purpose of establishing an Armenian state in Cilicia under the permanent protection of France.[39]As these refugees arrived in Cilicia, the French commanders seem to have innocently believed that they would settle down peaceably beside their Muslim neighbors, who as a result would be convinced to accept them without resistance. Instead of this, however, the refugees, many of whom were members of General Antranik's guerilla bands sent into north-eastern Anatolia by the nascent Armenian state in the Caucasus that had ravaged the Muslim villages in the area, joined the Armenian Legion in attacking Muslims throughout Cilicia.[40]In some cases, they were joined in their attacks around Urfa and Rakka by local Arab tribes, who always were happy to ravage the settled towns around them whenever they had the opportunity of doing so.[41]British observers in the area commented that the returning Armenian refugees demonstrated the same characteristics that had created such tension between them and their Muslim and Jewish neighbors before the war: "I am just back from Cilicia and Syria and have had an interesting time. You are I am sure filled up with the opinions of politicals, and want to hear no more. I am inclined to think them alarmists and to exaggerate things for the increase of their own importance, and I am not at all sure that they all always do all they can to promote the entente. I saw Picot and Brémond and both expressed themselves satisfied with us now, bar the matter of Armenians who we have been flooding Cilicia. Poor devils, no one seems to want them anywhere, and yet despite all they have gone through, I did not see a thin one amongst a good many thousand I saw, and most looked cheery too. The massacres seem to have been a good deal exaggerated but the destruction of their villages is very complete for hardly a stone remained on another. The women and children seem anyway to have survived, and the former are reported content to live with Turks and have children by them. I don't know what there is about the Armenians, but no one, not even the missionaries, seems to have a good word to say about them...."[42]The Ottoman Council of Ministers in Istanbul on several occasions issued orders to stop the movement into Anatolia of deported Armenians who had not originated in the cities toward which they were heading as well as those who had been convicted of crimes before they left the country.[43] After this regulation went into effect, however, many refugees responded by first going to their cities of origin, and then immediately moving on to Adana or other places in Cilicia, forcing the Istanbul Government to decree that such returning refugees would have to remain in their original home towns for at least five years before they could move elsewhere.[44]It further declared that since the migration of large groups of Armenians at any time was causing trouble wherever they gathered, they should be allowed to immigrate only individually and not in groups.[45]Of course, however, since the Sultan's government had no authority or power outside the walls of Istanbul, and since the Allied armies in fact facilitated the entry into the country of these and other Armenians, these orders were never enforced.[46]The Allied High Commissioners in Istanbul discussed the problems created by these mass movements of returning Armenians: "Mr. De France observed that it is certain that the Armenian movements can produce disturbances, but how to stop them, moreover, if the Armenians fear, probably with some reason, that they will again be subject to Turkish massacres. They fear what will happen to them if the decisions of the Conference do not conform to the views of their nationalists. These movements take place, in general, on the invitation or at the suggestion of the Patriarchate. Most of these Armenians try to come to Constantinople, but many others are going to the contrary toward Cilicia and towards Adana, where they hope to find protection of the French occupation troops. This movement is prevented by the French authorities for those who come from Arabia or Aleppo since there they are equally under the protection of Allied troops. It is very difficult to stop migrations in Anatolia despite the relative tranquillity at the moment of the Armenian zones. It is necessary to say to the Porte that it does not have the right to stop these movements. Hohler thinks that they can say to the Porte that if it continues to refuse freedom to the Armenians to move, the Conference of Peace will be informed so it can take this into account when the moment comes to establish the responsibility of the Ottoman government...Maissa to answer to the Porte, asking an end to limits on Armenian movement in Anatolia; to inform Mixed Armenian Council".[47]In December 1919, General Gouraud, desperately needing more men to maintain the French occupation of Cilicia, a task that was becoming increasingly difficult because of attacks by the Turkish National Forces, asked for permission to reconstitute the Armenian Legion. No matter how difficult the situation was, however, the response from the General Staff in Paris was very negative: "...It is not to the interest of France to increase this troop, let alone maintain it, since it does not respond to the need for work of pacification that we have undertaken in Cilicia, which has now envisaged the creation of a battalion of Foreign Legionnaires recruited among the Turks and Kurds for this purpose".[48]The French army finally felt so dishonored by what the Armenian Legion had been doing to Turkish civilians in Cilicia that, starting in late February 1919, it tried to send the Legionnaires away to guard railroad lines in the middle of the Anatolian and Syrian deserts.[49]The Armenian Legionnaires, however, refused to obey the orders, stating that they had joined the Legion only to attack Turks and would not accept any assignment that would prevent them from doing so. Many of them simply left their French commanders, deserted their units, came together in rebel groups based at Adana, Mersin, Maraş and Hamidiye, and continued to ravage Turkish villages in the vicinity.[50]Finally, on 10 January 1920, the Cyprus support camp was ordered closed. Later the same year, on 1 August 1920, the definitive order was issued to disband the Armenian Legion once and for all. "The Legion had too many dangerous men in it; it was necessary to proceed with amputations. The Fourth Battalion was entirely disarmed, its men were examined and classified in three categories: those who had to be tried by a Council of Warsome fifty men; those who would be restored and sent to one of the three other battalions and then rearmed-about 400 men; and the others, about 400 more, who were grouped into a depot company, disarmed, and sent back to Port Said.[51]"These orders and counter orders, which ended with a veritable putting into quarantine of the battalions of the Armenian Legion, did nothing for their morale, desertions multiplied. On 7 May 1919, 17 Legionnaires, including four sub-officers, of the Air Batallion (2nd Batallion) deserted with their arms and baggages after having sent a petition to the English commander to ask for his protection. They left also a letter to their officers: 'We were all engaged...to save our Country and personally avenge our relatives...and having suffered for two years in military life, we understand that you are associated with the Turkish tyrants who profaned, not long before, our mothers and our sisters, to appropriate our land for yourself. Well, enough, goodbye, in place of serving your imperialist politics, we prefer to free with our own hands our mothers and our sisters who call us to help them....' They were caught on 10 May 1919, after four hours of combat".[52]The demobilized Armenian soldiers, however, continued their widespread despoiling of Turkish villages, killing hundreds of Turks and eliciting numerous requests from all sides that something be done to get rid of them.[53]American High Commissioner Mark Bristol reported that his sources told him that all the anarchy and killings going on in Cilicia were due to the French treatment of the Turks as uncivilized colonials and the French mistake in arming and supporting the Armenians: "A new condition has arisen in Turkey by reason of the French occupation of Syria and Cilicia. This condition is similar to the one that was caused by the Greek occupation of Smyrna. The use by the French of Armenian soldiers and the arming of Armenians brought about an uprising of the local population and assistance being sent by the Turks from the Nationalist forces. In ports of Syria where the French were popular they created antagonism by their tactless method of occupying the country as conquerors and replacing the native flags with French flags, also by assuming all governmental functions. "Likewise hostile Christian opposition on the part of the Turks, Kurds and Arabs was shown to the French forces. It is reported that the French destroyed villages, outraged women, and killed the natives, and the result has been that a state of war now existing in Cilicia and the French are compelled to retire from Ourfa and Marash. It is reported that the Turks have retaliated by killing the native Armenians and destroying villages, however it is understood that the Armenians left behind by French at Marash are held as prisoners and are not otherwise being molested. "It is known that American citizens in Aintab, Ourfa and Marash are safe and are not being molested and American property is being respected. However, there is apprehension that these conditions may not continue especially if the French proceed to reoccupy the country. The question of withdrawing our citizens is being seriously considered but difficulties of travelling at this season of the year must be considered. Proper representations have been made to the Turkish Government and the French High Commissioner here. Consultation with the British high authorities reveals they are apprehensive regarding the present condition in Turkey. England has citizens in the French zone of occupation, and I am cooperating with English as regards removal of citizens".

The poison, which the Legion planted, thus remained long after its abolition. Brémond at one point organized a new Armenian militia in eastern Anatolia under the command of John Aram Shishmanian, an Armenian-American officer in the French Foreign Legion, and other veterans of Antranik's guerilla forces, which, though nominally supposed to maintain security and order on behalf of the French administration, continued the Legion's attacks on Muslims in the area, with disastrous consequences.[54]As a result, no hope remained that the Turks of Cilicia would accept French rule or the presence of Armenian neighbors under any conditions.[55]Instead, the entire Turkish population now became involved in developing resistance forces. British intelligence thus reported that Kemalist influences were spreading rapidly among the Turks of the south-east, though erroneously assuming that this was the result solely of nationalist `propaganda' rather than what it was, popular reaction to the abuses inflicted on them by the occupation forces: "The propaganda of Mustapha Kemal has gained him a number of partisans amongst the Moslems, and his agents are becoming more numerous in the vilayet of Adana. The Chief Administrator considers that the internment of these agents would be the only effective way of stopping the propaganda. News of events in Anatolia is being brought through newspapers smuggled into Cilicia, and this, together with the fall of Damad Ferid's Govt. is helping to keep the Moslems in a state of excitement. The Turks especially are much encouraged and hope that the National movement will save Cilicia from Allied occupation and restore it to the Ottoman Empire. The state of public security is bad. Acts of brigandage are frequent, and the inhabitants of villages are becoming terrorized and show a tendency to migrate towards the towns. Brigands are using the Islamic and National movements as an excuse for crime, making out that they are waiting armed in the mountains ready to support the Cause and that they require money and provisions in order to live. To this end they are sending letters to the richest inhabitants threatening to raid them unless certain specified amounts of money, live stock or grain are forthcoming...."[56]By the summer of 1921, the mounting resistance of the Muslims of Cilicia, combined with resentment over the British tendency to dominate the Allied occupation of Istanbul, finally convinced the French Government to abandon its Allies and make a separate peace with the Turkish nationalists, whose victory over the invading Greek army at the Battle of the Sakarya made it clear that it was with them, rather than with the decadent and powerless government of the Sultan in Istanbul, that they would have to deal if they wanted to retain any sort of economic and political influence in the new Turkey that was emerging from the war. The result was the Treaty of Ankara signed between the Ankara Government and France in October 1921, by which the French agreed, not only to evacuate their forces from Cilicia, but also to leave their armaments and even their uniforms for use by the new Turkish national army being built up against the Greeks on the western front under the leadership of ismet inönü. The Turks of Iskenderun and Aleppo were disappointed by the Treaty's provisions that left them under French rule in Syria, but they at least were finally incorporated into the Turkish Republic in 1939. The real losers were in fact the Armenians in Cilicia, since by their welcome of the French occupation, their support of the Armenian Legion, and their participation in the rigorous French administration, they had ended whatever feelings of community that previously had existed with their Turkish neighbors and laid themselves open to violent acts of retribution. As soon as they heard the news of the Treaty of Ankara and the consequent French evacuation, therefore, most Armenians in Cilicia were terrified, and rightfully so. However much both the French and the Turkish nationalists promised to protect them, the Armenians knew that under the conditions that existed in that area at that time they had little chance to escape the vengeance of those Turks who had lost families, homes, and properties as a result of the French occupation and the activities of the Armenian Legion. Almost all the Armenians in Cilicia therefore did the only thing they could do under the circumstances. They began to pack up and leave their homes, some going with the evacuating French forces, some sailing on British and French ships that came to the ports of the area to pick them up, some walking overland into Syria, Palestine and Lebanon, where they settled down and made new lives for themselves.[57]In this, they were encouraged to depart by Armenian nationalist agents who hoped that by doing so they would shame the French, or if not them the Americans and British, to send in new troops which would enable them to establish an entirely Armenian state throughout Cilicia. Thus, when Avetis Aharonian and Gabriel Noradoungian went to French Premier Aristide Briand to complain about the French withdrawal, Briand was the one who complained: "I ordered an examination and I regret to tell you that, according to my information, the exodus of Armenian population from Cilicia is the result largely of the zealous propaganda which unknown individuals and Gomidehs [Komitacis] have made on the spot. For what earthly reason I do not know. But this propaganda is doubly embarrassing for France. On the one hand, the Armenians are fleeing from Cilicia, a fact that discredits France for having failed to give refugee Armenians the needed protection, and on the other hand the refugees have found no other protector outside of France, and once again we have been forced to care for their needs. Now I ask you, how long shall this abnormal situation continue to last....The Turks have not harmed them; they have kept their promise. What was the need of this wholesale exodus?"[58] Noradoungian first denied that any such encouragements were taking place: "I do not think that the people are fleeing as the result of the propaganda. There is a general panic about Turkish rule....I don't know who are the Armenians and what propaganda they have made. But it is not difficult to intervene and stop such deeds, and we shall do that very thing...." Aharonian, however, correctly attributed the exodus to fear of Turkish retribution for the excesses that had gone on during the previous two years: "I am not in the least surprised if any intelligent individual, intellectual or leader or Gomideh may have advised the Armenian population to flee with your retiring soldiers. I see no malice or any ulterior motives in such an act except the highly intelligible and understandable motive of a wish to escape the sword of the Turks. You must realize, Mr. President, that Turkish rule in Cilicia means the rule of the Grand National Assembly of Ankara, in which are seated the most notorious authors of the massacres of Van, Moush, Erzeroum and Bitlis. The Armenians know that fact well. And who is the well advised and concerned Armenian who, upon an appeal by the father of a family or a poor mother with her children, whether they should remain behind or flee, will have the courage of advising them to remain behind and await the sword of the Turk? This is no provocation, Mr. President, but a simple humanitarian concern...."[59]American High Commissioner Mark Bristol described the panic: "One of the effects of the Franco-Turkish pact, recently signed at Angora, has been the throwing into a condition of panic of the Christian part of the population of Cilicia. This is to be turned over to the Turkish Nationalists within a period of two months. Many of these Christians have very closely affiliated themselves with the French against the Turks in many instances, having even gone to the point of bearing arms against the Turks. They fear if they remain in Cilicia they will have revenge in a violent form inflicted on them. However, it would seem the part of wisdom for most of these Christians to remain where they are rather than rushing off into other parts of the world where the difficulty of earning a living will no doubt be very great. It seems a very bad precedent in view of the some two or three million Christians in Anatolia, where no doubt Turkish rule will ultimately be recognized in full force. From private letters from American relief workers at Ismidt it was feared that Americans and Christians generally, in that area, might be in danger, but from an investigation made by the Commanding Officer of the U.S.S.C. no. 96, it appears that there is no visible reason for fears on this score. The government is conducting itself in an orderly and proper manner, and the feeling towards Americans seems very good".[60]In October 1921, Armenian merchants throughout Cilicia stopped all orders for new merchandise and shipped their stocks toward the coast to be transported to Syria or Lebanon. The Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia sent a telegram to the Patriarchate as well as the High Commissioners in Istanbul informing them that all his people wanted to emigrate from Cilicia en masse and asking that the necessary boats be sent to Mersin to carry them into exile. In November Armenian banks and business houses throughout Cilicia were liquidated. The College of Jesuits and the School of the Sisters of Saint Joseph sent their students together to Iskenderun. Between November 13 and 22, some 12,000 Armenians embarked at Mersin alone. For the moment the major problem was at Iskenderun, where thousands of Armenians arrived from Mersin with absolutely nothing except what they wore and could carry. They had to be fed and clothed by a French administration that hardly could take care of itself. The confusion and suffering were immense.[61]Almost all the Armenians were bitterly unhappy with France in particular, claiming that it had promised to establish an Armenian state for them in Cilicia and had reneged on a solemn obligation to Christians. Telegrams of protest were sent to the League of Nations, the International Red Cross, to the French, to the British Government, in many cases demanding the establishment of a British mandate in Cilicia in place of the French and the mounting of a full-scale expedition to drive the Turks out.[62]On 6 November 1921, Hamid Bey, previously Kemalist governor of Samsun and later of Trabzon, and more recently Counselor to the Ministry of the Interior, was assigned by Mustafa Kemâl as Cilicia High Commissioner (literally as Assistant to the Governor/Vali Vekili), and later as Governor, to arrange military, civilian and political matters arising there as a result of the Treaty of Ankara.[63]Arriving in Adana two weeks later, he traveled around to the major cities in Cilicia along with Muhiddin Paşa, special military commander for the Adana area, Franklin-Bouillon, French officials from Syria, and Armenian religious leaders, inaugurating the new Turkish regime amidst celebrations and sacrifices and speaking to Armenian groups in particular in an effort to calm their fears and assure them that the Turkish army would protect them.[64]Proclamations were issued to assure everyone that their rights would be protected:

"PROCLAMATION: INHABITANTS OF CILICIA 

"France and the Ankara Government, desiring to restore peace in the East, have just concluded an agreement. France, respecting the rights of the majority, has spontaneously returned Cilicia to Turkey. "France and the Ankara Government, equally desirous to have the rights of minorities respected, have decreed a series of guarantees in the Ankara Treaty. But even before these guarantees were published, a methodical campaign was organized by the enemies of peace to throw the Christian populations into alarm and force them to leave Cilicia. Thousands of families have thus been snatched from their homes and thrown onto the roads to exile and misery. Both governments, profoundly moved by this spectacle, have resolved to make a new effort to reassure the populations and destroy the effect of this detestable campaign of agitation.

"CHRISTIANS OF CILICIA

"They have said to you that the amnesty will not be carried out: That is false. The amnesty is total and immediate. The past is dead and forgotten. No one, absolutely no one, can be disturbed. They have said to you that you will never be able to move freely; that is false. The Agreement assures you complete liberty of your persons as well as respect for your property. You have all already received passports from the French authorities; the Government of Ankara will respect them absolutely. They have said to you that the law will requisition from you immediately 40 percent of your goods; that is false. This law of requisitions, applied during the Sakarya campaign, has now been abrogated, and no longer exists. "They have said to you that you will be immediately enrolled [in the army]; that is false. The Turkish authorities have taken the necessary measures to assure that conscription will be applied only three months after the French occupation ends, which will be 4 January 1922. And we can hope that general peace will be established before the end of that time. Moreover, the Agreement stipulates for you all the guarantees assured to minorities in the countries of Europe by virtue of treaties concluded by the Great Powers after the Great War. Both governments are honor bound to make their guarantees respected. Their word is better than that of the agitators who are trying to get you to flee today, and will abandon you tomorrow after ruining you and more families. "From this time forward, a Franco-Turkish commission, on which are represented all your communities, has been formed to guard abandoned property. All acts of pillage will be pitilessly repressed. Muslims and Christians must equally respect the law. And now, reflect; restore your calm, return to the homes that await you. Liberty and Justice are assured to all". Adana, 30 November 1921. M. Franklin-Bouillon Mouheddine Pacha Hamid Bey.[65]

Gabriel Noradoungian, an Ottoman Armenian who, like hundreds of other Armenians, had risen high in the Ottoman Foreign Service during the previous quarter-century, and who had actually served as Ottoman Foreign Minister for six months in 1912-1913, joined Avedis Aharonian in going to England and France in demanding that France renounce the Treaty of Ankara and end its evacuation of the area in order to prevent the massacres which he insisted were certain to come. On 19 November 1921 Noradoungian told Lord Curzon: "The people of Cilicia fought in the ranks of the Allied armies for the liberation of that country and 150,000 Armenians, relying on the word of the Allies, have returned and settled in Cilicia. To turn this people over to the Turks once again means to subject them to massacre. The Franco-Turkish pact in the East will only serve the diminution of Allied prestige and the encouragement of the Turks. If France has financial difficulties, is it not possible to extend her some sort of aid and thus rescue those 150,000 Armenians? To trust the world of the Turks is out of the question. I know them at close hand, the so-called Kemalists, in particular, are the worst sort of bandits, friends of the Bolsheviks, Pan Islamists, and Pan Turanians. Its too bad that France set aside the legal Sultanist Government of Istanbul and aligned herself with those bandits. This unilateral arrangement of the Cilician question is disastrous for the Armenian people from all standpoints. WE INSIST, AND SHALL INSIST ON THE TREATY OF SÈVRES. That must not become a scrap of paper.... "...[T]he issue before the Supreme Council no longer is the safety of the Armenian people, but an Armenian state on Turkish territories which has been promised us, and which in the future shall become the United Armenia together with Caucasian Armenia. The Supreme Council, Mr. President, defined our boundaries for us without our prior consent. Then it found a mediator-arbitrator in the person of the President of the United States, again without consulting us. And finally it drafted a whole treaty whereby we were given our independence as a state, and invited us to sign the document. We signed it without objection and we accepted all that the great powers and our allies dictated to us. And now, in our conviction, it is not the safety of the Armenian people with which the Supreme Council shall concern itself, but with the security of the establishment of an Armenian state. Even as you said that it was on the basis of the Sèvres Treaty that France surrendered Cilicia to Turkey, so on the same basis we expect that France shall endeavor to return to us by peaceful means our territories which have been seized by Turkey...."[66]On 23 November 1921, Noradoungian told French Premier Aristide Briand that the Kemalists were all murderers and that the Armenians could never trust them or live under their rule: "It must be stated that the situation in Cilicia has so terrified our people that we are swarmed with telegrams from all sides. We are pained to note that France has signed a pact with the National Assembly at Ankara, which is nothing but a collection of criminals. I know the greater part of them personally. Many of them have gone through under my hand during my twentyfive years of office in the Turkish government. I can confidently state that with rare exceptions, they are all Pan-Islamists, PanTuranists, and more especially, xenophobe criminals who know no sanctities. Our people could not imagine that they ever should be turned over to that assassin government. This is a terrible disaster because these men are morally bankrupt and time and again have been proclaimed as such, and to believe their word is impossible, especially since these men were never brought to justice for their crimes, but they were befriended and encouraged. Last March, Bekir Sami came to London with a delegation three of whose members are notorious authors of the massacres....How was it possible that these men could be invited to tea with Lloyd George and others? This fact pierced the Armenians to the heart. Then what shall we say of the solemn declaration of the powers that these criminals would be held accountable for the Armenian massacres? Where is the punishment? And now, after all this, Franklin-Bouillon proposes to trust the word of these criminals. We cannot do this thing, Mr. President. Ankara's promises are nothing but a sham and a deceit, and the Armenian people are bound to suffer terribly if we put faith in their word. If they do not stage outright massacres, they know a thousand and one ways of exterminating the Armenians. They all have been educated in the spirit of Abdul Hamid, whereas the world knows that cruel Sultan's education and his spirit were abominable...." [67] While expressing sympathy, Briand responded simply that France had no other choice since it had been defeated in Cilicia and could not continue pouring its men and wealth into such a losing morass: "But you also must consider, Gentlemen, that we were forced to sign this agreement. You are familiar with the troubles of France. Our resources do not permit us to keep such a costly army in the East. In our conditions, no parliament will vote such a military budget. We nevertheless waited until the last try was attempted. To wait longer, believe me, is impossible. It is beyond our power. We suffered thousands of casualties in Cilicia and we expended millions. We waited for the Greek invasion, hoping that it would bring a solution to the problem so that we could evacuate our troops. But we saw that the Turks pushed them back and it is highly probable that, in the spring, they will drive them off also from Smyrna. Now when the Turks are through with the Greeks, it is certain that they will turn their arms against us while we neither have the desire, the means nor the possibility of fighting the Turk. Our country will never accept such a war, it does not understand, it does not want it. What can we do under the circumstances but to make peace with the Turk as soon as possible and evacuate our troops from Cilicia and, according to the Sèvres Treaty after all, we are obliged to return Cilicia to them. As to the safety of the Armenians, please believe me that we already have taken the necessary measures; our officers are there to supervise the enforcement of security measures. You have already seen that, at the first instance, the Christians will be exempted from military service. This is a good sign. There will be others, believe me, and finally it must be presumed that the Turks are not fools enough to organize massacres under the present circumstances and destroy their cause completely by raising the whole of Europe against them. No, they won't do that at present. And it is problematic if they shall ever do it in the future. But we have plenty of time for that. Soon the Supreme Council shall convene and I promise that I shall take this matter there and shall ensure, once and forever the safety of Christians. I told you that we could not wait any longer. France has many troubles." [68] Since the people who remained in the cities of Cilicia, particularly in Gaziantep, were still living amidst the ruins left by the various French sieges and bombardments, the Grand National Assembly provided them, and all those living in districts rescued from enemy occupation, with special financial assistance and free lumber to rebuild their homes and shops as well as two year tax exemptions to help them get back on their feet.[69] As promised in the Treaty of Ankara, moreover, on 5 December 1921, the Grand National Assembly issued a general amnesty for all those accused of `treason against the nation' for all of Anatolia, including Cilicia, thus excusing Muslims and Christians alike for any misdeeds they may have carried out during the French occupation while assuring all that they would be treated fairly and equally regardless of religion or race and urging them to remain calm and not to flee.[70]At the same time, in an effort to keep the Armenians from leaving, Mustafa Kemâl sent a similar proclamation from Ankara on 5 December 1921: "PROCLAMATION:

"By virtue of the agreement that has just been concluded with France, our authorities are returning to Adana, which has been an integral part of our country for centuries, but which was militarily occupied after the end of the Great War. We thank God who has permitted the Vilâyet of Adana and other regions of our territory to be returned to the Mother Country. I am happy in the name of the Grand National Assembly to greet the populations of these territories at their return to the mother womb. I hope that the entire world will end by recognizing and approving the pacific intentions of our nation and of the Grand

National Assembly of Turkey which has been always conscious of the benefits of peace and which desires only recognition of the nations rights to a life of independence, the most natural and elementary right of every nation; and I must thank there the French nation and government who have accepted this point of view. "The inhabitants of the regions of Adana, Urfa and Antep, who have undergone misfortunes and sadness during the great war, will once again find calm and tranquility resulting naturally from the development and prosperity of the country, but it appears from certain events that bad intentioned people, envying the success of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, are perhaps trying to spread agitation and discord among the populations by spreading rumors, as when General Gouraud said in a proclamation that our action in these regions against our fellow citizens would be contrary to the sentiments of fraternity and that we have already committed reprehensible acts. I wish to answer with a few words on this subject, speaking before the civilized world and humanity. The different elements of Turkey have lived fraternally for centuries in sentiments, which suit the children of the same country, they are united among themselves by the strongest bonds of common interests, and they are tied to this country by dear memories. We cannot hide that in the last years malevolent people and deplorable facts have been produced as the result of the acts of certain agitators who have not judged calm and tranquility in the country to be beneficial to their interests. A full and complete amnesty has just been proclaimed to wipe out all these incidents....The Government wants to make disappear by this measure all the causes which could enable the malcontents to continue to influence the children of this country. There are other duties that fall on the populations, and I speak to all without distinction of race or religion to recall their duties in a few words. The Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey is a democratic government; the nation and the government cooperate closely in all questions that interest the country. It is therefore useless to explain to us the need for calm and tranquility needed by our country, and it is necessary to deny by deeds the malevolent rumors thrown out by our enemies. It is necessary to affirm and prove that we are the children of a free nation. You have the duty of helping the Government and to place the interests of the country before personal interests. I am convinced that a people that has shown itself capable of keeping its calm and dignity in the fact of the considerable events and extraordinary incidents can continue to realize the necessity of reciprocal affection in the entire nation without distinction of race or religion. No act of the people can be contrary to reason or logic. I wish to declare here that the Government of the Grand National Assembly will take measures against all those who put the great interests of the nation beneath their own. Rigorous measures will be taken against those who try to avoid the legal paths. I wish to give the following advice to officials; the fate of the territories, which are returning to the Mother Country at the price of great sacrifices, is in your hands. Benefit and prosperity of all people before the law is necessary. All have the same duties regardless of race and distinction. Think always that the extent of your responsibility is in proportion of the greatness and importance of your duties. Give equal justice to all regardless of race or religion. Turn over to the rigor of the law all those who violate them by harming order and tranquility. Do not forget to use all your efforts to establish order and security everywhere and make sure the sovereignty of the laws based on the policies of the Government are respected. In concluding I wish grandeur and prosperity to the nation and prosperity to its populations. 5 December 1337 (1921) President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Kemâl".[71]As the Turkish nationalist forces replaced the French there was in fact no organized persecution, no general Turkish retaliation, as reported by the American naval detachment patrolling in the area, which was closely monitoring the situation: "The destroyer stationed at Mersina reports that the Turks have that area well in hand and that the lives of Christians are in no danger....The destroyers dispatched to Batoum and Novorossisk report that they were cordially received...."[72]The waves of mistrust were in any case far too deep, however, for these assurances to have any significant effect. Even if some Armenians believed the promises, they hated the Turks so much that they did not want to live under Turkish rule even if they were protected. The panic therefore continued, stimulated more by fear than fact, as reported by the Chief of the American Mediterranean fleet cruising in the area at the time, Admiral Niblack: "The withdrawal of the French from Cilicia, in accordance with the Franco-Turkish pact recently signed at Angora, has resulted in a partial evacuation of Christians from Cilicia. Many of the Christians had been closely affiliated with the French even to the extent of bearing arms against the Turks, and they therefore feared some terrible form of punishment from the Turks. In connection with this disturbance, and for the protection of American interests, Read Admiral Bristol has maintained a destroyer at Mersina. His advice to American and other Christian populations in Cilicia appears to have been to remain where they were until the Turks gave some causes to justify their evacuation. He seems to have sized up the situation very accurately, as nothing of consequence has occurred. The evacuation seems to have been based on fear rather than fact".[73]An official of the Vacuum Oil Company touring Cilicia during this time as part of a general American effort to find business in the new Turkey, R.S. Stewart reported to the American Consul General in Beirut on what was happening, not only the panic and distrust that was prevalent, but also the almost complete standstill of normal business activity: "The effect upon the Christian population of the French withdrawal has been sensational in the extreme. Since the first announcement of the Bouillon agreement, emigration has been proceeding through the port of Mersina on a vast scale. Estimates of the number of inhabitants who have left in this manner range between 40,000 and 60,000; made up in the main of the Armenian population of Adana, Tarsus and Mersina. The impelling motive in the instance of the Armenians is, of course, absolute distrust of Turkish intentions in their regard. Hellene Greeks cannot remain on account of the actual state of war between their country and the Kemalists; while in addition many Ottoman Greeks and native Christians have emigrated under the influence of the undoubted general panic. More significant still, all British subjects have been warned by their Government to withdraw before the completion of the evacuation. This latter circumstance is plainly proving a source of decided uneasiness to both Turks and French, the feeling being heightened by the presence of British war vessels at Mersina. "Commercial. Aside from a certain amount of superficial activity attributable to extensive liquidation and to the movement of essential commodities, trade and industry are temporarily at a standstill. While this condition would be natural enough in any country under similar circumstances, it is intensified in Cilicia by the fact that the machinery of commerce has long been almost entirely in the hands of the very Christian element, which is now in such a state of demoralization. Amongst those of this class who have not already severed their connections with Cilicia, the feeling of uncertainty alone regarding future taxes, possible levies, etc. is at present highly discouraging to any business activity. The crafts also have suffered greatly owing to the wholesale exodus of Christian workmen. Prohibition of the export of gold, and the consequent brisk demand for foreign exchange on the part of the thousands of emigrants, have brot (sic) about the depreciation of Turkish gold to a point about ten percent below its value in Syria and Egypt. Turkish paper is on the decline as well, and the whole exchange situation is decidedly unstable. Finally, trade prospects in general are adversely affected by the impossibility of foreseeing what Cilicia's outside relations will be as the result of the change of administration. "Moral. The psychological reaction to the situation varies according to race and belief, and is highly dramatic. Official proclamations issued jointly by the French and the Turks have done little to inspire general confidence. The hereditary fear under which the Armenian labors is intensified by the consciousness of having recently indulged in a certain amount of retaliation. Christians in general, while less impressed with the possibility of wholesale massacre, experience a sense of betrayal. All expectation of eventual release from Turkish mastery being decisively cut off, they appear to feel that continued stay in Cilicia offers no attractions. Perhaps the worse fear is that of conscription, or its possible alternative of heavy exemption payments. The Turkish attitude is of course one of exultation, with insolence and an occasional hint of menace very thinly veiled indeed. The White Man's prestige is at the lowest ebb. This is keenly felt by the French officers, many of whom regard the Bouillon agreement as a rather low piece of political work, and highly discrediting to France. Very significant in this respect is the case of General Dufieux, later General Commanding in Cilicia, whose sentiments, and particularly his very apparent distrust of Kemalist assurances, led to his supersedure and practical disgrace....Afterward Mr Bouillon...stated that it was self evident that no public disorders which might result in damage to stocks need be feared, and that as far as Government action might be concerned, he could state positively that business interests would not be imposed upon. While unquestionably there would be new tax fixations, and while the belligerent status of the new Government might necessitate requisition of needful supplies, such requisitions would be made only against adequate reimbursement, as in the actual recent instance of the purchase for cash from the Asiatic Petroleum Company of 1000 cases benzene. Wholesale levies, such as the 40 percent imposition formerly practiced, would be discontinued definitely. Customs duty would be increased from 11 percent to 20 percent".[74]As the French evacuation began by road via the ports of Mersin and Iskenderun starting on 4 November, the flight to Syria accelerated, consisting mostly of Armenians but also Greeks and Turks who had opposed the Turkish national movement and cooperated with the French. About 30,000 Armenians, Greeks and other Christians left the Adana district in November and December. Most went by ships that came to pick them up at Mersin and by trains that went to Aleppo. By the end of December, French troops remained only in Mersin along with approximately 10,000 refugees and at Dörtyol, where 7,000 refugees still were gathered. All were evacuated from these two cities as well as from Kilis (7 December), Adana (20 December), Osmaniye (24 December), Antep (25 December), Tarsus (27 December), Mersin (3 January 1922), Dörtyol (4 January), and Adana (4 January), thus completing the evacuation in little less than three months from the time the Treaty of Ankara was signed.[75]According to French sources, between 1 November 1921 and 4 January 1922, approximately 54,000 Christians left Cilicia, of whom 31,000 settled in French-mandated Syria and Lebanon, and the remainder scattered to British protection in Palestine and Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean area. [76]By the end of 1923, the total number of Armenians who had left Cilicia are said to have numbered some 175,000, almost all those who had lived there before the war together with those who had emigrated from central Anatolia during 1919 and 1920.[77]On his return to Paris in late January 1922, General Gouraud reported to a special session held at the Sorbonne that "...overall the evacuation of Cilicia took place in perfect order, without violence, and without a single person being killed or even wounded".[78]Turkish forces and government officials entered the evacuated cities and towns amidst joyful popular demonstrations celebrating their liberation from the oppressive French occupation, not only in Cilicia, but throughout the entire country.[79]One of their first acts was to declare invalid all property transfers which had been forced on local Turks and Jews by the French occupation authorities who had turned hundreds of houses and arms thus surrendered over to Armenians and Frenchmen at prices far below their market values.[80]Thus were the immediate effects of the French and Armenian occupation of south-eastern Anatolia alleviated, though for Turkish and Jewish families who had lost everything, this was small consolation indeed. It would take years of insistence by Mustafa Kemâl Atatürk that the people of the new Turkish Republic that emerged from the war should avoid continued hatreds resulting from past atrocities inflicted on them and their ancestors and seek friendship with all the people of the world, including those who had attacked them so viciously during and after World War I, that the Turks attempted to live in friendship with the other peoples of the area, though in many cases the Christian nationalists in particular, nurtured as they were by hatred and religious bigotry, left the Turks puzzled, unable to understand why their overtures of friendship had been briskly rejected while at the same time France as well as Greece have made no effort to pay to Turkey the billions of dollars they owe it for the terrible material and moral damage that their occupation troops inflicted on the country, uncalled-for damage, far beyond any sort of authorization they had been given by the Mondros Armistice Agreement or the Paris Peace Conference.

[1] This article is an elaboration and extension of various sections regarding the Armenian Legion in my recent study, From Empire to Republic: The Turkish War of National Liberation, 1918-1923, 5 vols., Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2000.

[2] Cilicia as a province never existed in the four-hundred years of Ottoman administration in the area. The name was resurrected by the Allied occupation powers, with as wide a definition as possible, in order to justify the area that they were authorized to control by the Armistice of Mondros. In general terms, it coincided with the modern Turkish district known as Çukurova, and included the Ottoman province of Adana, the district of Maraş, and adjacent areas. See Justin McCarthy, Death and Exile: the Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922, Princeton, New Jersey, The Darwin Press, Inc., 1995, pp. 202-204.

[3] British High Commissioner in Istanbul Horace Rumbold to Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon, Istanbul, 19 November 1920, in G. B., Public Record Office, Foreign Office files (hereafter abbreviated as FO) 371/5210 no. E14888; High Commissioner's Representative, İzmir, to High Commissioner, İstanbul, 5 June 1920 in FO 406/44, p. 75, no. 48; cited in McCarthy, Death and Exile, op. cit., p. 242.

[4] The district between Magosa and Monarga was in fact made a closed military zone, with its entire Turkish population being evacuated to concentration camps. The camp of Arab militants trained at nearby base to support the Arab revolt were transferred to a more distant location. Halil Aytekin, Kıbrıs'ta Monarga (Boğaztepe) Ermeni Lejyonu Kampı Ankara, Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2000, pp. 60-66.

[5] Aytekin, op. cit., pp. 37-89, 165-178 provides details on the organization and training of the Armenian Legion during World War I. The American financial campaign was spearheaded by American missionary leader James Barton and retired President Theodore Roosevelt. John D. Rockefeller led the donors with a gift of $25,000. See: Aytekin, op. cit., pp. 90-93.

[6] Ministère de la Défense (France), Etat Major de l'Armée du Terre, Service Historique, General du Hays, Les Armées françaises au Levant, Tome I: L'Occupation française en Syrie et en Cilicie sous le Commandement Britannique, novembre 1918-novembre 1919, Tome II: Le Temps des Combats 1920-1921 (Chateau de Vincennes, Paris), I, pp. 111-114 (hereafter cited as AFL); from `Le tableau de stationnement du 5 février, AG, Chateau de Vincennes, no. 2141 in carton A 2-3; and the situation effectifs on 01 February 1919 in no. 359/G of 9 March 1919 in carton 1 C 2; Robert F. Zeidner, "The Tricolor over the Taurus: The French in Cilicia and Vicinity, 1918-1922" (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Utah, 1991), pp. 153-157, 205; later in book form: Robert F. Zeidner, The Tricolor over the Taurus: the Franco-Turkish War for Cilicia, Crucible of the National Liberation Movement, New York, Peter Lang Publ., 1996; PRFRUS, 1918, supplement 1, 1, pp. 885-891. For an Armenian effort to whitewash the conduct of the Armenian Legion, see R. G. Saakian, Franko-Turetskie Otnoshenia i Kilikiia: 1918-1923, Erivan, 1986. Richard Hovannisian's massive History of the Armenian Republic , while citing the same French sources mentioned in this study, and in particular AFL, fails to give any information on what the French reveal about the Armenian Legion's violent conduct during its occupation of Cilicia.

[7]United States Department of State Decimal File 867. 4016/407, 13 March 1919. McCarthy, Death and Exile, pp. 205, 243; Assistant British High Commissioner Webb to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London, 27 March 1919, in FO 371/3658/no. 58433; United States High Commissioner Admiral Mark Bristol, İstanbul, to Secretary of State, 11 December 1919, in U. S. Department of State Decimal File 867/1076; Comte R. de Gontaut-Biron, Comment la France s'est installée en Syrie: 1918-1919, Paris, Plon-Nourrit, 1922, pp. 54-55.

[8] I have inserted in the footnotes the original dossiers and reports on which the translated reports were based.

[9] BOA. HR. SYS. 2543- 5/27, 28. Based on the reports in the following dossier: Bâb-ı Âlî, Dâhiliye Nezâreti, Emniyet-i Umûmiyye Müdîriyeti
Darende Kâ'im- i makâmlığı'nın 11 Teşrîn-i Sânî [ 1 ]335 târîhli tahrîrâtı suretidir: Mar'aş'da zuhuru istihbar kılman hâdisâtm kaza ahâlîsince heyecân-âmiz bir vaz'iyyetde oldukları kazaya muvâsalat-ı âcizîde görülmesi üzerine sükûn ve i'tidâllerini muhafaza içün nesâyihde bulunulmuş ve mes'ele bir mübalağadan ibaret olduğu tefhim edilmiş ancak mezkûr mes'elenin esâsını yakından anlamak çâresine tevessül edilmesi tavsiye edilmiş ve bunun üzerine mütehayyizân-ı mahalliyye tarafından tertîb ve Mar'aş'a gönderilüp bu kerre avdet eden adam-ı mahsûsdan alman malumat ber-vech-i zîr arzolunur. Mar'aş'daki İngiliz askerlerini mübadele eden Fransız askerleri içinde kırk Cezayirli Müslim üç bin raddesinde Ermeni olup Mar'aş'a vürûdlarmdan bir gün sonra müsâfirlikden hanesine avdet eden yüzü peçeli bir İslâm kadınına Fransız askeri ünvânı altındaki Ermenilerden bir kaçı ta'arruz ve daha peçeli gezecek misiniz? Serbest olunuz, sözleriyle yüzündeki nikâbı cerhden vefat etdiği ve kaldırıldığı ve şu hâli müşahede eden ahâlî-i müslimeden bir kaç zât tarafından men' ve tarafeynce edilen müdâfa'a ve müsademe neticesinde Fransız askerlerinden birisi cerh ve ertesi günü eser-i İslamlardan ikisi mecruh düşdüğü ve bir hafta sonra da bir polis ile ahâlîden bir şahsın şehîd edildiği ve İslâmlar yedindeki esliha ve cebhânenin toplatdırılması hususu Ermeniler tarafından Fransız kumandanı nezdinde teşebbüsâtda bulunulduğundan bu sebeble Mar'aş ahâlîsi umumiyetle silâh be-dest olarak ufak bir ta'arruzla neticesinde vehâmet kesbedecek bir i'tişâş-ı dahilî zuhuruna her an mecburî muntazır bulundukları ve ileri gelenlerinden bir kaç zâtın da firâren Elbistan'a iltica eyledikleri ve etrâfdan pey-der-pey Mar'aş'a Fransız askeri nâmıyla her kafilede üçer beşer yüz Ermeni gelerek içtimâ' ve kuvvetlerini tezyîd eylemekde olduğu ve Fransızlar tarafından Mar'aş kal'asıyla Yarbaşı'ndaki Katolik kilisesi, tahkim ve Zeytun ahâlîsi teslîh edilmekde olduğu ve ahâlî-i İslâmiyye, vilâyetimizden kuwe-i mu'âvene intizâr eylemekde oldukları alman bir varaka-i mahremâneden ve giden adamdan başkaca alman îzâhdan anlaşılmış ve ma'a-mâ-fih şu hâl-i esef-iştimâl kazâ-yı âcizî ahâlîsinin hissiyât-ı dîniyyelerini rencide etmesinden ve bu bâbda muzaheret ve mu'âvenete ihtiyâç görüldüğü takdirde bütün mevcûdiyetleriyle mâlen ve bedenen âmâde bulundukları berây-ı malûmat ma'rûzdur. Ol-bâbda.
Bâb-ı Âlî, Dâhiliye Nezâreti, Emniyet-i Umûmiyye Müdîriyeti
Darende Kâ'im-i makâmlığı'nın 13 Teşrîn-i Sânî [ 1 ]335 târîhli tahrîrâtı suretidir: Mütekaddem 11 Teşrîn-i Sânî [ 1 ]335 târîhli arîza-i husûsiyye-i çâkerâneme zeyldir. Mar'aş'da İngiliz askerlerini mübadele etmek üzre dört makineli tüfengle Mar'aş'a dâhil olan Fransız askerlerini Mar'aş Ermenileri ellerinde bayraklar ve müzeyyen elbiseleri lâbis oldukları hâlde istikbâl ve şehr içerisinde "Yaşasın Kilikya Ermenistan, kör olsun çekemeyenler" diye nümayişlerde bulundukları ve ferdası günü beş Ermeni Fransız askeri kıyafetinde hükümete giderek jandarma nevbetcisinden umumhaneler nerede, defterleri nerede bulunduklarının kendilerine gösterilmelerini teklif eylemeleri üzerine nevbetciler tarafından keyfiyet Mar'aş Jandarma Kumandanlığına malûmat verilerek kumandan tarafından merkumunun hükûmetden tardedildiği ve bunun üzerine Ermeniler çarşı derûnuna girerek simidci dükkânından simid alup Türklerin yedikleri bunlar mıdır?" diyerek ayaklar altına alup çiğnemekle tahkîrâtda bulundukları ve aynı günde Fransız istihbarat Ermeni zabiti hükümete gelerek keşîde edilen Osmanlı sancağının indirilmesini musırran teklif etmesi ve diğer beş nefer Ermeninin de rastgeldikleri ahâlî-i İslâmiyyeye ve polis ve jandarmalara ta'arruz ve tecâvüzâtla darba kıyam eylemeleri üzerine vuku' bulan mudârebe ve müsademeye iştirak eden jandarmalıkdan müsta'fi Çakmakçı Sa'îd'in kurşunla cerh ve eser-i cerhden müte'essiren şehîden vefat eylediği ve jandarmanın mecruh ve kendilerinden de bir maktul düşdüğü ve Ermeni askerleri tertibat ve kuvvetlerini tezyide çalışdıkları gönderilen adam-ı mahsûsun ifâdesinden anlaşıldığı berây-ı malûmat ma'rûzdur. Ol bâbda.
Aslına mutâbıkdır Mühür

[10]BOA. HR. SYS. 2602- 1/163. Based on the following report from the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Erkân-ı Harbiyye-i Umûmiyye Dâiresi Şu'be: 2 Numara: 4682 Hâriciye Nezâret-i Celîlesine Devletlü efendim hazretleri İstihbârât-ı muhtelife hulâsası ber-vech-i zîr arz olunur:
1- Mar'aş'ı işgal eden Fransızlar şehir etrafında tahkimat yapmışlardır. Ve Elbistan yolunu tarassud etdirmekdedirler. Mar'aş Hükümet Konağı'ndan Osmanlı sancağını indirmek istemişler ise de muvaffak olamamışlar ve bu münâza'a esnasında jandarma tüfengçisi Sadullah Efendi şehîd olmuşdur.
2- Adana'da Fransız Administratörünün tercümanı Kemâl, Evkaf Müdîri Şefik, Polis Cemâl efendiler bir Ermeni nefer tarafından katledilmişlerdir. Esâretden avdet eden altı neferden ikisiyle bir Müslüman bakkal trenden atılmak suretiyle itlaf edilmişlerdir.
3- Ulukışla şarkmdaki Koçak karyesi civarında Lefkeni [Lefkere] köyüne 6/11/35 gecesi gelen Fransız Ermeni askerleri köyün erkeklerini darb ve kadınların bir kısmının ırzlarına tecâvüz etmişlerdir. Ömerli karyesi civarında yedi kişinin gözleri oyularak süngülenmişlerdir.
4- Zaho ve Musul havalisinden İngilizlerin çekileceği hakkında alman haberler 9 Teşrîn-i
Sânî sene [1]335 târihine kadar te'eyyüd etmemişdir. Ol bâbda emi ü ferman hazret-i
men-lehü'1-emrindir.
Fî 25 Safer sene 1338
Fî 20 Teşrîn-i Sânî sene 1335
Harbiye Nâzın
İmza

[11]BOA. HR. SYS. 2878/9. Based on the following report from the office of the Şeyhülislam: Bâb-ı Fetva, Dâ'ire-i Meşîhat-ı İslâmiyye, Tahrîrât Kalemi Adana Merkez Müftîliği'nin 14 Rebî'ü'l-Evvel sene [1]338 ve 7 Kânûn-ı Evvel sene [1]335 tarihli tahrîrâtı suretidir. Ahâlînin sa'âdet ve hürriyetini te'mîn içün geldiklerini ilân eden Fransızların Adana Vilâyeti'nde ahâlî-i İslâmiyyeye karşu icrâât-ı ihânetkârânelerinin hatırda kalan bir kısmı ber-vech-i âtî arzolunur. Şöyle ki: Adana'ya vürûdlarmdan birkaç gün sonra Baş Administrator "Bremon'un" â'ilesi Madam Bremon otomobil ile Pamukcu-zâde Aziz Efendi'nin hanesi önünden geçerken mûmâ-ileyh Aziz Efendi'nin beş yaşındaki kerîmesi pencereden otomobilin içerüsüne tükürdüğüne binâ'en pederi Aziz Efendi'nin ma'a â'ile mıntıka hâricine teb'îdine veyâhud beş bin lira ceza-yi nakdiyyenin te'diyesine muhayyer olarak mahkûm edilüp teb'îdden tahlîs-i girîbân içün meblağ-ı mezkûr beş bin lirayı te'diye etmişdir. O vakitden bi'1-i'tibâr merkez-i vilâyet ve kazalarda Ermenilerin Müslümanlar aleyhinde müzevvir da'vâlarını rü'yet etmek üzre birer hey'et-i hakîme teşkil ile Müslümanların mallarını cebren alup Ermenilere verdikleri gibi ittihadcı olmak veyâhud Hıristiyanlara îkâ'-ı zarar etmiş olmak bahaneleriyle ashâb-ı nâmusdan olan birçok Müslümanları birer birer mahbese ilkâ ile aylarca habsde bulundurdukdan sonra pey-der-pey mıntıka hâricine teb'îd etdiler. Mıntıka hâricine teb'îd keyfiyeti nisvâna dahi teşmil edilüp Kozan livasında zevçleri Ermeni tehlikesine ma'rûz bulunduklarına binâ'en Konya'ya firar edenlerin otuzdan ibaret â'ileleri de Konya Vilâyeti'ne teb'îd edildi. Ve bunlar miyânında Kozan livası müftîsinin kerîmesi de dâhil idi. Tabiidir ki dâlleri muktezâ-yı diyanet olarak bu gibi icrââtlarında derhâl şifahen ve tahriren vazîfe-i şefâ'atı ifâ ederdim. Ve ba'zen şefâ'atim icâbına iktiran ediyordu. Ez-an cümle Kozan'dan teb'îd edilen aileler ile Cebel-i Bereket livasından teb'îd edilen Hasan Fehmi ve Hasan Farîs vesâlr rüfekâlarmm afvlarını istihsâl ile memleketlerine avdetlerini ve Adana, Ceyhan ve Erzin ahâlîsinden birkaç zâtın mahbesden tahlîslerini te'mîn etdim. Ancak bu gibi teşebbüsât-ı müsmirem icra olunan mezâlime nisbeten lâ-şey kabilinden idi. Nihayet iki mâh mukaddem Gâvurdağı'nda sekiz on kişiden mürekkeb bir Müslüman eşkıya çetesi zuhur etdi. Câlib-i nazar-ı dikkatdir ki, çetenin bidâyet-i zuhurundan nihayetine kadar Cebel-i Bereket livası "guvertörü" Mösyö Andre bu çete ile dâ'imâ temasda bulunup çetenin meslek-i şekâvetkârânesini teşvik etdiği mütevâtiren söylenmekde idi. Nihayet çete altı yedi yüz nefere baliğ oldu. Ve siyâsî bir mâhiyeti hâiz bulunmadığına binâ'en dâ'imâ Türk karyelerini nehb ü gâret ediyordu. Çetenin esnâ-yı fa'âliyyetinde Fransızlar ehemmiyet ve neticeden ârî bir sûretde ta'kîbât yapıyorlardı. Yüz elli neferden mürekkep çetenin bir kısmı Adana'ya dört sâ'at mesafede bulunan Şeyh Murad karyesine tesadüf eder. Karye Ermeni ile meskûn bulunduğundan eşkıya Ermenilerin mukavemetine ma'rûz kalmağla bi'1-müsâdeme ikisi kadın olmak üzre dokuz Ermeni maktul düşer. Karye-i mezkûreden bir Ermeni kadını şehre azimetle şehir dâhilinde bağırup mukaddesât-ı İslâmiyyeyi sebbederek Ermeni kulübüne gider. Bu suretle Ermeniler heyecana gelir. Çarşuda Müslümanlara hücum ederler. Dört Müslümanı kati ve beş Müslümanı cerh ederler. Kuwe-i zabıta ve İngiliz askerinin müdahalesiyle Ermenilerin gayesi bulunan Müslümanları katli'âm keyfiyeti akîm kaldı. O günden i'tibâren Fransızlar idâre-i müdhişelerine yeni bir germi verdiler. Ermenilerin mu'tâd olan ahbâr-ı kâzibeleri üzerine eşkıya ile münâsebetdârdır diyerek bir çok Müslümanları tevkif etdiler. Ve Ermenileri teslîh ile zahiren eşkıya ta'kîbine ve hakîkaten Müslüman karyelerinin tahribine gönderdiler. Derhâl dâ'îleriyle ulemâ ve eşrâfdan bir hey'et Baş Administrator Bremon ile mülakat talebinde bulunduk. Makâm-ı vilâyetde hey'etimizi kabul ile Ermeni çetesinin eşkıya ta'kîbine gönderilmesi adalete muvafık bir netice vermeyeceğinden bahsederek çetenin geriye çağırılması ricasında bulunduk. Çete Fransız zabitinin taht-ı kumandasında bulunduğu ve hiçbir vukû'âta meydân verilmeyeceğini beyân ile teklifimizi reddetti. Ertesi günü Ermeni çetesi İnepli (?) Kayırlı ve Arabköy karyelerini basmış, ahâlînin mallarını yağma ve bir çok kimseleri şiddetli bir sûretde darb ile tarlalarda tesadüf etdikleri çiftçileri katlettiklerini ve İnepli (?) karyesi eşrafından Mustafa oğlu Ali Ağa nâmında namuslu bir zâtı eşkıyadandır diyerek elleri kelepçeli olduğu halde Ermeniler tarafından şehre getirilirken liva Mutasarrıfı Norman şehrin kenarında bunlara tesadüf eder. Bu adam kimdir (?) diye getiren Ermenilere sû'âl etmesiyle eşkıyadandır cevâbını alınca derhâl kurşuna dizilmesini emreyler ve akabinde mûmâ-ileyhin kurşuna dizildiğini haber aldık. Binâ'en-aleyh derhâl keyfiyeti tahriren İngiliz başkumandanına protesto etmekle tahriren dahi baş administratöre istikada bulundum. Bunun cevâbında Norman'm mührüyle memhûr tehdîd-âmiz bir mektûb aldım: "Eşkıyayı kurşunla katleden bi'z-zât benim ve bütün kabahatli olanları böyle yapacağım" cümleleri muharrer idi. Bu mektûbdan haber alan İngiliz istihbarat şu'besi mektubu aldılar ve Ceneral Allenby'e gönderdiklerini söylediler. Ve bu vak'adan bir gün sonra şehirde mukîm ve Arabköy karyesinde çiftlik sahibi bulunan Duran Ali nâmında bir zât Şeyh Murad karyesi hâdisesi günü eşkıya miyânında bulunduğuna dâ'ir bir Ermeni karısının ihbâr-ı kâzibine binâ'en tevkif edildi ve o gün kurşuna dizilmesi mukarrer olduğu haber alındı. Dâ'îleri baş administratöre bir tezkire ile mûmâ-ileyh Duran Ali ashâb-ı nâmusdan olup eşkıya ile münâsebeti olmayacağından başka Şeyh Murad karyesinin hâdisesi günü olan perşembe günü sabahdan akşama kadar Adana'da bulunup hârice gitmediği ve bir hayli Müslümanm şehâdetinden mâ'adâ Ermenilerden falan falan eşhasın şehâdetiyle de sabit olacağına binâ'en serbest bırakılması ricasında bulundum. O gün akşam namazından sonra polis müfettişi olan bir Fransız zabiti fakirhanemin kapusuna otomobil ile geldi. Hükümete Norman'm makamına gitmek üzre otomobile rükûbumu teklif etdi. Bu da ihtiram şeklinde dâ'îlerini tehdîd içün idi. Norman'm makamına vardığımda tezkirede isimlerini yazdığım şâhidleri huzurumda istimâ' arzusunda bulunduğunu beyân etdi. Şehâdetleri Duran Ali lehinde tezahür etmekle şühûdun tevkiflerini emr verdi. Ermeni bulunan şâhidler Duran Ali ile temâsda bulundukları gün perşembe günü olmayup çarşamba günü olduğu şimdi hatırımıza geldi demek suretiyle ifâdelerini değişdirdiklerinden serbest kaldılar. Müslümanlar ise ifâdelerinde sebat etmekle el-ân da mahbesde bulunmakdadırlar. Ertesi günü Duran Ali kurşuna dizilmek suretiyle kâfile-i şühedâya iltihak etdi. O gün eşrâfdan İzzet Efendi nâmında bir zât çiftliğinde bulunduğu bir sırada eşkıya ablukada iken onlara firar