CILICIA: an ancient province in Asia Minor situated on the north-eastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Since the half of 2 millennium BC Cilicia had been under the power of Hittite area, in 6-4 centuries of Achaemenid Empire. Later it became the part of Alexander of Macedon. After the fall of his dominion, Cilicia passed to the Seleucid Empire and then to the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages Cilicia became an apple of discord between Byzantine, Arabs and the Seljuk Empire. In 1080-1375 the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia dominated in the country. At the beginning of the 16 century according to the administrative-territorial division of the Ottoman Empire, Cilicia was invaded by Turks. Cilicia formed the Adana province, from 1880 Marash was included in the Vilayet of Halab. During hundreds of years of foreign dominion Turks, different nomads such as Kurds, Circassians and the gypsies were settled in Cilicia. However, even in 1894-96 and in 1909 after Armenian massacres organized by Turkish government, the majority of the population of Cilicia were Armenians.  In 1912, according to the data of Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, there were 377.000 Armenians in the Adana and the Marash province. During the World War First and the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, the great part of its population was annihilated. According to the secret agreement signed between Great Britain and Turkey, after defeat of Turkey, Cilicia had to pass to France, which was interested in Cilicia from the economic and strategic viewpoint. According to the agreement signed with French government, Armenian legion had to fight against Turkey only in Cilicia and after the victorious end, it could become the base of the army of the future independent republic of Cilicia. In the battle of Arara (1918) the Armenian legion fought heroically and ended the battle for the benefit of the French forces. On November-December, after defeat of Turkey in war and the signing the armistice of Mudros in 1918, the Armenian legion (about 6.000 soldiers) was moved to Cilicia by Turks.

The Armenians, evacuated and hardly saved from Genocide, who (escaped the genocide or survived) began to return to their homeland. According to the data of French Commissariat, in 1919, 12,000 Armenians lived in Cilicia (According to the data of the Armenian national delegation in Paris: 13.000), and in 1920, already 10.000 Armenians lived in Cilicia. As the Armenian military forces were not enough to take military and administrative control in Cilicia, France agreed to deploy English forces there. In February 1919, the military power of Cilicia was controlled by the English command. In November, the English forces were replaced by French forces, but the French government didn’t take any kind of measures to ensure the security of the Armenians. In those areas Turk officials were in power and the Muslims were armed. Taking advantage of the French bureau, Kemalist forces and local Chetniks began the massacre of  the Armenian population. On January 1920, during 20-days battles, 11.000 Marash people died, the other 6.000 had to move to Syria. The Turks besieged Hadjn, where 6.000 people were saved from 30-35000 Armenian population (1914). After six month heroic resistance, on October 1920, the Armenians of Hadjn defeated, only 380 protectors of the city managed to come out from the circuit of the beleaguer and escape. On April 1, 1920, Kemal forces besieged Ayntap. Due to 15 days heroic defense, 15.000 Armenians of Ayntap escaped from massacre, but after the fact, that when the French forces left Cilicia, in the end of 1921, the Armenians of Ayntap decided to move to Syria. In 1920 the Kemalists annihilated the Armenian population of Zeytun. The French government didn’t only fail to do its responsibilities but also gave Cilicia to Turkey according to the treaty of Ankara, on October 20, 1921. The Turkish authorities and the French military forces were responsible for around 25.000 Armenian victims and the emigration of those survived. 


 

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