Sütçü İmam Incident
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Sütçü İmam incident also known as Sütçü imam olayı was the first attack against the occupying powers in Maraş, Turkey in October 31, 1919. It is the beginning of the independence movement in Kahramanmaraş.
[edit] Initial Events
After the Armistice of Mudros, Maraş, Antep and Çukurova were determined to be occupied by French forces. On October 29, 1919, the French forces entered the city. The following day, an Armenian legion consisting of 2000 people entered the city as well.
[edit] Incident
On the night of October 31, 3 women who left a hamam were stopped by a soldier from the Armenian-French legion. The soldier tried to open the veil of the women stating that "This is not the land of Turks anymore, you cannot walk around with veil in the French region". The women started screaming and asked for help. Çakmakcı Sait came for help and being armless, he was shot to death by Armenian-French Legions soldiers. Meanwhile, Sütçü imam (had a living by selling milk (süt)) opened fire on the Armenian-French soldiers and killed one of the soldiers and seriously wounded another.
After the incident, Sütçü İmam was able to run away to one of the surrounding villages. In order to retaliate, French-Armenian Legion soldiers opened fire at civilians nearby and killed Hüseyin, son of Zülfikar Çavuş. The French soldiers also captured Sütçü İmam's cousin, Kadir and tied his hands and feet from behind. After torturing and mutilating him by cutting his nose and ears, they suffocated him on the spot.
