Franco-Turkish War

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Franco-Turkish War
Part of Turkish War of Independence
Date May 1920 - October 1921 Location Cilicia and upper Mesopotamia Result Cilicia Peace Treaty, Treaty of Ankara, Treaty of Lausanne Casus belli Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire
Combatants
French	Turkish Revolutionaries

Franco-Turkish war, more often called Cilicia war (French: La guerre en Cilicie, Turkish: Güney Cephesi - the southern front), was a series of military conflicts in the aftermath of the World War I that opposed Turkish National Forces directed by Turkish Grand National Assembly governments in Ankara as of April 1920, and the French army, as well as the French Colonial Forces and the French Armenian Legion under its command.

[edit] Background

Main article: Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire

The initial French interest towards Çukurova region, although manifest since Napoleon's 1798-1800 Egypt-Syria campaign, had become more focused and concertized since the acquisition in 1909 by French capitalists, as against part of Ottoman debts, of Sultan Abdülhamid II's vast (1100 km², the size of Martinique) Mercimek Farm (Mercimek Çiftliği), privately-owned although managed as a state farm in development since the 1880's and roughly corresponding to a stripe starting at the ports of Yumurtalık and Karataş till the vicinity of Kozan and İmamoğlu^[1].

[edit] French agreements on Anatolia

Main article: Sykes-Picot Agreement

French army had moved into the region, based on the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, after the Armistice of Mudros. Sykes-Picot Agreement foresaw that, apart from Syria, the French would lay their hands on southern Anatolia, where the fertile plain of Çukurova (Cilicia), the ports of Mersin and İskenderun (Alexandretta) and the copper mines in Ergani, to the north of upper Mesopotamia, constituted the strategic pinpoints. On the other hand, the oil fields of the Ottoman vilayet of Musul were an absolute priority for the British. According to the arrangement agreed, the British would keep the cities of Antep, Maraş and Urfa till they saw the French heading to settle exclusively in the southern Anatolian regions allocated to them in the agreement.

[edit] French-Armenian Agreement

Main article: French-Armenian Agreement (1916)

French Armenian Legion fighting under French flag

French-Armenian agreement regarding the support of Armenian nationalist (Armenian national liberation movement) on the side of allies during the World War One was signed October 27, 1916. Foreign Minister Aristide Briand used this opportunity to provide troops for French commitments^[2]. The Armenian support which will be named as French Armenian Legion was planned under command of General Edmund Allenby, however extend to original agreement, Armenians fought in Palestine, Syria. Finally, after the armistice of Mudros in Cilicia, also. The aim in constituting the Legion was to allow an Armenian contribution to the dismemberment of southern Anatolia region from Ottoman Empire.

[edit] Active stage

[edit] Black Sea operations

After the armistice of Mudros, the first thing the French military did was to control the strategically important Ottoman coal mines in which French capital held significant stakes. The goal was both to take control of the energy source and cover the French military needs. It also prevented the distribution of coal in Anatolia, which could be used in activities to support insurgency.

On March 18, 1919, to French gunboats embarked respective troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli commanding Ottomans coal mining region. French units with the resistance they faced during the one year of their stay in the regionbegin to retire their troops from Karadeniz Ereğli on June 08, 1920. They continue for pursue their occupation on Zonguldak, where they concentrate by occupying the city as a whole and officially on June 18.

[edit] Istanbul and Thrace operations

The main operations in this side was aimed to give support for the allied strategic goals. A French brigade enters İstanbul on Nov 12, 1918. On February 08, 1919 French general Franchet d'Esperey, commander-in-chief of allied occupation forces in Ottoman Empire arrives to Istanbul. He will be coordinating the activities of Ottoman Government under occupation.

The city of Bursa, a former Ottoman capital of central importance in northwest Anatolia was held by French forces as well, for a brief period before the great summer offensive of the Greek army in 1920, at which time that city fell to the Greeks.

[edit] Chanak Crisis

See also: Chanak Crisis

In the early stages, 1919, under military cooperation, joint French-Greek troops cross the Meriç River and occupy the town of Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis till the train station of Hadımköy near Çatalca on the outskirts of İstanbul. On September 1922, during Greek pull-out after advance of Turkish revolutionaries, French forces pulled out from their positions on the straits, but the British seemed prepared to hold their ground. In response, the British government issued a request for military support from its colonies. The response of its colonies to British was negative and French leaving British on the straits signaled that the Allies were unwilling to intervene on the side of Greece. Greek troops with French withdrew beyond the Meriç River.

[edit] Mediterranean operations

In the regions they occupied, the French were faced with the resistance of the Turkish majority as of the first hour, especially by reason of having associated themselves with Armenian objectives. The resistance soared with increasing intensity starting January 1920.

[edit] Cilicia Campaign (Cilicia war)

Cilicia (Turkish: Çukurova) governors assigned by France to the French occupation zone in the south were, from Jan 1 1919 to Sep 4 1920, Édouard Brémond and from September 1920 to 23 December 1921, Julien Dufieux. Édouard Brémond wrote his detailed memoires after the war.

[edit] Inital stages

The first landing took place on the 17th of November 1918 at Mersin with ca. 15,000 men, mainly volunteers from the French Armenian Legion, accompanied by 150 French officers. The first targets of that Expeditionary Force was to occupy ports and dismantle the Ottoman administration. The second landing on the 19th of November 1918 in the port of Tarsus had for mission to secure the surroundings and prepare for the establishment of the Head Quarters in Adana.

[edit] Cilicia Peace Treaty

Main article: Cilicia Peace Treaty

[edit] Southern extension

A French officer with five Turkish prisoners from Antep (later Gaziantep). The officer has, on his right, a soldier of the French Colonial Forces, and on his left (wearing epaulettes), an auxiliary from the French Armenian Legion.

After the occupation of Cilicia proper end-1918, French troops occupied the Ottoman provinces of Antep, Maraş and Urfa in southern Anatolia end-1919, taking these cities over from British troops as agreed.

At the eastern tip of the occupation zone in the south, the city of Mardin was also occupied for one day (on 21 November 1919) until the evening when the French thought it better to abandon the occupation attempt.

[edit] End of hostilities

The conflicts officially ended with the Accord of Ankara signed between the representative of the French government and the Turkish Grand National Assembly on October 20, 1921, which was finalized with Armistice of Mudanya.

[edit] Treaty of Ankara

Main article: Treaty of Ankara (1921)

See also: Republic of Hatay and French Mandate of Syria

France held better relations with the Turkish nationals during the Turkish War of Independence, chiefly for breaking Triple Entente solidarity and signing a separate agreement with the Turkish revolutionaries. The Treaty of Ankara or the Franklin-Bouillon Agreement did not resolve the problems in connection with the sanjak of Alexandretta. However positive relations, Turkish-France, at least until the question of Alexandretta was solved, was maintained according to the principle of defending territorial integrity and national independence which these concepts were easy to negotiate (see:French Revolution). French policy that supported Turkish independence movement took a blow during the Conference of Lausanne on the abolition of the capitulations (see: Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire). The French objections during the discussions on abolition, perceived as France was contravening the full Turkish independence and sovereignty. Furthermore, the fact that the sanjak of Alexandretta , which according to Misak-ı Milli should have been included within Turkish national borders, remained under French control also contributed to the tension between the two countries. The positive attitude developed with the Treaty of Ankara stayed mainly on a friendly, if limited, basis.

[edit] Withdrewal and population movements

The French forces withdrew from the occupation zone in the first days of 1922, about ten months before the Armistice of Mudanya. Beginning on the 3rd of January French troops evacuated Mersin and Dörtyol, on the 5th Adana, Ceyhan and Tarsus, the evacuation was completed on the 7th of January with the last troops leaving Osmaniye.

[edit] Result

The French interest which its financial side, Ottoman debts, were cleared by the young Republic of Turkey in line with the Treaty of Lausanne. Tentatives for modifying the ethnic structure of the region, to the advantage of the Armenian minority fed with new settlers, also played a role.

The French had been helping Nalbandian family to acquire a behemoth of an estate around Kozan since the 1860's.

[edit] See also

• Chronology of the Turkish War of Independence
• Franco-Turkish relations

[edit] References