Siege of Marash - Turkish Nationalist Movements

Turkish Nationalist Movements

The Anglo-French rivalry had led to the coalescence and strengthening of the Turkish National Movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Kemal had denounced the Allied occupation of Cilicia in November 1919 and the forces loyal to him were tenaciously preparing to launch a major insurrection against the thinly spread French units garrisoned in Marash, Aintab and Urfa. Experienced officers, including the Kurdish captain Kılıç Ali Bey, were sent by Mustafa Kemal to organize the tribal units and chete (irregular fighters) bands in the region. The Turkish forces in Marash numbered 2,500. Some of them were armed with old hunting rifles and others with melee weapons. Before the battle, they obtained 850 rifles, 2 machine guns, 2 cannons (not used during the fighting), from the gendarmerie building in Marash. Those without firarms would arm themselves with rifles acquired from killed French soldiers. By January 1920, French supply convoys and communication lines were coming under regular attacks by the partisans and those Armenians who had been repatriated were being harassed and pressured to leave their homes once more. The French attempted to mollify the minority Muslim elements (Circassians, Alevis, Kurds) in Marash by creating gendarmerie units but this only emboldened the Turkish Nationalists to hoist the Turkish flag over Marash's abandoned citadel and to intimidate those Muslims who cooperated with the French. The French troops in Marash included many Algerians, and also Armenians who had been recently enlisted, and it was possible that the latter had annoyed the local population, by their arrogant attitude as they strolled on the streets in their French uniforms.

Seeing all this, Captain Pierre-Jean Daniel André, the head of the Marash detachment, requested additional reinforcements but, due to the indecisiveness of his superior, Lt. Colonel Jean Flye-Sainte-Marie, he was ordered to go to Adana to apprise the division commander, Brigadier General Julien Dufieux, of the situation. Dufieux agreed to send extra men under the command of General Quérette to Marash but by January 17, when the reinforcements arrived, the French had already lost the initiative: supply convoys in Bel Punar and El-Oghlu had come under attack and a relief column led by battalion commander Major Corneloup had been ambushed. On January 21, General Quérette summoned the Muslim notables of Marash to his headquarters located at a barracks in the north of the city and presented them with evidence pointing to their complicity in the attacks and demanded that they put an end to the hostilities. As the leaders departed, Turkish police chief Arslan Bey drew out his pistol and fired five rounds into the air, signaling the beginning of the uprising.