THE INCIDENTS, WHICH WERE COUSED BY FRANCE ON ARMENIAN COMMINITY BY Ahmet UÇAR A history researcher and author (Translated into English from Turkish by Celal Cenap ÖNEY, a high license student in the Department of History at Balikesir University) “Since the beginning of the First World War for nearly thirty thousands of Armenians died for France and nevertheless, for in the return French Government, when it found itself in troubles and difficulties, decided to leave us in lurch. We could realize that at the end of the affair, France Government had utilized from our Armenian people and in the end throw us aside for the purpose of his own interests.” The Armenian Patriarch of Sis (Kozan) With a special ceremony, which was carried out in the courtyard of an Armenian church in the city of Marsilya of France in February 1937, it was announced that a statue was constructed on the behalf of the 1,500,000 murdered Armenians, who were intentionally killed in the massacres which were organized and carried out by the Ottoman administrations in the time of 1915. And the next day France Government summoned Turkish Ambassador in Paris and they had a dialogue in which Armenian Genocide sentence was passed. In the congress of Economy and Social Council of United Nations in 1974, the attempts of French editor to put the So-called Armenian Genocide issue in the first place of the agenda of the congress was prevented by counter attempts of Turkish delegates punctually. In October 1975 two Turkish Ambassadors, one in Warsaw and the other in Paris were murdered, between these sad incidents there was merely day, the real purpose of these events was that making the countries of the world be aware of the Armenian Genocide, taken place in 1915 by Turks. The French author Yves Ternon, whose book was translated into Turkish language as the name of “Ermeni Tabusu” had asserted that, by depending on merely the Armenian sources, after the massacres of Zeitoun (which had a population that consisted of nearly three thousand people) 30,000 Armenians were evacuated to the town of Sultaniye, which was officially affiliated to Konya province of Ottoman Empire, and the other 30,000 Armenians to the Karapınar town, which can be described as a desert and the part of the same province that being talked above as well. It was very interesting that in this scientific assay of France author, who was also too incapable to realize that this town had two names as Sultaniye and Karapınar that means the town that in the question was the same town, he asserted his thoughts about Armenian attacks to the Turkish diplomats in abroad, according to the his stance these events should be regarded as the efforts for keeping the Armenian Genocide alive among the communities. On the other hand a question should be asked like that: What do the sources of French Government, who feels themselves in the need of bringing the Armenians Genocide claims on agenda of the United Nations to be accepted, say about this issue? According to the national archive sources of France, Cenevre ambassador, in his letter that date as 13 January in 1897 to the Foreign Affairs Ministry of France, he had just informed us the terrorist organization of HINCHAK was constructed in 1987 by two Armenian anarchist who had lived for a long time in Paris as students. In a secret agreements that called Sykes-Picot, which was including in its term sharing of the national territory of Ottoman empire, between England and France in 1916, it was talked about that the corporation with Armenian for the security of Mousul oil beds was inevitable. In 7 September 1913, Istanbul ambassador of France Government had said that one of the member, whose name was Mgr. Dhjevahirdjia, of the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul had came to ambassadory for visiting him after having same kind of talking he had defined that for reaching a conclusion to solve the Armenian question it is very necessary for European countries such as France and England to interfere to internal affairs of Ottoman Empire. In the return to this dialogue l described the situation to Paris as follows: “The biggest hope for Armenian for giving this condition to an end is the interference of the European countries. It is a must to establish a free independent state in the six province of the east part of Ottoman Empire territory. A country, which administer and observe this region, should be a European country on which the other European countries can rely. Merely this kind of country can exert influence on Ottoman Government for appointing clerks and judges to this region very independently and what is more, this new administration should be under the dominance of European countries.” This letter obviously brings to light that the Armenian minority of Ottoman Empire was preparing themselves to attempt to betray its possessor with the help of European countries. In addition to this process going on the first World War had begun and the France Government had already planned what to do for paving the way to provide the security of Armenians in Ottoman and furthermore assuring this preplanned operation, France had realized that it should instigate its troops to penetrate to Ottoman territories for making this plan come true. In the first, France had decided that the Arabian population of Yemen and Aden, finally the Armenians shall be incited to revolt against Ottoman in different areas. In 1915, the French officer Sarrou in Turkey had written a report to Paris, in his report what written was as follows: “If a real promise for establishing a free independent Armenian state is given to the Ottoman Armenians by the Entent Powers, the Armenians will be able to struggle with their whole power against Ottoman.” LET’S GET THEM ARMED In the letter, was sent to Paris on 23rd February in 1915 by the French diplomats in Turkey, it was spoken about that the Armenians, who lived in Zeitoun, had taken action for establishing an Armenian state from the national borders of Caucasia to exceedingly east part of the Mediterranean Sea and going further including the Cilicia. According to the another secret letter, was written by French ambassador Paleolog and sent to Paris on 25th February in 1915, he was enlightening his government about Armenian instigation and judging by his explanation Istanbul Armenians had been considering to have conclusion about benefiting from their fiscal conditions and other contributions for the purpose of providing a new Ottoman government replacement with the former one, in that way the Armenians would be able to catch the chance for performing their own free state. Before the evacuation of the Armenians that taken place in 1915 by Ottoman Government, France, would like to make their dreams come true on Cilicia, was very willing to support and follow the Armenians stances. After the evacuation, France had already arranged its plans for misusing the Armenians, who were forced to immigrate to Syria. The French ambassador of Cairo, Defrance, had written a confidential report on 22nd September in 1915 and sent it to Paris, in his report he had constituted a thesis by reaching a conclusion in which there was an offer to the French government “Armenians are coming from the mountainous regions of east part of Anatolia, if these Armenians can be got armed and administered or instructed by competend officers of French Army, it would be very simple for us to instigate the other Armenians, living different parts of Anatolia, by inciting them.” In his second report that was sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France on 10th February in 1916, he added this statement “Arakel the son of Bogos Nubaryan, who was the chairman of the Armenian Association of France, had visited me and requested that for initiating and accelerating the French occupation in Ottoman territories, the Armenians in Anatolia should be get armed and directed by French army. Evaluating this kind of propose we could justified the circumstances of the situation and decided to provide them guns and on the other hand we were informed that English government was very interested in this opportunity so we acted at the first.” An Armenian family, which was banished to Syria ARMENIANS WERE PROVOKED AND ABANDONED BY FRANCE According to the confidential report, that was sent to War Ministry of France and written by French military attaché in London, Armenians formed a voluntary regiment, which murdered many Turks and devastated many mosques in the period of Russian occupation in east Anatolia. Following this incidents, on 15th November of 1916 the War Ministry of France decided to constitute a regiment in which there would be Armenian Legions, and named it as Legion d’Orient. After the Mondos Armistice, this Armenian legion in the French army had taken an important role for accelerating and expanding the French occupation and invasion in Turkey. Many Turks and also their possessions were confiscated or plighted by the Armenians thanks to the protective wings of French Army. For the aims about which the French ambassador Defrance talked as well, France had accommodated for nearly 120,000 Armenians in different provinces of South Anatolia Region. These immigrated Armenians and the French army during the occupation period become the responsible components of suffering events in which many Turks were killed and insulted. During the occupying Adana, Urfa, Antep and Marash a mass destruction was experienced by France and the Armenians on the local populace of these provinces. However, it was very interesting, once France utilizing from Armenians for its own purposes but after signing the Ankara Armistice with Government of Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and admitting its defeat, it abandoned the Turkish Territories and so also putting the Armenians in fire and caused them to have a great disappointment and sorrow. Somehow, France would be in action again for using the Armenians. In 1965, French author Gabriel Matzneff, the chairman of the French Foundation for Istanbul’s Salvation, had written like that “Ayasofia, as a reddened iron with fire, continuously branding our hearts….Having taking back Jerusalem by Jews is the herald of taking back Armenia from Turks by Armenians. The things, which were regarded as a dream in the last century, will be the genuine of the tomorrows. The history is a book of which many papers were still unwritten is having a continuation for surprising us.” We are not surprising at these kinds of statements because France did the same things in the past and will do the same things in the future by using the Armenian lobbies in her capital city Paris and also in the other cities. THE FRENCH ADMINISTRATERS OF ARMENIA The French Government, from the beginning of 1919 till the end of this year, it used the “Armenia” as a name for Çukurova (Adana) instead of using “Cilicia”. M. Goerges Picot, who was assumed responsible for the regions of Syria and Cilicia by the Prime Minister Clemenceau and General Hamelin, had been known the French administers of Armenia. The colonel Bremond, after the French occupation of Adana, he began to use his name as “The Official Server of Armenia” on his seal but however Turkish Gendarme powers in the region disliked this kind of acting of French officials and consequently they achieved to get this French to take off his name as server of Armenia from the seal. But on the other hand this man in every opportunity had experienced his talents for advocating the Armenians. IF TURKISH FLAG IS SEEN … As soon as Bremond came to Adana, he had told the Armenians in the occupation region that he had brought greetings from Nubar *****, for this reason he could spoil the Armenians, with his arrival in Adana, for nearly 120,000 Armenians were settled in the area and going further, while the Turks were disarmed, the Armenians were armed as well. French soldiers delivered French flags to Armenians, Greeks. And so they started to adorn everywhere with them but when a Turkish flag was seen they did whatever they could do to lower it, for instance Adana Male High school had Turkish flag on its roof, when Armenians saw it, they started to complaint to the French authority about this unkind scenery, ultimately the French authority exert a high influence on the chairman of the school to take down the Turkish flag with the pretext of igniting a rebel between Turks and Armenians, so in the end Turkish flag issue was dealt with sacking off the chairman of the school by French Authority. When the Armenian Revenge Regiment, which had a bad fame among the Turks, came to occupied region, they didn’t want to lose a second to plight Turkish properties and murdering them. According to the rumors, this Armenian regiment came to the region for having the revenge of the Armenians, who were subjected to the evacuation in 1915. They threatened the Turks to emigrate from the region, while these events going on, in 1919 the War Committee was convened, among the enacted articles there was a an article that giving a clarification to reducing the number of the Armenian legions in the French Army, but that was not too enough to pulling down the number of events occurred on Turks by Armenians. With the French courage the Armenians could dream of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, for instilling this dream to ever one of Armenian, some kind of civil foundations were in the effect to evaluate the young Armenians. The French officer Taillardat, who was appointed to KOZAN as a head official of the district, was taken to the government building through a ceremony that was adorned with Armenian and French flags and also with the applauses of the Armenians. This man had an Armenian guardian, who had taken part in the incidents in which the Turks were slaughtered plighted and insulted. In addition to that the Armenian Volunteer Bouncers, the members, who were instructed and sent to Kozan by Antranik, of this organization was so mistreating to the Turks, lived in the same area, that the Armenian Revenge Regiments seemed to be a small organization near it. On 19th May 1919, the commanders in the region were superseded with the new ones by the Entent Powers. For the place of Colonel Romieu, who was the person in charge of Armenian legion regiments, Colonel Flye St. Marie was assigned. But however this assignment didn’t suffice to reduce the number of events that occurred on Turks by Armenians. Clemenceau did also mention that the France was eager to structure a mandate on Syria and Cilicia to England. But on the other hand, at the beginning England didn’t look at this statement warmly but after Syrian Agreement, England complied with leaving Marash, Urfa, Adana and Antep to France, because England was very interested in Mousoul’s oil beds. This situation delighted the Armenians, who was dreaming and Armenian state. Actually, the Turks disliked this kind of modification between Entente Powers but they consequently felt themselves to be in the obligation for enforcing a self-defense policy in the end they founded an organization under the name of “Cilicia Defense and Law Association”. Besides that the Turks, who escaped from the Armenian attacks to mountains had returned for joining with these national powers. CILICIA ARMENIAN REPUBLIC In the period of completing the occupation of the region by France, one of the member, who was a priest, of Armenian Ferekaran Society, whose center was in Paris, came to the occupied region, while he was wandering among the Armenians, he was also giving some directives to Armenians about getting armed for their salvation from the Turks. In this term French soldiers became fed up with meeting the expenditure of Armenian soldiers in the French army so they didn’t want to maintain them any more and finally they assumed the civil Armenians as responsible for upholding their soldiers by themselves. According to the sayings of mufti of Kozan, Osman Effendi, in April of 1920, over thirty incidents had occurred; the Armenians had taken the great portion in these occurrences because of having the French support. The Turks for defending themselves from the violence of Armenians, had established some national organizations, especially in Kozan and Haçin, they could defeat the Armenians, who had been warring under the French Authority against Turks. After a short-continued peace, the French supported Armenian violence on Turks had increased to a high level. The French authority in the region forced the Turks to emigrate from their own areas by accommodating the Algerian soldiers in the French army on the south part of Adana province. What is more, an increased Armenian pressure was also another reason For the Turks, in the end they had had to go to the other provinces or settled down in the vicinities of these provinces. For a short time, Pozantı, which was one of the main districts of Adana province, became the centre of province and against this situation on 5th August in 1920, the Armenian Committee with the Greeks had invaded the Government building of Adana and in the end they proclaimed the foundation of The Christian Republic of Cilicia. The president of this new-established government, whose most of the ministries were given to the Armenian delegates, was Dr. Mihran Damadyan, who was very well known by the Ottomans because of his existence in many assassination and rebellion attempts by the Armenians against the Sultan Abdülhamit II and particularly to Ottoman Empire. This man was also one of the most famous leaders of Hınçak Organization. FRANCE BENEFITED FROM US While the process of founding an independent Armenian Republic was going on, the French Authorities, who were on the agreement table with Ankara Government to sign an armistice for giving an end to the French occupation in south part of Anatolia and withdrawing of the French soldiers from the occupied areas of national territories of new Turkey, were informed about the prolonged conditions in Adana, for not wanting to have a stoppage in Ankara Armistice’s process with the Turks, they had became a big obstacle for paving the way of founding a free state for Cilicia Armenians, and in the same day they obstructed the situation and arresting the persecutors in Adana, so this new republic spanned for nearly a few hours. In 1921, Ankara Armistice was signed between Ankara Government and France, this movement of France Government discomposed the Armenians, who were in the cooperation with France during the occupation of south provinces of Anatolia. The Armenian Patriarch of Sis (Kozan), after the armistice had been signed, he sent a letter to National Armenian Delegation in Paris in 1921. In his letter, he had tried the coming conditions particularly in the postwar period. He said that they had held many conferences in many Armenian residents in the region; in these conferences they had tried to explain the present situation. They had told the listeners that the Armenians once had taken part in French occupation and acted with French directives for their own benefits, but now however France couldn’t be successful in surpassing the Turk’s resistance, so ultimately they had felt themselves as defeated and decided to give up this occupation and turn back, on the other hand every Armenian knew that the Turks would call the Armenians in account for their revenge, so we had talked about this issue with French authorities for not constituting an opportunity to Turks so we had taken precautions. France guarantied the security of the Armenians by saying they would argue this issue with the Turks in the armistice table. According to the patriarch, since the beginning of the war 30 thousands Armenians died for France but in the return France had decided to desert them. For this reason, Armenians had started to leave the cities especially before the French soldiers’ retreat was not completed yet. Whereas, there were many innocent Armenians in the region, who had not joined to the incidents but while the other Armenians leaving the cities and their residences they also forced these innocent Armenians to escape with them. In addition to that immigration movement there were many Turks especially journalists ones, had also felt themselves in the obligation to leave this country even, they were sorry, because they were on the side of the Armenians and France. Almost the whole Armenian population (over 49,000) left the cities before the national powers came into city. TECE MASSACRE The chairmen of the Armenian Associations in Mersin gathered a conference, the frictions between the Associations such as Hınçak, Taçhnak and the others, were debated for reaching a decision to put aside the separations between them. Actually, in this gathering some kind of confidential stances were accepted for arranging some kind of traitorous plans to reduce the population of the Turks in the region. The United Armenian Committee had constructed an Armenian gang under the commander of Arşak Çavuş and with the guidance knowledge of Karabet, who was very good expert guide in this region. The expenditures of this gang was being provided by French powers in the region, this gang had carried out the Tece and Yeniköy massacres. The French authorities, with the assistances of Armenians, were trying to enforce the every kind of incitements on the Turks. Not only the French flags were planted in everywhere of the province but also the stars, which were on the Turkish flags, embedded on the Turkish Post Services carts were taken away by the Armenians. Furthermore, the massacre, taken place in Aslanköy was prompted by Armenian with the help of the Rums as well. Like in the other occupied provinces of the Ottoman Empire, in this region the local populaces were disarmed, and the ammunitions that were collected from Turks, were delivered to Armenians. FRANCE COULDN’T FOOL THE KURDS, THE JEWS AND THE ARABS In Mersin, there were many associations, and some kind of organizations such as United Armenian Committee, Rum Committee, Arab Committee, Islamic Arabs Charity Organization, most of these were supported by France. The most important one of these Organizations and The Committees was United Armenian Committee, it had grasped the police forces in the province but in addition to that it had also a few men in the important places of the Gendarme powers of the Ottoman Empire in the region. The United Armenian Committee, which was carrying the eagerness of founding the independent Armenian state, providing the guns, military material, money and houses to the Armenians, who had immigrated to Mersin from the other cities, by going on, this committee was doing the all these things under the observation of French Authorities. They had spent a great deal of effort to keep the Armenian evacuation on the agenda of Entent powers so that they could confiscate the Turks’ property and allocate these possessions and properties to the Armenians. They had organized so many gangs to form massacres on Turks in the zone, on the aim of decreasing the Turkish population in the region and forcing them to immigrate to the other part of the Anatolia, so that they would prove that the percent of the Armenian Population was higher than the percent of the Turkish population in the region and in the accordance with the Wilson Principalities, the Armenians had a right to establish their own independent state. France had also tried to incite the other people, whose origins were not the Turk but Kurd, Arab and Jew, against to Turks and Turkish powers, was approaching to the French-occupied regions, to fragment this military action of Turkish army by rebelling against it. Especially, France had wanted to use the Kurd Assistance Committee for this purpose but however the Committee couldn’t be fooled and on the contrary to this failure of France, the Kurds became the an important element in the Turkish, Independent War. And finally the French soldiers had to end the occupation of Mersin on 3-4 January of 1922. GAZİANTEP INCIDENTS Like the other occupied provinces of Southeast Anatolia provinces, Antep was occupied by England on 1st January, 1919, as well. However, what the differentiation from the other occupied provinces particularly by France, was that in here the British army was acting with Armenians, and they bring the Armenians, who were evacuated before, with them to Antep. The commander of the England Troops, General Mc Donald, had chosen his guides and translators from the Armenians and mostly calling up to the government building of Antep for checking the evacuated Armenians’ properties. By using this opportunity, the Armenians had started to claim that the passions and the properties, whose owners were the Turks, belonged to the Armenians and they started to confiscate the all of them. Most of the Armenians had done many kind of insults to incite the Turks, after the England occupation in the city of Antep, the French soldiers came to the city because England and France had signed an agreement between themselves that called Syria Agreement, in this time the Entent Powers had wanted to establish a republic for the Armenians in the Cilicia region, which would include the provinces of Urfa, Antep, Marash, Adana. On the other hand the Armenian population had became rare in the East part of Turkey because of the evacuation, most of the Armenians had immigrated to south such as Syria, Iraq, Jordan during the evacuation, but at the first while the British army had approached to the south part of Turkey, the Armenians had wanted to accompany to English soldiers to came to Cilicia and consequently the population of the Armenians had increased I Cilicia so the other big powers in the framework of this opportunity, they wanted to help Armenians but they betrayed the their best friends, the friends near whom they had shared this life for nearly 600 years in peace. We have many things to say, they know what they did, they relied on the wrong side at the beginning, they couldn’t realize who were the Turks but they could realize who the Turks were at the end of the occupation in the south and southeast parts of Turkey, they know that the Turks particularly the ones, who lived in these places, had gained their own salvation without Turkish Regular Forces, they could give an end to the occupations and the violence, maltreatments and the massacres, which were prompted to occur on Turks by the Armenians. Even many English and French journalists and newspapers (La Matin, L’Humanite) had debated the Occupation of Entente powers in these regions and in the sum they found it a mistake. In the L’Action Française newspaper there was a criticism: “What was the business of French Army in the navel of Anatolia? For driving the attention of our people, it is very necessary to show Urfa and Marash defeats to say that our soldiers in there in which we are not interested any more. We don’t have any soldiers to sacrifice, if the policy is not our side and actually the benefits of France is requiring going well with new Turkey but not to fight.” That is the final word, which clarifying the attitude of France towards the Armenians. Even there are many information and historic materials in the Armenian achieves especially about before the occupation and after the defeat of France and England. So this situation should be heeded by Armenians for not giving a chance again to repeat the history. The Sources 1) Yahya Akyüz, Türk Kurtuluş Savaşı ve Fransız Kamuoyu 1918-1922) (Turkish Independent War and French Public Opinion 1919-1922), Ankara 1988, TTK Yayınları 2) Yaşar Akbıyık, (Milli mücadelede güney cephesi, Maraş) (The south front, Maraş, in national struggle), Ankara, 1990, Ankara Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları 3) Kemal Çelik, (Milli Mücadelede Adana Ve Havalisi) (Adana and its vicinities in national struggle) (1918-1922) Ankara, TTK yayınları 4) İsmail Özçelik, (Milli mücadelede güney cephesi, Urfa) ( The south front, Urfa, in our national struggle) Ankara 1992, Kültür Bakanlığı 5) Ayhan Öztürk, (Milli mücadelede Gaziantep, Kayseri) (Gaziantep and Kayseri in national struggle) 1994 Geçit yayınları 6) Salahi R Sonyel, (Türk kurtuluş savaşı ve dış politika) (Turkish independent war and foreign affairs) Ankara 1995 TTK yayınları 7) Yves Teman, (Ermeni Tabusu) (Armenian Taboo), Istanbul 1993 Belge yayınları 8) Bilge Yavuz, (Kurtuluş savaşı dönemlerinde Türk Fransız ilişkileri Fransız arşiv belegeleri açısından) (According to the French Archives, the relationship between Turkey and France 1919-1922) Ankara 1994) TTk yayınları 9) Ünal Yavuz, (Fransız dışişleri bakanlığı belgelerinde Ermeni kırımları sorunu) ( According to the documents of French foreign affairs ministry, Armenian Genocide) BY Ahmet UÇAR A history researcher and author (Translated into English from Turkish by Celal Cenap ÖNEY, a high license student in the Department of History at Balikesir University)
