Battle of Maraş

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Maraş
partof=the Franco-Turkish War


caption=
date=Jan 20- Feb 10 1920
place=Kahramanmaraş
result=Turkish victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=
commander2=
strength1= Unknown (Civilian militias)
strength2= 1 division (legion contained 2000 Armenian volunteer units),
4 Armored battalion,
2 Cavalry battalion,
4 personal armored vehicle.
casualties1= 4,000 killed
casualties2=1,000 French and 15,000 Armenians killed;

Battle of Maraş (pronounced "Marash"), a part as well as a cornerstone in several respects of the Turkish War of Independence, is the comprehensive term used for the three-weeks of wholescale conflict, principally on urban ground, between Turkish National Forces and French occupation forces in and around the city of Maraş in southern Turkey. On the basis of general tension rising in the city since the start of the French occupation two months before, the battle proper lasted from 20 January to 10 February 1920, and ended with victory for the Turkish forces and the definite departure of French troops from Maraş.

Turkish forces were organized around Maraş branch of the Association for the Defence of National Rights ("Maraş Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti"), commanded by career officers from the largely disbanded Ottoman Army, in close coordination with the core of the future (established 23 April 1920) Turkish Grand National Assembly and its future president Mustafa Kemal Pasha based in Ankara.

French forces united under a single command three distinct bodies, namely the French Foreign Legion, the French Colonial Forces and, of particular role, the auxiliaries of the French Armenian Legion.

Background

Maraş was initially occupied by British forces from India as of February 23 1919. During the eight month British occupation Maraş remained, by and large, calm, although the British were not well received by the local Armenian minority, which had aspirations of its own. According to the British-French agreement during the World War I (Sykes-Picot Agreement) British forces were replaced by the French Armenian Legion on 29 October 1919.

Local Armenians, gathered around the leadership of the former (1914-1918) deputy of the Ottoman Parliament, the rich Catholic Armenian Agop Hirlakyan, welcomed the French Armenian Legion.Fact|date=June 2007

Active Stage

On 1 November 1919, two days after the French take-over of the city, Sütçü İmam Incident, termed after the defender of three Turkish women who were being harassed and molested in the street by French Armenian Legion auxiliaries, sowed the seeds of tension in the city. Sütçü İmam shot one of the molesters in the skirmish and had to go into hiding. The incident triggered a series of events that led the Turkish majority of Maraş to rise against the occupation forces and culminated in the wholescale urban warfare two months after the incident.

Brief Description

Results

After twenty-two days of urban battle, on 11 February 1920, the French occupation troops found themselves forced to evacuate Maraş faced to the resistance and assaults of the Turkish Revolutionaries, with the local Armenian community following them.

Maraş militia forces pursued the war effort by taking part in the re-capture of other centers of the region, forcing the French forces to retreat gradually and town by town, until the dispatch to Ankara of Franklin Boullion, special representative of the Prime Minister of France, Aristide Briand, and the consequent signing of the Accord of Ankara, putting an end to the Cilicia War.

After the Turkish War of Independence, Maraş became one of the two cities in Turkey to receive a Turkish Medal of Independence ("the other city is İnebolu"), which was given to the city as a whole.

ee also

* Cilicia War
* Chronology of the Turkish War of Independence

External links

* [http://www.kahramanmaras.gov.tr/tr/default.aspx?menu=1&ana=2&alt=1&sayfa=27 Time Table]
* [http://www.k-maras.com/anadosya/kurtulussavasi/kurtulussavasi.htm About battle(turkish)]