The first concern of the British was to maintain social peace in the regions they administered; in particular, they were at pains not to ruffle Kurdish sensibilities. The policy adopted by the French administration of Cilicia under Colonel Brémond was fundamentally different. It aimed to give Christians, especially Armenians, an important role in French operations in the region. The Armenians of Marash were therefore happy to see French troops replace the British in the Eastern Territories in November 1919; they once again filed legal claims to obtain the property that had been stolen from them in the war years, claims of the sort the British had ignored. Hence the new situation created by the arrival of the French alarmed Muslims who had been hoping to keep property extorted from Armenians during the genocide. The possibility that it might be re-stored to its owners and that local notables deeply involved in war crimes against civil populations might be brought to trial encouraged many inhabitants of these cities to rally to Mustafa Kemal’s Turkish National Movement.
It was in these extremely tense social and political conditions that, on 21 January 1920, the Turkish insurrection in Marash began. It was supported from outside the city by the nationalist forces camped in villages near-by. On 11 February, although the French still controlled the situation militarily, the French garrison suddenly abandoned Marash, leaving the way open before the Turkish nationalists. The writer Zabel Yesayan, who had been named inspector for the orphanages of Cilicia by the Armenian National Delegation in Paris, arrived in the region at this juncture, on 20 March 1920. Read all
The Eastern Territories, comprising the regions of Marash, Urfa, and Aintab, remained under British control until November 1919, whereas the rest of Cilicia was administered by the French. In this period, the British saw to it that the civil administration and gendarmerie remained in Constantinople’s hands, and it often proved impossible to recover Armenian young women and children held captive by Muslim families. In Marash, for ex¬ample, around four hundred fifty women and girls were still involuntarily in Muslim hands.58
The Relocation of the Orphans and the Armenian Exodus
The writer Zabel Yesayan, orphanage in-spector in Cilicia (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).