A Memoir from the National Struggle: The Diary of Corporal Osman Muzaffer (Koçaşoğlu)

In this study, lines reflecting the years of the National Struggle will be quoted from Osman Muzaffer Kocaşoğlu's memoirs Kocaşoğlu was born in 1889 (Hijri 1305) in Kerimler Village, Mersin. His family belonged to the Yörük-Turkmen Koçaş tribe who migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia. He graduated from Adana Teacher Training School in 1910. He worked as a head teacher in Kadirli District of Adana for the first time. On February 7, 1914, he was transferred to Istanbul Reserve Officer Training Corps. He was assigned to the 49th Regiment, 139th Division, 2nd Battalion, 5th Company Command and sent to the Caucasus Front. He was promoted to second lieutenant on January 1, 1915, and to lieutenant on July 28, 1916. During this period, Osman Muzaffer Bey had special duties such as bandit pursuit and gang punishment. Following the end of the First World War, he was demobilized and returned to his hometown Mersin. Osman Muzaffer Bey wrote about the battles and other events on the Mersin Front of Çukurova in his memoirs in great detail. In his memoirs, he included information about the developments that took place on the Çukurova Mersin Front against the French and Armenians, from the formation of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye (National Forces) until the end of the battles in which he participated. In this respect, the memoir is very important. This diary, written or dictated by First Lieutenant Osman Muzaffer Koçaşoğlu, the commander of the Mersin District Alsancak Detachment, contains detailed information about the activities of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye. This diary was written a few years after the years of struggle. Although it is not an organized memoir, it would be meaningful to know the details of this notebook, which conveys the events in the first person, in terms of the overall history of the National Struggle.

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