Occupation and Liberation of Adana

After examining the provisions of the Armistice of Mudros, Mustafa Kemal Pasha predicted that the occupation would expand and advised the people of Adana to organize in order to resist the occupation forces, dig trenches in appropriate places and obtain the necessary weapons and ammunition. Adana was occupied first by the British and then by the French. The British gathered the Armenians, regardless of their hometown, in Adana. This caused tens of thousands of Armenian refugees to come to Adana. Since the Armenians wanted to establish an independent state here, they started attacking the Turks to leave the city. The French initially released the Armenians, whom they saw as the most important element of the occupation. However, later on, they realized that they faced many problems because of the excesses of the Armenians. Turks of Adana formed resistance organizations against the occupation and gathered around the Kuvâ-yı Milliye. The regular army first began to be organized in this region. This paved the way for the struggle on many fronts to be carried out in the chain of command. Conflicts took place in Adana city center and in mountainous areas such as Pozantı, Feke, Hacin and Kozan and near the coast. Finding the support of the French insufficient, the Armenians declared that they established a state in Haçin and Amanos, but they could not find support for this. Mustafa Kemal Pasha came to Pozantı and took decisions regarding the administrative organization of the region and implemented them. When the French realized that they could not break the resistance of the Turks, they signed the Ankara Agreement and left the region. The aim of this study is to reveal the details of the national struggle in Adana and the efforts to establish a regular army for the first time in the Southern Anatolian region. In the study, it will be discussed that the national struggle is not a regional but a total movement. In the study; Presidency Archive, Ankara University Turkish Revolution History Institute Archive and Military Archive documents taken during the period when it was affiliated to the General Staff were used as the main source. In addition, works in the genre of memoirs and other studies on the subject were also referred.

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