Occupation and Liberation of Hatay

After the Armistice of Mudros, the first occupations in Anatolian lands took place in the Hatay region. Firstly, Iskenderun (Alexandretta) was occupied by the British on 9 November 1918. On 27 November 1918, the French, who landed troops in the region after the British, established the Sanjak of Alexandretta, which included the towns of Iskenderun, Belen, Antakya, and Harim, and appointed a French military governor. The vindictive and ruthless behaviour of the Armenians, who acted in partnership with the French, led to the early start of armed resistance in the Hatay region. The resistance in Hatay took place mainly in the Gâvur Mountains in the north of the region and in the Amik Valley-Kurd Mountain and Antakya- Al-Qusayr regions in the south. While in the İskenderun-Dörtyol region in the north of Hatay, figures from the Kuvâ-yı Milliye such as Kara Hasan and Bey Hakkı came to the fore, in the south, names such as Tayfur Mürsel, Asım Bey and Ahmet Türkmen played an important role. The Hatay resistance became more organised as a result of the contact established with the National Struggle movement led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, and Hatay was included in the Southern Front of the National Struggle. While the clashes continued in the region, the Treaty of Ankara (the Franklin-Bouillon Agreement) was signed between Türkiye and France on 20 October 1921. Thus, the state of war between the two States ended and the Türkiye-Syria border was drawn. With this treaty, while Dörtyol (including Payas) and Hassa remained within the borders of Türkiye, it was decided to establish a special form of administration for the Iskenderun region and to grant some privileges to the Turks here. Thus, it was accepted, albeit reluctantly, that the Antakya-Iskenderun region, which was included in the borders of Mîsâk-ı Millî (the National Pact), would remain in Syria in order to end the fighting on the Southern Front. This situation was also accepted in the Treaty of Lausanne, as it was expected that the appropriate time and conditions would emerge. In this study, the occupation and resistance movements in the Hatay region after the Armistice of Mudros will be discussed.

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