Occupation and Liberation of Kilis

During the years of the War of Independence, Kilis was a subprovince under the Mutasarrifate of Antep. Right after the Armistice of Mudros, the Entente Powers began to expand rapidly towards the areas they had previously shared through secret agreements. In this context, immediately after the armistice, in December 1918, Kilis was occupied by the British. During the British occupation, there was no armed resistance in the city. However, the seeds of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye movement to be formed later were sown in this period. The British occupation of the city was replaced by the French occupation on 29 October 1919. The French used Kilis as a base of operations for the occupation zones in and around Çukurova (the Cilician Plain). They migrated Armenians from Syria to the region and turned a blind eye to the attacks of Armenian gangs on the Turkish people. In this way, the aim was to force the Turks to migrate elsewhere so that the Armenians would constitute the majority. When the security and existence of the Turkish people were endangered, the local organisation was established and resistance was started against the French occupation. People such as Şahin Bey, Sakıp Bey, İslam Bey, Müslüman Bey, and Polat Bey played important roles in the organisation of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye in the region. Since Kilis was under occupation, the armed struggle took place in rural areas outside Kilis. While the clashes continued in the region, Türkiye-Syria border was determined with the Ankara Treaty signed between the Ankara Government and France on 20 October 1921. Thus, the French forces evacuated Kilis on 7 December 1921. With the departure of the French from the city, the three-year occupation period in Kilis since December 1918 ended. In this study, the occupation and resistance movement in Kilis after the Armistice of Mudros will be discussed.

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