Samsun During the National Struggle

During the National Struggle period, the independent Canik Sanjak consisted of Samsun, Bafra, Çarşamba and Terme. Samsun port, which is an important export and transportation center, was the second gate to Anatolia after İnebolu in the Black Sea. Passengers, domestic and foreign delegations from Istanbul, Russia and the Caucasus, as well as some of the goods and military equipment, reached Anatolia via Samsun. Because of its importance, the Greeks bombarded Samsun on 7 June 1922 with military excuses.Samsun is a starting point for the history of the National Struggle. After Mustafa Kemal Pasha landed in Samsun on 19 May 1919, he started to organize the independence movement in Havza. All these studies were carried out in Samsun and its surroundings despite the pressures of the British occupation forces and the control officers of the Allied Powers. Samsun Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, which was established after the Sivas Congress, pioneered the activities of the National Struggle in Samsun. Despite the reservations of the Samsun Governor and the Mayor, the First Parliamentary elections were held as a result of the cooperation of the Defense of Law Society with Ankara. National detachments were established by the Defense of the Law Society in order to defend the people against the Pontus gangs. The Defense of the Law Society had a great role in the organization of the meetings with the aid given to the families of the army and soldiers.Pontus Greeks were effective in and around Samsun until the end of the National Struggle. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, in a report he sent from Samsun, stated that about forty Greek gangs were operating in the area. Although the Grand National Assembly of Turkey established the Central Army in the late 1920s against these gangs who wanted to establish a Greek-Pontic state on the Black Sea coast, no definite result could be obtained. Thereupon, as of 8 February 1922, the task of combating the Pontusists was given to the 10th Division Command. After the investigations carried out by Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Fethi Bey in Samsun between 28 January and 25 March 1922, a comprehensive operation was launched against the Pontusists. In 1923, a Turkish-Greek population exchange signed between Greece and Turkey in Lausanne was started to get implemented after the Pontus rebellion. In accordance with the exchange agreement, exchanged Turks from Greece were settled in place of the Greeks who went to Greece in 1923-1924.

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