Ali Galip Incident

The de facto end of the Ottoman Empire's existence with the Armistice of Mudros created a vacuum in the balance of forces in the Middle East, which Britain and France tried to fill. Britain's main target in the region was the oil of Mosul. Occupying Mosul on November 3, 1918, Britain aimed to gain strategic borders in the mountainous region by expanding the borders of the buffer state it planned. Britain, which kept the issue of "Kurds and Kurdistan" on the agenda in order to maintain this aim on a solid ground, gave a new impetus to ethnic separatism during the Armistice period by sending Edward William Charles Noel to South-eastern Anatolia. Due to its strategic location, Malatya was a subject of constant dispute between Britain and France. In this context, the Istanbul Government, with the support of the British, embarked on a number of plots to destroy the nationalist movement in Anatolia. One of these, the Ali Galip Incident, was a combination of Britain's efforts to create a "buffer state" in South-eastern Anatolia in order to fulfill and secure its desire for oil and the treasonous plans attempted by the Istanbul Government in order to maintain its so-called legitimacy. The Istanbul Government and its governor, whose main objective was the destruction of the National Struggle, considered almost everything legitimate in order to achieve its goal. In this respect, Mustafa Kemal succeeded in attracting the people of Anatolia to his side by saying, "This is the real face of the government that I want to tell you, if you do not trust me, believe in these." The tribes' behavior in favor of the Kuvâ-yı Milliye foiled the plans of both the British in the person of Noel and the Istanbul Government and its collaborators in the person of Ali Galip. Undoubtedly, the role of the Malatians, who were filled with the spirit of Kuvâ-yı Milliye, and the "heyet-i nasiha" formed by them was very important in this. During the National Struggle, Malatya and its surroundings supported the national movement and did not allow separatist ideas to flourish.

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