An analysis of inter-communal conflicts in cilicia during the independence war years 1918-1922

Abstract

This thesis examines the historical and socio-economic reasons behind the emergence of ethnic conflicts in Cilicia during the Independence War years. The years between the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1922 not only witnessed the French occupation of Cilicia but also the rise of the Turkish nationalist movement aspiring to establish hegemony over the same lands. Cilicia, hosting a variety of communal groups of Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, Circassians, and Arabs, became the stage on which imperial and national power blocs competed to gain the allegiance of local groups, which they envisioned as vital for the consolidation of their institutional power. For this reason, the reasons for the various ethno-religious groups either giving consent to the French occupation or opposing it by joining the ranks of the Turkish nationalist movement are given careful consideration in order to understand their agencies in choosing their sides. The thesis, therefore, reviews critically the literature, which evaluates the ethnic violence of this period as a fight between the nationalisms of the various ethno-religious groups involved in the conflict, who either sought for the patronage of the Great Powers or the Turkish/Ottoman state in achieving their ends. The thesis, on the other hand, portrays how violence was employed by all international, national, and local actors involved in the conflict, but more importantly, became a means through which the different classes of different ethno-religious groups of the region articulated their interests and negotiated their positions against the changing central authority. Finally, by displaying the shifting allegiances of various communal groups of the region, both to the French occupation and the Turkish nationalist movement, the thesis concludes that rather than the ideological motivations of religion or nationalism, classist and regional concerns were more on the agenda of the ethno-religious groups in choosing their sides in the violent conflicts of the period.