The Heroic Battle of Aintab

The Heroic Battle of Aintab

Kevork Baboian

translated from Armenian and with a historical introduction by Ümit Kurt
Gomidas Institute, 2018,
286 pages, maps and photos

ISBN 978-1-909382-41-1, pb.
Price: UK£20.00 / US$30.00
To order please contact books@gomidas.org



The Heroic Battle of Aintab is an invaluable primary source that shows the perspective of Armenians – survivors of the Armenian Genocide – during the Franco-Turkish conflict in Aintab in 1920-1921. Armenians were in a difficult position as they tried to negotiate a path between their former executioners and an invading French army. They even had to resort to arms and fight on their own account against hostile forces.

"The famous battle of Aintab … seems to have been as much the organised struggle of a group of [Turkish] genocide profiteers seeking to hold onto their loot as it was a fight against an occupying force. The resistance … sought to make it impossible for the Armenian repatriates to remain in their native towns, terrorising them [again] in order to make them flee. In short, not only did the local … landowners, industrialists and civil-military bureaucratic elites lead the resistance movement, but they also financed it in order to cleanse Aintab of Armenians.


–Ümit Kurt,
The Making of the Aintab Elite: Social Support, Local Incentives and Provincial Motives Behind the Armenian Genocide (1890s–1920s), Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, Worcester, MA

CONTENTS



Acknowledgements    vii
Introduction    ix

1. Original Introduction by Kevork A. Sarafian     3
2. The Occupation of Aintab by the Entente Powers     7
3. The French Entry into Aintab     13
4. On the Eve of the Critical Days     23
5. The Three Pillars of the Heroic Battle of Aintab    37
6. April 1st     45
7. The Armenian "Revenge” Cannon     63
8. The Occupation of Sheikh Mosque     77
9. The Armenian Arms Factory     83
10. The Turkish Ultimatums     97
11. Miners     105
12. More Fires     109
13. 1st National Congress     119
14. The 3rd National Congress of June 1st and the Referendum
by Which the Armenian People Decided Their Fate    127
15. Armistice Negotiations Between the Turks and Armenians     137
16. The Armistice Period     143
17. The Turks Violate the Terms of the Armistice     151
18. French Efforts to Break Armenian Neutrality     163
19. The "Color” of the Franco-Armenian Relationship     169
20. Correspondence Between Ozdemir and Colonel Andrea     177
21. The French Oblige the Armenians to End Their Neutrality     179
22. The Final Siege of Aintab     197
23. Correspondence for Surrender     201
24. The Desperate Situation of the Turks and Their Supplicant Letters    213
25. The Capitulation of the City (February 8th)     223
26. The Treaty of London and the Evacuation of Aintab     229

Appendix
Poem: The Saga of Being a Deportee    234

Index    239

Maps   
Aintab Region    2
Aintab City    40

Photographs
Aintab - panorama postcard.    xi
British captain beside stockpile of firearms and ammunition.    xiii
Armenian homes destroyed in Aintab after the 1915 deportations.    xv
Arrival of French troops in Aintab.     15
The exchange of French for British troops at Aintab (4 Nov. 1919).    17
Kendirli Latin church.     33
Father Nerses Tavukjian and Adour Levonian.     39
Sourp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic church.     42
Armenians pulling a house apart for fortifications elsewhere.     55
Women and children help construction of defensive lines.     55
Armenian defenses during the fighting.     56
Central Supplies Committee, Aintab, 1920.    58
"Vrezh” or revenge - the Armenian cannon.     65
Repairing arms and bomb-making.     66
Aintab American Hospital.     68
Armenian fighters with machine gun.     75
Armenian orphans, Aintab, 1919.     126
Chinarli Mosque damaged during fighting.     139
Aintab in ruins.     175
Aintab Y.M.C.A. building, 5 January 1920.     214
Armenian military command and its officers, Aintab, 1920.     221
5 Jan. 1920, Armenian orphans prior to evacuation.     231
The aftermath of the fighting in Aintab.     235

About the Author    239
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