Battle of Marash

For other conflicts at Marash, see Battle of Marash (disambiguation)

Battle of Marash
Part of the Franco-Turkish War
Date21 January – 12 February 1920
Location
Marash, Aleppo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Result

Turkish victory[1][2]

  • French troops abandon Marash
Belligerents

Turkish National Movement

 France

Commanders and leaders

Arslan Bey

"Kılıç" Ali Bey

French Third Republic Henri Gouraud
French Third Republic General Louis Albert Quérette
French Third Republic Lieutenant Colonel Robert Normand
French Third Republic Major Jean-François-Henri Corneloup

French Third Republic Captain Pierre-Jean Daniel André
Strength

Varies throughout battle as numbers of supporters grow

French claim :[3]
30,000 armed guerrilla fighters

Turkish claim :[4]
2,500 Kuva-yi Milliye
Local support

Max. ~2,000 engaged in battle at one particular moment (as seen in order of battle)

Turkish claim:[4]
3,000 French
2,000 Armenians (non-French Armenians were mostly unarmed civilians)
4 armored cars

Western estimates:[5]
4,000+ total French-Senegalese troops
Casualties and losses
4,500 killed[6]
500+ wounded[7]
(Including civilians)		 160 killed
280 wounded
170 missing
5,000–12,000 dead Armenian civilians[8][9]

The Battle of Marash (Turkish: Maraş Muharebesi), also called the "Marash Affair",[10] took place in the early winter of 1920 between the French forces occupying the city of Maraş in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish National Forces linked to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It was the first major battle of the Turkish War of Independence, and the three-week-long engagement in the city ultimately forced the French to abandon and retreat from Marash and resulted in a Turkish massacre of Armenian refugees who had just been repatriated.

  1. ^ The Lions of Marash (1973) Kerr p. 178
  2. ^ Hovannisian & Payaslian (2008) p.550
  3. ^ This is the figure given by French diplomat Philippe Berthelot during the London conference: Great Britain, Foreign Office. Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939. 1st series. Eds. Rohan Butler and J.P.T. Bury. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1958, vol. 7, p. 301.
  4. ^ a b (in Turkish) Çarpışmaların Başlaması (Beginning of the engagements) Archived 11 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine. (History of Kahramanmaraş); Kahramanmaraş Official Governor Website.
  5. ^ King, William C. King's Complete History of the World War 1914–1918. Springfield, MA: The History Associates, 1922, p. 669
  6. ^ The Lions of Marash (1973) Kerr p. 195
  7. ^ (in Turkish) Sarıhan, Zeki. Kurtuluş Savaşı günlüğü: açıklamalı kronoloji. Öğretmen Dünyası, 1982, p. 328. ISBN 975-16-0517-2.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference fp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kerr196 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Pattie, Susan Paul (2018). The Armenian Legionnaires: Sacrifice and Betrayal in World War I. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 160. ISBN 9781838609306.