The asymmetric war, which started in the December of 1918 in Dortyol against the Allies, ended up the victory of Turkish troops. This victory guaranteed Turkish presences in the region of Cilicia. Also this victory and resistance of Turkish people showed that the First World War did not finish for Turkish people even if the government had to sign the armistice Mondros. Their resistances and heroism in the battles went down in history. However, the events and battles in the Cilicia affected the Armenian historiography.
The region of Cilicia was an important place for Armenian political actors who had been influenced from nationalism. It was considered as a part of “Armenian state”. In order to reach their political aims, they did not hesitate to mobilise the Armenian population and help the Allies throughout the occupation years. According to Armenian point of view, the fights in the region between 1918 and 1921 can be seen as “a liberation of Armenians”. However, the victory of Turks not only destroyed dreams of Armenians about independent state, but also it created “alternative history” for next generations. Once the Armenians left the region with French troops in 1921, they also took away their memories. Later on, these memories became a history for next generations in diasporic spaces.
This paper is about Armenian narratives on Marash and Cilicia. It will be focused on how they are remembered and shared. In the first section, the remembering process and construction of the social memory will be discussed. This section allows us to understand theoretical background and borders of the concepts. Later on, it will be focused on how Armenians remembered the period of 1918-1921. It will be mentioned activities, cooperation and perceptions of Armenian political elites and legionaries. This section is highly important because it creates an alternative historical point of view. Overall, it could be said that events in the southern fronts between 1918 and 1921 are remembered in different ways by Turks and Armenians. As a result of having different social memory, Armenians living in diasporic spaces tend to define themselves with local identities which had been transmitted from their grandparents as such.
