The Heroic Battle of Aintab

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 con¿ict in Aintab in 1920-1921. Armenians were in a dif¿cult 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 ¿ght 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 pro¿teers seeking to hold onto their loot as it was a ¿ght 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 ¿ee. In short, not only did the local ... landowners, industrialists and civil-military bureaucratic elites lead the resistance movement, but they also ¿nanced it in order to cleanse Aintab of Armenians."