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| Battle of Urfa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theFranco-Turkish War | |||||||
 Kurdish militias taking up arms against the occupying French forces | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kuva-yi Milliye Kurdish tribes |  France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Ali Saip Bey | Major G. Hauger † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 3,000[1] | 473 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | ~460 killed or captured | ||||||
TheBattle of Urfa (Turkish:Urfa Muharebesi,French:Le guet-apens d'Ourfa) was an uprising in the spring of 1920 against theFrench army occupying the city ofUrfa (modern Şanlıurfa) by theTurkish National Forces. The French garrison of Urfa held out for two months until it sued for negotiations with the Turks forsafe conduct out of the city. The Turks reneged on their promises, however, and the French unit was killed in an ambush staged by the Turkish Nationalists during its retreat from Urfa.
The city of Urfa was occupied by the French army in the autumn of 1919 with the aim of incorporating this portion of theOttoman Empire into theFrench Mandate of Syria. The designs of the French over the region ofCilicia were denounced byMustafa Kemal Pasha, the leader of the newly formedTurkish National Movement. In the later part of 1919 Kemal and his supporters began to prepare to launch major insurrections against the thinly spread French units garrisoned inMarash,Aintab and Urfa to force the French to give up their territorial pretensions in the region. In January 1920, Ali Saip Bey, the deputy from Urfa to the Turkish National Congress, called on the Kurdish tribes of Urfa to close ranks against the French and resist.[2] His actions were coordinated with Kılıç Ali Bey (Kuluj Ali), a Kurdish army captain.
On February 7, 1920, Ali Saip Bey issued a demand that French forces evacuate Urfa in 24 hours. When the French refused this ultimatum, the Turkish forces rose up on February 9 and placed the French garrison under siege. The insurrection of Urfa was launched at the very moment the Turkish National forces were facing imminentdefeat in Marash. The garrison, made up of 473 Frenchmen,Senegalese,Algerians, andArmenians, put up a stiff resistance against the Turkish and Kurdish Nationalists for sixty-one days. On April 7, with supplies of ammunition and food almost depleted, Major Hauger, commander of the beleaguered detachment, asked the Turkish Nationalists that his men be provided withsafe conduct and that the Christian population to remain unharmed in exchange for the garrison's evacuation from the city.[3]
Ali Bey accepted Hauger's request and met him at a bridge near the American Mission hospital. In the presence of Major Hauger's subordinate, Captain Sajous, and the Armenian physician Dr. Bechlian, the two commanders discussed terms and agreed that the French would be able to leave with their arms. Ali Bey assured Hauger that the French would be provided with security as far as Arab Punar. Hauger also requested that Ali Bey give ten Turkish notables to accompany his men as hostages, but Ali Bey rejected this and gave him ten of his gendarmes instead.[3] At an hour past midnight, the remaining 300 troops under Hauger's command began their withdrawal from Urfa.
At a little before dawn, as the column approached adefile called Ferish Pasha Ravine, it wasfusilladed by Kurds who had taken up positions on the ridges overlooking the ravine. The soldiers that Ali Bey had given to Hauger professed their ignorance of the ambush. Hauger attempted in vain to organize a surrender. Some of the French soldiers were able to break through the encirclement but most of them were captured or killed. Hauger himself was killed. Only a handful of the original 473 men and officers of the Urfa garrison were able to reach safety at Arab Punar.
