By Республика Западная Армения Republic of Western Armenia
The Cylician Armenian Republic was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and was a sub-mandated territory of France (as well as neighboring Syria and Lebanon). Its area was 45,000 km2. (this is more than the territory of modern Armenia, together with Nagorny Karabakh and Nakhichevan).
In 1880, there were 626,000 people living in Cylicia, of which 407,000 (65%) Armenians, 100,000 (16%) Arabs, 30,000 (5%) Kurds, 28,000 (5%) Greeks, 20,000 (3%) Turks, 15,000 (2%) Cherkases, 6,000 (1%) Assyrians, and 20,000 (3%) others.The largest cities of Kilikia were: Zepure (Mersin)Tars (family of the apostle Paul)Adana (capital)Alexandretta (now “Iskenderun”)SwedenAnarzabaMarash (Germany )Zeytun (one of the districts of modern Yerevan is named after him)An (in his honor, one of the suburbs of modern Yerevan is named after him.AintapSearchingSis (here was the residence of the Kilkiy Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church).There were 187 purely Armenian villages in Kilikia. There were 537 Armenian Apostolic Churches.
176 Armenian schools worked. The security of the borders of the Kilikian Armenian Republic was provided by French peacekeeping troops, who received a mandate from the League of Nations (president of the UN) and local Armenian militias organized in a special Armenian legion. According to 1920. Treaty, Kilikia (just like its neighboring Syria) was recognized as the colonial property of France, which in turn recognized the internal self-government of the Kilikian Armenian Republic. However, 5 years later, already in 1921, France, refusing the war against Turkey, withdraws its troops from Cilicia, maintaining its mandate only over Syria. Turkey, taking advantage of the withdrawal of French peacekeepers, is introducing its troops to the Cylician Armenian Republic.
A miraculous carnage begins, which led to the killing of about 100,000 civilians, including more than 30,000 children. Armenians were not able to resist the Turkish army, because for 5 years, while French peacekeepers were in Cilicia, they did not prepare for a similar scenario, did not arm themselves to the right scale, and naively believed that France and international countries, did not allow the Turks have another ethnic cleansing summer. In 1923, the countries of the League of Nations signed the Treaty of Lozans, according to which they recognized almost all of Cilicia as a part of Turkey (by the way, unlike Western Armenia, which, despite the mistaken opinion of many broad masses, in the Lozann Agreement part of T Urci did not confess).
And a small part of Kilicia (city of Alexandretta and Sweden) is recognized as part of Syria. Here the border between Turkey and Syria is defined. However, on June 29, 1939, Turkey violated this point of the Treaty of Lausanne and occupied the remaining part of Cilicia, which before that in 1923 was handed over to Syria. Today Kilikia is a whole part of Turkey.Of the 537 Armenian churches, 520 were completely destroyed, 6 converted into mosques, and only 1 remained near Mount Musa-Ler. Out of 187 Armenian villages, only 1 remained. Out of 176 Armenian schools, there is none left. Today, in different countries of the world, in the extensive Armenian diaspora, there is an order of 1.5 million descendants of refugees from Kilikia. Almost all Armenians living today in Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, and a large portion of Armenians living in Argentina, in the south of France and in the north of Egypt are refugees from Cilicia
.In the territory of present Armenia, there are also places of compact residency of refugees from Kilikia: Marash (Yerevan district), Zeitun (Yerevan region), Kilikia (Yerevan District), An (a city near Yerevan), Aintap (village point near Yerevan) and td . · ·