The Sütçü İmam incident () also known as Uzun Oluk incident () occurred on October 31, 1919, when an occupying French Legionnaire ripped off the hijab of a Turkish woman in the city of

Kahramanmaraş Kahramanmaraş (), historically Marash (; ) and Germanicea (), is a city in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean region of Turkey and the administrative centre of Kahramanmaraş Province, Kahramanmaraş province. After 1973, Maraş was ...

(then Marash). In the following fight, a local man named Sütçü İmam would fire what is considered the first shot against French occupying forces in Marash.Rustow, Dankwart A. “The Army and the Founding of the Turkish Republic.” ''World Politics'', vol. 11, no. 4, 1959, pp. 513–52. ''JSTOR'', https://doi.org/10.2307/2009591. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024. The incident is considered the beginning of the tension leading to the

Battle of Marash The Battle of Marash (), also called the Marash Affair, 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 ...

, which was the first major victory of the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

Background

After the

Armistice of Mudros The Armistice of Mudros () ended hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between Ottoman Turkey and the Allies of World War I. It was signed on 30 October 1918 by the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and British Admiral Somerset ...

was signed, Marash,

Aintab Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medit ...

and

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

(

Çukurova Çukurova (), or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Anatolia. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Os ...

) came under the occupation of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

forces. In the autumn of 1919, the British handed control over of these regions to the French, who in October entered Marash. The French occupation force was primarily made up of troops from the

French Colonial Forces The ''Troupes coloniales'' (, "Colonial Troops") or ''Armée coloniale'' (,"Colonial Army"), commonly called ''La Coloniale'', were the colonial troops of the French colonial empire from 1900 until 1961. From 1822 to 1900, these troops wer ...

and the

French Armenian Legion The Armenian Legion () was a volunteer unit that was raised by the Allied Powers to serve in the Middle East Theatre during World War I. Trained and led by French army commanders, the ''Légion d'Orient'' (Eastern Legion), as the unit was orig ...

. The Armenian Legion, comprising 2000 armed auxiliaries entered the city the day after, on 30 October.

Incident

Turkish Version of Events

According to the version found in Turkish sources, on the night of 31 October, three Muslim women who were coming out of a public bath (

hamam A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the Islamic culture, culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

) on Uzunoluk street were accosted by an Armenian legionnaire and harassed and molested. The soldier attempted to tear off the

veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the human head, head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has be ...

of the women stating, "This is no longer the land of the Turks, you cannot walk around with a veil in French territory." The women started to scream and ask for help. A 17-year-old local Çakmakcı Sait, who ran forth without carrying a weapon was then shot and killed by the Armenian legionnaires."T.C. MİLLÎ EĞİTİM BAKANLIĞI KAHRAMANMARAŞ / DULKADİROĞLU / Çakmakçı Sait Ortaokulu".
''cakmakcisaitortaokulu.meb.k12.tr'' (in Turkish). Retrieved 2024-04-17. Soon after, an individual by the name of Sütçü İmam (literally,

milkman Milk delivery is a Delivery (commerce), delivery service dedicated to supplying milk, typically in milk bottle, bottles or cartons, to customers' homes. This service is performed by a milkman, milkwoman, or milk deliverer. (In contrast, a Cowman ...

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

) opened fire on the legionnaires, killing or wounding (depending on the version) one or more of the soldiers. After the incident, Sütçü İmam escaped and took refuge in a village nearby. The troops from the French Armenian Legion who arrived allegedly opened fire in retaliation at the civilians present on the spot.

officially commemorates both Hüseyin, son of Zülfikar Çavuş (a reported bystander) and Kadir, Sütçü İmam's cousin as being victims of the French Legion's retaliation.Tarihçe
. ''www.onikisubat.gov.tr''. Retrieved 2024-04-17 The tension sparked by these incidents increased gradually and led to the armed uprising against the French army in February 1920 (

A Soldier's Version of Events

An American relief worker who was working in Marash at the time, Stanley E. Kerr, was able to interview an Armenian soldier who was serving in the French Legion at the time. He was interviewed years later for Kerr's book, and was unaware of the Turkish version. According to him, an Armenian ''rakıcı'' (that is, a person who prepares the popular alcoholic drink

rakı Rakı, Türk Rakısı or Turkish Raki (, Turkish pronunciation: ) is an alcoholic beverage made of twice-distilled grape pomace and flavored with aniseed. It is a national drink of Turkey, although fewer than 17% of Turks drink alcohol. Among ...

) was serving several Armenian legionnaires with his drink when one of them, who was intoxicated after drinking one cup too many, approached a Muslim woman exiting the bath and removed her veil. An altercation followed and an unknown assailant (possibly Sütçü İmam) shot and killed one of the legionnaires, but, incidentally, not the offending one.

Memory

In memory of this incident,

Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University (KSU) is a public university founded 1992 in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small par ...

is named after Sütçü İmam in 1992. Çakmakcı Sait would be commemorated with both a school and a mosque in his name.

Necmettin Erbakan Necmettin Erbakan (29 October 1926 – 27 February 2011) was a Turkish politician and political theorist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was la ...

tended to reference the role of Islamic notables during the

- such as Sütçü İmam and Rıdvan Hoca.Steven A. Cook, ''Ruling But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey'', JHU Press, 2007,
p. 120.
/ref>

References

External links

Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University - Sütçü İmam Kimdir?
*

Stanford J. Shaw Stanford Jay Shaw (5 May 1930 – 16 December 2006) was an American historian, best known for his works on the late Ottoman Empire, Turkish Jews, and the early Turkish Republic. Shaw's works have been criticized for denial of the Armenian gen ...

"The Armenian Legion and its Destruction of the Armenian Community of Cilicia"
in Türkkaya Ataöv,

İlber Ortaylı İlber Ortaylı (; born 21 May 1947) is a Turkish historian and professor of history of Crimean Tatar origin at the MEF University, Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. In 2005, he was appointed as the dire ...

(ed.), ''The Armenians in the Late Ottoman Period'',

Turkish Historical Society The Turkish Historical Society (; TTK) is a research society studying the history of Turkey and the Turkish people, founded in 1931 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with headquarters in Ankara, Turkey. It has been described as "the Ke ...

, 2001, pp. 155–206. {{DEFAULTSORT:Incident, Sutcu Imam Sutcu Imam Sutcu Imam 1919 in the Ottoman Empire French military occupations Franco-Turkish War Conflicts in 1919 French military scandals Hijab Turkish clothing Combat incidents Scandals in Turkey