[11] In February 1919, Field Marshal Edmund Allenby appointed a number of French officers to oversee the administration of the region of Cilicia and the repatriation of tens of thousands of Armenians who had been deported during the war in the course of the Genocide.

The transfer of command took place on 4 November, but Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch's promise to reinforce the existing forces in the area with at least 32 infantry battalions, 20 cavalry squadrons and 14 artillery batteries went unfulfilled.

The French units were thus deprived of armoured cars and air support and lacked automatic weapons, heavy artillery and even wireless transmitters and carrier pigeons.

Atatürk had denounced the Allied occupation of Cilicia in November 1919 and the forces loyal to him were tenaciously preparing to launch a major insurrection against the thinly spread French units garrisoned in Marash, Antep and Urfa.

Experienced officers, including the captain Ali Kılıç, were sent by Mustafa Kemal to organize the tribal units and bands of chete (irregular fighters) in the region.

[citation needed] The Turkish nationalist movement was able to gain the support of local Muslims in Cilicia who had benefited from stolen Armenian properties and did not want to return them to the original owners.

[4] By January 1920, French supply convoys and communication lines were regularly coming under attack by the partisans and those Armenians who had been repatriated were being harassed and pressured to leave their homes once more.

[19] On 21 January, General Quérette summoned the Muslim notables of Marash to his headquarters at a barracks in the north of the city and presented them with evidence pointing to their complicity in the attacks and demanded that they put an end to the hostilities.

To Quérette's astonishment, Normand told that he had come with orders from General Dufieux to begin the full evacuation of the French garrison of Marash, followed by the Christian and loyal Muslim population.

Some, who had fled St. Stephen's before it was put to the torch, sought shelter in the Franciscan monastery, while others still hid in a soap factory, subsisting on stores of dried fruits, tarhana and olive oil for several days before the Turks reached them.

[27] At the London Conference in February 1920 the Allied Supreme Council, which at the time was working out the details to a peace treaty that it would present to the Ottoman government, were amazed by news of the defeat of the French army and the massacre of the Armenians at Marash.

"[37] In his own analysis of the conflict, the American relief worker Stanley E. Kerr attributes the withdrawal inter alia to the untenable position the French military itself had assumed, its failure to provide adequate supplies to its men, and its inability to carry out intelligence work.

[38] In Constantinople, Allied military representatives pushed to threaten the Ottoman government for the affair, while the French simultaneously explored the possibility of reaching a modus vivendi with Atatürk.

The Allied Supreme Council deliberated on how best to respond; some of the delegates present, including Lloyd-George, insisted that strong pressure should be brought to bear against the Ottoman government to prevent new atrocities.

British, French and Italian leaders agreed to authorize the formal occupation of Constantinople, which was carried out by the forces under General George F. Milne's command on the morning of 16 March.