Gangs and militia in the Black Sea Region in british and Turkish / Ottoman documents (1914-1922)

The aim of our thesis "Gangs and militia in the Black Sea Region in British and Turkish / Ottoman Documents (1914-1922)" was to examine all illegal armed groups in the Black Sea Region by drawing upon the period resources of the Ottoman Empire and the reports of the British Relief Officers who occupied Samsun and Merzifon after the Armistice of Mondros. The reports of the relief officers to the British High Commission in Istanbul and from there to the British Foreign Office provide detailed information about the activities of the British in this process. In addition to these records, documents from the Admiralty (Britain's Royal Navy), which have almost never been used by Turkish researchers, were also utilised, along with many other printed sources. As a result of the information thereby obtained, we were able to ascertain and track the activities, aims and ends of the militia and gangs which were disrupting the Black Sea Region during the First World War and immediate post-war period. The period begins with the First World War. The war saw the rise of gangs that were prepared to cooperate with the enemy at home in Turkey. Among them, the Greeks in the Black Sea Region, after the occupation of Trabzon by Russian troops, made an agreement with Russia and promised to ensure the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire from this region. When we look at the gangs that disrupted public order in the Black Sea Region, apart from the large Greek gangs operating during the war, there were also active Armenian and Circassian groups, and large numbers of deserters. After the Mondros Armistice Treaty, Greek militia increased their activities and transformed into an army with the support of the British, who were occupying Samsun and Merzifon. The British Relief Officers who were sent to the region first reported that Greek militia were fighting in their own defence, but in the following years they wrote reports which indicated that that they were acting to attract the attention of the allies to their political aims. In this period, in addition to the Greeks, there were some militia in the central Black Sea Region – Circassian, Laz, Georgian and Turkish – that were working to disrupt the public order for their own ends, and these groups are also examined in this study. Although these groups did not have a political aim, it was understood that they took advantage of the chaos of the current environment and disrupted the internal security of the state. However, their numbers were very few.