Bibliography and project about Cilicia Campaign

For your visit

deux soldats

Here is a short bibliography, sorry, in French,about Cilicia Campaign. These book can be bought currently on Internet.
   Paul du Véou - La passion de la Cilicie 1919-1922 - Le Cercle d'Ecrits Caucasiens

   Philippe Gouraud - Le Général Henri Gouraud au Liban et en Syrie 1919-1923 - L'Harmattan
   Vahé Tachjian - La France en Cilicie et en haute Mésopotamie (1919-1933) - Karthala

  Quelques sites sur Internet évoquent ces faits:
The story unglamorous of Marache siege by the Superior of the convent of the Franciscan Fathers and parish priest of Marache.
The personal site of J-F. Coustillière. grand-son of Commandant Eugène Coustillière, governor in Tarsous (1919-1921)

These books and sites helped me a lot, but I wanted to know more.
With all the documents that I found in the family, all that I saw and read in the files or the books, I have what is necessary to tell the Campaign of Cilicie seen by a French soldier. Of course, it is necessary that I make my synthesis, that I choose which details to tell, which facts to forget.

I started to write pages which could go on Internet. Then, I looked further into my research, I prolonged it to understand how Elie and Florentine lived the Second World War. I wrote this history and I think of perhaps publishing it a day in a book. Why not all publish free?
The events of the Campaign of Cilicie are particularly painful. Several generations after, the descendants of the French soldiers and the children of the Armenian refugees still carry the suffering from there. It is probably as much painful for Turkish people. A rather confidential diffusion, held for those who want to know and are ready to take time to understand seems more suitable to me.

I however wrote with the concern of being accessible to high-school pupils, framed by their professor of history. I wanted to describe the context of the period, when the development of the railways was a strategic stake. I tried to render comprehensible mentalities, so different from today. And to be faithful with what Elie transmitted to me, I abstained from any judgement and all that could resemble or encourage with hatred.

I paid a detailed attention on the way in which soldiers and officers of metropolis had perceived the Senegalese or Algerian Riflemen. I found very beautiful texts, completely coherent with the regard that Elie had for the Black men.

Bibliography and Project

For your visit