Millî Mücadele Döneminde Zonguldak
Authors: Arslan Gürbüz 
Published: December 2023

"Zonguldak, a region rich in coal reserves, became the target of the Allied Powers with the conclusion of the First World War against the Ottoman Empire due to this feature, and France was the first country to land soldiers in Zonguldak, and France was the first country to land forces in Zonguldak. Because French capitalists have been investing there for a long time, and France has no intention of losing these investments to anyone else. In fact, France landed soldiers in Zonguldak on March 8, 1919, under the pretext of keeping order in the coal mines, invoking Article 7 of the Armistice of Mudros. In the face of this situation, the people of Zonguldak did not react in any way. Because it is thought that things will get worse if the Entente Powers are opposed. With the reaction to the occupation of Izmir, awareness of the National Struggle began to grow in Zonguldak, and following the Sivas Congress, it became active with the foundation of Countrywide Resistance Organization in the region. This situation made France nervous and France went to reinforce its forces in the region against a possible resistance. They gave the order to seize Ereğli on June 8, 1920, and Zonguldak on June 18, once they had gathered enough power to totally control Zonguldak and its vicinity, march on Ankara, and place the Turkish Grand National Assembly Government in a precarious position. Although the people of Ereğli drove the French out of their lands on June 19, the same situation was not possible for Zonguldak due to the lack of available opportunities. The Kuvâ-yı Milliye forces, led by Captain Cevat Rifat, were unable to expel the French from Zonguldak, but they did stop them from moving ahead in the direction of Ankara and from trying to expand their regions of sovereignty, and in a way, they imprisoned them in the city center. Also during this period, the French, while being defeated in the Alemdar Ship Incident, the only naval battle of the National Struggle period, saved their captured soldiers by making compromises. France's effort to build good ties with Ankara launched a conversation process between the two sides at a time when the Turks could not expel the French from Zonguldak but France was forced to face escalating Turkish opposition in the occupied regions. Because according to France, the way to protect its interests in Anatolia is not to fight, but to establish good relations with the Government of the Grand National Assembly. Indeed, with the start of the discussion process on June 20, 1921, France began to withdraw its troops from Zonguldak in exchange for changing the owner of Zonguldak and reinforcing Turkish military police forces in the province. With the end of the French occupation in and around Zonguldak, Zonguldak has started to serve the National Struggle in a more comfortable way. In this context, weapons and ammunition sent from other provinces, especially Istanbul, and Russia were shipped to the Western Front from here. The coal requirements of the steamers and engines transporting military supplies to the front were fulfilled, and the aid gathered was delivered to Ankara by the Zonguldak Countrywide Resistance Organization and the Zonguldak Red Crescent Association."