THE RETURN OF EXILED ARMENIANS TO POST-WAR ADANA PROVINCE: THE PROBLEM OF CONFISCATED PROPERTY

Abstract

The growth of Armenians’ well-being in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries could not have escaped the attention of the country’ ruling circles and not become a decisive factor in further development of the events. The idea of ​​making the economy of the Ottoman Empire homogeneous and Turkish became one of the necessary conditions for the further existence of the state. The extermination of Armenians and the appropriation of their property in Adana started in 1909 and continued during the Armenian Genocide. After the ceasefire of 1918, Armenians returning to Adana province tried to get back their confiscated property. Initially, the defeated Ottoman Empire discussed and even passed bills to return the confiscated property, perhaps for propaganda purposes only. However, as the situation changed, the Ottoman authorities, then the Kemalist regime, enacted laws on confiscated real estate or movable capital, which was considered “abandoned property”, increasingly neutralizing the slightest possibility of Armenians to return their property, thus strengthening by the force of law the robbery carried out at the highest state level.