Abstract:

The First Word War became one of the most devastating wars in the history of humanity and its Impact continued throughout the century. In this regard, it created a new period of struggle for the Ottoman Empire. The First World War turned out to be disastrous for the Ottoman Empire and its people as a whole. In addition to the empire's material and moral loss of power, the people also faced great poverty. During such a period, the occupations initiated by the British and the French in the Southern Region caused a new burden on the people. Thus, in this war of existence, the people mobilized all their resources. This paper deals with the subsistence and supply activities on the Southern Front during the National Struggle in terms of their effects on the development of the struggle. At this point, the study focuses on the administrative and economic structure in providing people, weapons and ammunition, food and various sanitary needs in Adana, Antep, Urfa and Maras regions. In this period, gangs, detachments, militia, and tribal units known as the Kuva-yi Milliye (irregular Anatolian militia force) met their needs for weapons, ammunition, and food with the help of the people through a local organization. Since it was a people's war, all resources were met by the people. However, the rapid and appropriate interventions of Mustafa Kemal and the Representative Committee turned this struggle into a national and total movement. This study argues that the controlled and systematic subsistence activities of these units and the people behind the front were administered by local forces under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal and the Representative Committee before and during the war. The sources of this study consist of archival documents, local sources, memoirs, foreign sources as well as official sources, and secondary sources on the subject.

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