Ottoman Armenian Document #34
Request for authorization to transfer, by inheritance, a property with an area of 100 paces, located in the Tchoukour Mesjíd quarter in Adana, belonging to Madame Markrit, daughter of Garabed, residing in the Tachtchikan quarter, in the name of her heirs. Please forward the related file to the Head of the Cadastral Control for review and return. Damascus, September 15, 1336 – Acting Director – Signed: Salahaddine
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Ottoman Armenian Document #34Scope and Content
This document—issued by Acting Director Salahaddine in Damascus—requests authorization to transfer, by inheritance, a 100-pace property in the Tchoukour Mesjíd quarter of Adana. The land belonged to Madame Markrit, daughter of Garabed, a resident of the Tachtchikan quarter, and is to be passed to her heirs. It instructs that the related file be sent to the Head of the Cadastral Control for review. Dated September 15, 1920 (1336 in the Islamic calendar), the request reflects a fleeting moment of legal continuity under the French occupation of Cilicia (1919–1921). French forces had entered Adana in October 1919 as part of the Allied division of former Ottoman territories following World War I. Backed by Armenian volunteers and local communities, the French aimed to stabilize the region and reestablish civil governance. During this period, many Armenian families—dispossessed during the 1915 genocide—sought to reclaim ancestral properties under French military and administrative protection. Documents like this one stand as evidence of those efforts to restore legal ownership amid deep political uncertainty. However, this fragile window soon closed. With the Treaty of Ankara in October 1921, France agreed to withdraw from Cilicia, ceding control to the Turkish National Movement. In the aftermath, Armenian communities faced renewed violence and were forced into mass exodus. As such, this inheritance request marks one of the last formal efforts at restitution before the collapse of French authority and the final dispersal of Armenians from the region.Category
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