The Effects of Country-wide Socio-economic Problems Experienced During the First World War on the region of Maraş

The city of Maraş has been located geographically at the intersection of East Anatolia, Southeast Anatolia and Middle Anatolia regions. The city functioned as the capital city of Gurgum Kingdom which was one of Late Hitit cities due to its location and became an important center for long years at the intersection of trade ways passing through the region. Native people mostly dealt with agriculture and ranching to keep on living. The city has benefited from the advantages of being located on a plain next to Ceyhan River. Through the years, it became a region in which plenty kinds of fruits and vegetables were harvested. At the same time the city was an important region because of native people’s arts and crafts. The city always attracted the attention of domestic as well as foreign people due to the growing rice and cotton which were really precious industrial plants. The city of Maraş which is the main topic of this article became a station of food supplies for the army during World War I because of all these features. Sometimes arguments had taken place between the native people and the army for rice and other kinds of supplies which the city had given to the army. The city’s socioeconomic visage was changed with loss of population due to epidemics of diseases as the consequence of wars and exiles from the neighboring regions during the wars. The wartorn city was destroyed and put into fire due to many attacks during the period of National Struggle. That’s why the city needed a long time period to repair itself.