From December 1918 to October 1921 , after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I , the French controlled Cilicia . Measures were taken to repopulate the region with survivors of the Armenian Genocide . More than 170,000 Armenian refugees , the majority of whom were originally from Cilicia , were to be taken back to their homes by the French and British . The Armenians formed the Armenian National Union which acted as an unofficial Cilician Armenian government composed of the four major political parties and three Armenian religious denominations . However , rivalries between the French and British and Kemalist incursions shattered Armenian aspirations for an autonomous Cilicia . On October 21 , 1921 , France signed the Treaty of Ankara with the Kemalists and relinquished Cilicia to Turkey
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Cilicia