French-Armenian
Occupation of Mersin

Issued as number 23 in a series by Torossian Frères, this postcard offers a rare visual record of Cilicia's geopolitical landscape in the aftermath of World War I. The image captures a French military camp nestled within the Armenian quarter of Mersine, circa 1919.

France occupied Mersine as part of its enforcement of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, a period that also saw Armenian Genocide survivors resettled throughout Cilicia under French auspices. However, the Turkish War of Independence dramatically reshaped the region's political reality, ultimately dismantling the zone of Direct French Control within what remained of the Ottoman Empire.