French Col. Abadie, a participant in the French occupation of Cilicia in
south-central Anatolia in 1919, wrote an account of the operation in 1921
and mentioned some of the indicators of local Turkish displeasure with
the French occupation.
One of the incidents Col. Abadie took note of was this one:
"3 November 1919: Airmen Poulet and Benoist landed in Konya
on their
way to Australia. Their
airplane was guarded by Turkish soldiers.
They
landed near Tarsus next and saw that during the night someone had
written this message in Turkish on their airplane: “be bold, but don’t be
despicable like the Syrians.”" - evidently meaning the French troops that
had come from Syria to
Cilicia.
Background: French pilot Etienne Poulet and his machinist Jean Benoist
were ineligible participants in a race restricted to Australian air teams to
fly from England to Melbourne within 30 days. The race was won by
brothers Ross and Kieth Smith.
Herewith a mention from the State Library of Australia:
French pilot Etienne Poulet and his mechanic Jean Benoist also attempted
to fly to Australia at the same time, despite being ineligible for the competition.
They left Paris on 14 October 1919 in a Caudron G4. The Vimy overtook
Poulet in Burma on 29 November 1919 and he decided to abandon his
attempt in Thailand around 12 December 1919.
Map shows winning Ross brothers' route (black line) and
the Poulet-Benoist route (dotted line) crossing Anatolia in
Turkey.
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