The French forces were spread too thinly in Cilicia and the villages that were repatriated came under withering attacks by Turkish Kuva-yi Milliye. Costs and difficulties associated with the repatriation process, growing Arab nationalism in Syria mandate, forced French High Commissioners to meet with Turkish leader, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, several times in late 1919 and early 1920 which resulted in halting the deployment of extra forces to Cilicia. A truce arranged on May 28 between the French and the Kemalists, led to the retreat of the French forces south of the Mersin-Osmaniye railroad. The subsequent evacuation of thousands of Armenians from Sis and its environs and their migration to Adana, raised the number of Armenians in the city to more than 100,000. Throughout June, the Armenian Legion, repatriated Armenians and Assyrians had committed vengeful acts on Turks, killing hundreds around Kahyaoğlu, Kocavezir, Camili and İncirlik. On 10 July 1920, to ease the overpopulated south of the railroad, a Franco-Armenian operation forced the local Turkish population to escape north. Roughly 40,000 Turks from Adana and around fled to the countryside and to the mountains north, an event known as "Kaç Kaç" incident, which lasted 4 days and claimed hundreds of lives. Mihran Damadian declared the autonomy of Cilicia on 5 August 1920, by coming to a consensus with the Christian communities of the city. French government, however, did not recognize the autonomy, expelled the community leaders and disbanded the Armenian Legion in September.