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4/1/2006
THE HORRORS OF GENOCIDE: SAVING A DIASPORA
AGBU Centennial
by Talia Jebejian

�The achievements of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, since its foundation, constitute such a splendid record of constructive charity, that I gladly join in sincere congratulations on its 21st Anniversary, and wish it the fullest measure of success in the years to come.�

� Ambassador Henry Morgenthau on June 21, 1927 in New York City.

During the years immediately following the Armenian Genocide, both the Armenian nation and AGBU faced new turning points. For the tens of thousands of displaced survivors, the future at first seemed uncertain and bleak. Yet, their conditions gradually improved, thanks to AGBU�s humanitarian, educational and repatriation endeavors. In fact, an era of outreach began for the organization that would last for the next 30 years.

For AGBU, a new age began when the Central Board of Directors, realizing the Middle East could no longer serve as a secure financial headquarter base, made the decision to move its central office to Paris in 1922. Soon thereafter, AGBU converted into a Swiss Corporation, which granted it the right to accept wills, moveable and real properties, and stocks. During the 1924 General Assembly session, AGBU established its legal center in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The following year�s General Assembly, the final one that would be held in Cairo, dissolved the local Executive Committee and established three Regional Committees to better govern the quickly growing organization. The reorganized body in Egypt oversaw the activities within the Middle East, Africa and Australia, while the Paris Regional Committee presided over European endeavors. The Regional Committee of America, based in New York, continued its work within North and South America.

The important act of moving operations to Europe reaffirmed the organization�s intent to secure a foundation of inalienable capital. At the request of Boghos Nubar in 1927, AGBU�s inalienable funds and special capitals were converted into trusts, thus safeguarding their preservation and administration.

In the meantime, once Nubar realized that the European powers would not be fulfilling their obligations of extending Armenian borders to include Cilicia, a significant region within southern Ottoman Turkey that Armenians had inhabited since the early Christian era, it became more evident that the refugees could not return to their ancestral homes. Therefore, AGBU forged ahead with its substantial relief projects throughout the Middle East and Europe, which included more temporary housing, clinics, convalescent homes, free dispensaries, hospitals and schools.

Always intent on maintaining the highest possible academic and vocational standards, AGBU opened trade workshops for orphans after communities were structured. Concerned that a younger generation would be deprived of a solid education during their formative years, the organization also increased greatly its educational allocations to Armenian schools in the Middle East and Bulgaria, and then France, starting in 1926.

At the same time, the Melkonian Educational Institute opened its doors in Cyprus, providing orphans with a solid education and full boarding. In Egypt, the organization opened a kindergarten in Alexandria and raised funds for the Nubarian School in Heliopolis. By 1938, AGBU either operated or supported some 150 schools across Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Greece, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Close to 700 teachers nurtured the academic progress of over 17,000 male and female students, and 700 survivors graduated from these schools between 1935 and 1938 alone.

AGBU�s leadership also placed great importance on ensuring that the new Soviet Armenian citizens, many of whom were displaced refugees from the western Ottoman region of Van, grew attached to the lands on which they resettled. On the humanitarian front, though the organization supplied rural areas in the homeland with farming machines, seeds and other assistance, the young Armenian republic faced bitter conditions.

Barely able to stand on its own feet following massacres, deportation marches and adjustment to a new communist government, the new citizens suffered a devastating earthquake in the Shirak region in 1926. The day after learning the news, AGBU members around the world galvanized to raise tens of thousands of dollars for immediate relief efforts.

As a result of AGBU�s exceptional care and commitment to the ethnic survival of orphans and deportees of the Armenian Genocide, many were able to start new lives and flourish in society after leaving orphanages or temporary shelters. Many even set their sights on more economically prosperous regions of the world. Nevertheless, despite the prodigious efforts executed by AGBU and other humanitarian and compatriotic associations during the post-World War I years, the large number of displaced Armenians living in temporary settlements became a dire and growing problem.

Private charities or local governments, no matter how well disposed, could do no more than extend support for various sanitary projects or the construction of a limited number of homes. Thus, it was commonly agreed that the only solution for some was repatriation to Armenia. This conclusion was also reached by AGBU, particularly as a means for Armenians to hold on to their land.

AGBU immediately launched a major campaign to establish a model town in the homeland for repatriates. Despite the global economic depression at that time, more than $333,000 was raised for the new settlement, which was named Nubarashen in honor of Boghos Nubar, and was a suburb of Yerevan. Visibly moved by this gesture, the AGBU Founder donated $100,000 to this fund. Moreover, to ensure the realization of this project, the Armenian government matched a sum equal to the fund�s total. A total of almost one million dollars helped build rug, shoe and other factories, a school, kindergarten, nursery, hospital, public bathhouse, and electric lighting in Nubarashen, in addition to modern roads connecting to the capital.

During the years of 1931-1933, AGBU repatriated 10,000 Armenians to the homeland, mostly through the efforts of AGBU Geneva Representative Levon Pashalyan and Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, a famous Norwegian scientist and philanthropist from the League of Nations. Nansen visited Armenia with Pashalyan under the auspices of the League to study the possibility of transporting large numbers of Armenians to their homeland, and it was his system of Nansenian passports that granted the repatriates the ability to travel.

Also in 1931, AGBU established the Armenian Youth Association (AYA) to encourage athletic and social activities among Middle East orphans and other survivors, believing that a strong body would help build a stronger mind. Young Armenians, who were finally starting to develop their strength after years of malnourishment and exposure to disease, had the opportunity to engage in friendly competitions and forge new friendships.

Boghos Nubar resigned as AGBU President in 1928, due to his ailing health. As a result of his remarkable and exceptional service to the Armenian nation, he was named Honorary President for Life. He passed away in Paris on June 25, 1930, at the age of 80, leaving Armenians all over the world in deep sorrow. The French newspaper Le Temps lamented the AGBU Founder�s passing, �In his person, the Armenian nation has lost one of its foremost and highly respected defenders� His death has brought to an end an era of great disasters, heroic struggles and unfulfilled hopes.�

That same year, the Central Board of Directors elected Calouste Gulbenkian, philanthropist and founder of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, as the next AGBU President. Gulbenkian served the organization for two noteworthy years, during which time he often traveled to Syria and Lebanon to meet with prominent French leaders, who administered the countries� governing mandates. Together, they established social programs to help improve refugee conditions by securing large areas of land and donating substantial funds to build homes, and it was Gulbenkian�s efforts that helped realize the true integration of the survivors into their local communities.

Zareh Nubar, son of Boghos Nubar, became the third AGBU President in 1932. During his presidency, Nubar continued his father�s vision for the organization, particularly by establishing and maintaining schools in Greece and the Middle East.

Spurred on by the positive results of the Nubarashen campaign, AGBU initiated many other projects in Armenia, such as rural schools, the Marie Nubar Eye Clinic, the Aved Sarkis Pasteur Institute, the Nubarian Home (which housed scientists and artists), funding for the University of Yerevan and the publication of some 20 scholarly works.

Yervant Agathon, who was the first Vice President of the Central Board, initiated many beneficial agricultural projects, and the construction of another town, named Nor Yevtokia, which was sponsored by the Meutemedian bequest. Moreover, hundreds of orphans were sent to Yerevan to receive higher education. Although the repressive Stalin era ended all foreign participation by the mid-1930�s, AGBU�s early structures in Armenia still stand today.

Long after the end of World War I, AGBU continued its work throughout Western Asia, even undertaking the vast responsibilities once administered by Near East Relief (NER). As the American-based agency gradually reduced its scope of service after a decade of intense presence in the region, AGBU consistently stepped in. And the arduous task of caring for innocent Armenians never ceased.

Following the sudden withdrawal of French troops from Cilicia in 1939, tens of thousands of Armenians were once again uprooted from the autonomous region of Alexandretta Sanjak when Turkey regained control of the land. AGBU was instrumental in relocating 30,000 Armenians from this area, which included the peasants of Musa Dagh, to camps in Ainjar, Ras al Ain, Sour and Tyre in Lebanon and Syria. The rehabilitation and restructuring of these communities would continue long into the 1940�s with large sums allocated to dry marshlands, fight malaria and other deadly diseases, implement free medical clinics and a maternity hospital, build cottages, and provide land, agricultural supplies, cows and oxen to peasants.

The world would soon face another World War and its ensuing chaos suppressed AGBU�s European operations, including the Paris headquarters. Regardless, its leadership believed firmly that the organization was strong enough to face the ominous storm and emerge unscathed, prepared to serve Armenians all over the world.

AGBU
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