As soon as the AGBU learned the news of the burning of Smyrna and the Armenian exodus to Greece, it decided to launch a general fund drive. All the organization’s chapters took part.9 A committee was formed in Paris to distribute the funds; its members included Yervant Aghaton, Dikran Gamsaragan, and Léon Guerdan.10 Big donations arrived from the United States, Belgium, Ethiopia, and Switzerland; they were sent on to Greece, but also to Marseille, Tunis, and the Armenian Patriarchate in Constantinople. By March 1923, the Union had given some 114,000 francs to these Armenian war victims.11 It was not long before it undertook relief operations in the field as well. Late in December 1922, it sent a delegate, Mikayel Natanian, to Athens, charging him with coordinating relief efforts for the Armenian refugees.12 He remained in the city until July 1923. Under his supervision, the AGBU immediately opened two shelters in Pangrati and Lipasmata-in-Piræus, each fitted out with a clinic; the clinics were put under the supervision of Dr. Aram Aslanian and Dr. V. Mardikian, respectively. These two institutions proved to be a blessing for the thousands of Armenians living in the Pangrati and Lipasmata refugee camps. Until 1932, when they were closed, they not only provided tens of thousands of refugees with medical assistance, but also distributed milk, urgently needed by the many malnourished children in the camps, as well... Read all
Greece and Armenian Refugees