and under; those over fourteen would be sent to live for two years on the model farm and agricultural school or the agricultural station that the AGBU envisioned creating in Armenia.10 Certain AGBU leaders even thought that, after the orphans had been trained in the agricultural school it planned to open, they could buy land and become independent farmers.11 They seem not to have had too clear a perception of contemporary Soviet realities. The Union did not feel, on the other hand, that it was ready to take on major projects like the draining of swamps or irrigation of uncultivated land. It was, in any case, after evaluating Papajanian’s report that the central board asked Aslanian - then still on his mission to Cyprus - to go to Yerevan and assess first-hand, with Soviet leaders, the possibility of founding a demonstration farm and agricultural school.12
Aslanian left Paris in June 1923 and arrived in Yerevan ... Read all
In a context in which all hope for the creation of a national home for Ottoman Armenians had died, AGBU leaders deemed the proposal to pursue humanitarian work with Armenia a viable alternative for the tens of thousands of orphans who had, by this time, been gathered in American or Armenian institutions in Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Thus, almost as soon as Papajanian returned to Paris, the central board undertook a careful examination of the Soviet proposals that Papajanian had brought back with him late in February 1923. The Union was especially attracted by the idea of finding the orphans agricultural employment, since it, too, had laid plans to found a model farm and agricultural school for them. Also discussed was the suggestion that residence in AGBU orphanages be restricted to children fourteen
Photograph Melic Agamalian, 1926 (Coll. Archives Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
The AGBU and Soviet Armenia