MAJOR UPHEAVALS: CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN'S RESIGNATION AND THE EXPULSION OF THE AGBU FROM SOVIET ARMENIA
With Calouste Gulbenkian’s assumption of the presidency of the AGBU in 1930 came an unmistakable shift in the organization’s attitude toward Soviet Armenia. Although the new president was willing to continue to collaborate with Yerevan on projects already underway, he intended to devote the bulk of the AGBU’s resources to constructing Armenian neighborhoods in Syria, Lebanon, and Greece. Gulbenkian evidently wanted to make a priority of improving the situation of the Armenian refugees in the Middle East and helping them settle permanently in their host countries. An insignificant incident illustrates the way the positions of the central board in Paris were shifting. In December 1930, over and above the donations that the Nubar children had already made toward the construction of “The Parekordzagan Building” in Yerevan, the late president’s oldest son Zareh made a special loan of £3 000 to complete the financing of the project. At a central board meeting, Gulbenkian pointed out to Zareh that it was impossible to underwrite loans in the Soviet system, and suggested that he use the money for another purpose: constructing apartments in Syria for Armenians who would be required to reimburse their loans by a specified date.105
Another incident, related by Vahan Malezian, the AGBU’s general director, provides a revealing glimpse of Gulbenkian’s opinion of Soviet leaders. Malezian reports that Ter Gabrielian, in the course of talks conducted with AGBU officers in September 1932, asked Gulbenkian to make ... Read all
Right: Aghasi Khanjian, General Secre-tary of the Communist Party of Soviet Armenia. Left: A. Kuloyan, Chairman of the Council of Commissars (L'URSS en construction: L'Arménie soviétique, no. 2, February 1936).
The Nubarashen garage. The three Ford convertibles that the AGBU sent to Armenia at the request of the Soviet Armenian leadership most probably never arrived in Yerevan (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
The AGBU and Soviet Armenia