THE MAIN LINES OF FRENCH HIGH COMMISSION'S STRATEGY TO RESETTLE ARMENIANS IN SYRIA AND LEBANON
Before examining the circumstances that brought the AGBU to reorient its humanitarian strategy toward the Armenian refugee resettlement program in Syria and Lebanon, we must briefly recall both the situation in which the organization found itself late in 1929 and the position of the French High Commission at the time.
In 1930, in spite of a funding shortage, the Nansen Office considered undertaking new construction projects for the benefit of Armenian refugees. The plan to build farming communities in the sanjak of Alexandretta, pursued over the previous two or three years, had proved costly and uncertain. The High Commissioner and the Nansen Office consequently decided to focus their spending on urban construction, particularly in Beirut and Aleppo. However, the late 1929 arrival of a new wave of refugees in northeastern Syria threw the strategy adopted by the French High Commission into question. Faced with the tension prevailing on the Turkish border as well as this influx of refugees expelled from Turkey by the Kemalists, the Mandatory authorities now formed a plan to colonize the Upper Jazira region in northeastern Syria by settling it with Christian populations who were knowledgeable farmers capable of bringing the fertile land in this area under cultivation. In line with this plan, it was decided to establish the newcomers, not in Beirut or Aleppo, but on new farms in Upper Jazira. Read all
The Building of Armenian Neighborhoods in Syria and Lebanon
View of Bourdj Hammoud, Lebanon in 1932 (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
Bourdj Hammoud around 1920, before the construction of urban neighborhoods there (Coll. Michel Paboudjian).