New Armenian Refugees in aleppo and Upper Jazira
By the late 1920s, the refugee problem was on the way to being solved. But a new stream of Armenians from Turkish territory just across the Syrian border put it back on the agenda, crowding the refugee camps with still more displaced persons. For, throughout 1929 and on into 1930, several thousand Armenian peasants were deported from Turkey by the Kemalist authorities; that is, they were pushed out of the country and onto Syrian soil. These deportees, from rural areas near Diyarbakir, Mardin, Bitlis, Malatya, and Harput, followed two main trajectories on their exodus to Syria. The refugees who had been living in regions somewhat to the east of the area along the Syrian border, such as Harput or Palu, set out on foot and then boarded trains on the Aleppo line. Those from villages around Diyarbakir and districts still further east set out on a forced march toward the Upper Jazira region of Syria.101 Thus a few thousand more refugees joined those still living in Aleppo’s camps, for whom the resettlement program had already begun. The new deportees poured into Nor Kyugh, Zeytun Khan, and Kastel Haram in particular.102 As for those who had taken the deportation route that led to northeastern Syria, they settled in Upper Jazira’s new townships, such as Kamishli, Hasaka, Amuda, Karamaniye, Derik or Derbesiye, as well as in villages near-by. Here they lived together with other populations groups, including Nestorian Assyrians, Chaldean Assyrians, Kurds, and Jews, who had also been expelled from Turkey and encouraged to settle in this region by the French Mandatory authorities. To cope with this new influx of refugees, the Armenian communities launched another fund-raising campaign ... Read all
The Building of Armenian Neighborhoods in Syria and Lebanon
The AGBU Aleppo branch. Seated, from left to right: Yervant Zorian, Armen Mazlumian (president), and M. Puzantian. Standing, from left to right: Hrant Sulahian and Dr. K. Arslanian (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
A street in Kamishli in the 1920s
(CADN, Nantes).