AVC Multimedia e-Book Series e-Book#3: AGBU 100 Years of History (Vol. I) | Page 158

Of course, this project never materialized, because the overwhelming majority of the roughly 15,000 Armenians in Alexandretta left the area in July 1939, just before it was definitely ceded to Turkey. The French High Commission opened new refugee centers for them in Lebanon. Thus, in September 1939, two hundred families, almost of all of them from Alexandretta, Beylan, Sug-Su, Nergizli, and Attik, were settled on the property at Ras ul-Ain, near Tyre. Twelve hundred families were established in Ainjar, while two hundred went to Amuk, north of Hamidiye, on the road between Tripoli and Latakia.138

The AGBU promptly mobilized all its capacities to assist the thousands of refugees who had left the sanjak of Alexandretta for Syria and Lebanon. The central board sent £1,300 in emergency relief and simultaneously mounted an international fund-raising campaign for the refugees. Donations came pouring in; the biggest were made by Arakel Nubar (100,000 francs), Vahram Nubar (50,000 francs), and Noyemi Kapamajian (50,000 francs).139 To carry out work in the field, the Union founded the Central Relief Committee for Syria ... Read all

The Building of Armenian Neighborhoods in Syria and Lebanon

Plan of Nubaravan in Ras el-Ain in southern Lebanon

(Coll. Raffi Atamian, Lebanon).

Embarkment of the Armenians in Alexandretta in 1939.

(Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).

The refugees settling

in a camp in Beirut

(Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).