In 1907-1908, all available resources were devoted to providing relief for the starving populations of Van, Agn, Bitlis, Sghert, Mush, Sasun, Divrik, Sivas, Hajin, Arapkir, Palu, Gürün, Tokat, Albistan, Khizan, Chemshgadzak, and Diyarbakir. The inhabitants of these towns and villages were regularly stricken by famine17 as a result of the Hamidian regime’s policies toward the Armenians of the provinces, a combination of pressure through taxation and harassment by nomadic tribes. The period following the 1895-1896 massacres saw no let-up in the pressure that Constantinople brought to bear on the Armenian population in the intention of keeping it mired in chronic poverty.
The AGBU continued to grow in these years: 1908 saw the creation of the first American chapter, in Boston, and the first European chapter, in Manchester.18 The Union’s true beginnings, however, were closely bound up with the 1908 Young Turk “revolution,” an occasion for scenes of wild rejoicing that found its concrete translation in a liberalization of the Ottoman regime.
The AGBU’s First Ventures, 1906-1909
Adana, 1909: Armenian refugees near the city limits (photograph SGF)
Vahan Malezian (1871-1966), a Cairo attorney, one of the founders, in 1908, of the Constitutional Democratic Party (which became the Democrate Liberal Ramgavar Party in 1921), and the AGBU’s general director from 1923 to 1947 (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris)
The AGBU's first European branch, founded in Manchester in 1909. From left to right: Sarkis Kuyumjian, S. Shnorha-vorian, Mihran Manukian (president), M. Bakrjian, K. Funduklian, D. Iplikjian (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris)
Young Turk Revolution and AGBU's First Ventures - An Armenian destiny (video)