In his president’s report to the 8 May 1910 general assembly in Cairo, Nubar summed up the AGBU’s situation. “Founded under the old regime,” he said, “under particularly difficult, delicate conditions, the AGBU. . . was compelled to limit itself to a very narrow field of operations. . . . Only after the constitutional regime was definitely restored in Turkey were most of the major obstacles standing in our path. . . cleared away, creating material conditions that allowed us to work, from then on, without hesitation or restriction.”31
Not until fiscal year 1910 did the Union find itself in a position to declare that “its sole concern was no longer, as in the past, that of meeting the material needs of victims of catastrophe or famine,” so that it could now “concentrate most of [its] aid on educational work and the creation of new sources of employment and production.”32 This observation reflected a marked improvement in the socio-economic conditions of the Armenian population of the eastern provinces; the AGBU could at last take up its original mission. To be sure, it was, early in 1910, still devoting part of its budget to emergency relief for the Armenians of Cilicia—Adana, Dörtyol, Hajin, Marash, Musa Dagh, and Zeytun—as well as those living in Albistan, Arapkir, Divrik, Erznjan, Mush, Sasun, Urfa, Sivas, and Zara. But most of its available resources now went to schools in Hasanbeyli, Kilis, and Agn in the form of direct grants, or subsidies to well organized educational societies working in the Ottoman context, such as Miatsyal, Azkanver Dignants, and Tbrotsasirats. The Union also subsidized some thirty schools in the provinces, so that they could open new classes, add extensions to their school buildings or even construct new ones; among the ... Read all
The AGBU and its Mission, 1909-1912
Harput, 25 May 1911: St. Hagop Primary School, supervised by Father Vartan Aslanian and subsidized by the AGBU
(Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).