Cilicia was not terra incognita for the AGBU. In the wake of the 1909 Adana massacres, the Union had conducted many different relief missions among the Armenians of the region. But there was no common measure between the challenges it had faced then and those confronting it in the post-War period. Repatriation brought one hundred thousand Armenians to Cilicia. Even if orphans, the sick and injured, and widows and women without families found a degree of care and protection thanks to familial and ... Read all
THE FRENCH IN CILICIA: RESETTLEMENT STRATEGIES AND AIR FOR THE REPATRIATES
As soon as the French administration was set up in Cilicia under Colonel Brémond’s governorship on 1 February 1919, it began to address the Armenian refugees’ social needs. The French coordinated operations with Armenian humanitarian organizations. Among them was the AGBU, with which the French governor had forged close ties in Cairo during the War.
The first measures the French took clearly showed that they intended to maintain a long-term presence in the region. From the beginning of the occupation, even before an international treaty had determined Cilicia’s status, the French admin-istration intervened in local affairs with a view to establishing its authority in the region. To do so, it had, above all, to dispense justice, even if this meant alien-ating broad sectors of the Muslim population. Brémond, who had elected to turn to the Armenians for support, promulgated a series of decrees demonstrating his administration’s desire to encourage Armenian resettlement in Cilicia:
Ordinance 32: Nullification of real estate sales carried out by the Agricultural Bank to the detriment of deported Armenians (3 April 1919); Ordinance 54: Nullification of sales of movable assets carried out by the ... Read all
The AGBU's Return to Cilicia
The AGBU's Return to Cilicia: Hope and Disillusionment