AIDING REPATRIATES AND PEASANTS
In the AGBU’s estimation, the policy of repopulating Cilicia could succeed only if the Armenian repatriates were rapidly restored to their places in local economic and social life. But most of the Armenians repatriated to Cilicia were destitute; they had lost everything they owned during the genocide and needed the kind of help that would enable them to become economically self-supporting again. The Union accordingly sought to provide them with concrete material assistance. In the towns and villages in which it had created or reorganized chapters, packages of clothes from the Aleppo and Cairo clothing workshops were handed out to the population on a regular basis. Local AGBU chapters also loaned families money in order to help them make a new start or resolve their day-to-day problems. Thus they gave financial aid to the four hundred genocide survivors from Zeytun who were still in Marash or Aleppo in April 1919. These people, who were mainly farmers, no longer had farm ... Read all
The AGBU's Return to Cilicia
Pre-War Zeytun
(Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
Marach (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
The AGBU's health clinic in Dörtyol in December 1919 (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/ Paris).