The Activities of the Armenian Orphan Care Society of Egypt in Cilicia during the Armenian Genocide

Abstract

The article discusses the activities and the main goal of the Armenian Orphans Care Society, which was established in Egypt in 1905 and was reorganized in 1916 – to provide the urgent and necessary assistance to orphans, which survived the massacres and hunger, in particular in Cilicia. The Society launched its activities through the departments in Cairo and Alexandria and via many branches, commissions, and groups of volunteers. The Orphans’ Care Society cooperated with several international and local Armenian benevolent organizations. The article describes fundraising activities, lotteries, and the system of donation boxes organized by the Society. The Society spent the entire profit to fund the orphanages in Adana, Ayntap, Anturay, Damascus, and Baghdad–Baquba. The Orphans’ Care Society played a significant role in orphan gathering activities in Cilicia, accommodating orphans in its orphanages in Adana and Ayntap. The Adana orphanage launched its activities in 1919 at the suggestion of Ruben Heryan, Egypt’s Armenians’ delegate in Syria. The number of orphans was gradually growing and reached 1,300, which created some problems regarding the funding and accommodation of orphans. The article discusses the situation in the orphanage, the issues related to food, education, healthcare, and other daily problems. The orphanage leadership sought to solve those problems by cooperating with Orphans’ Care Society and Armenian National Union, which partly funded the orphanage. After the activation of Kemalists in Cilicia, the Society organized the relocation of 700 orphans from Adana orphanage to Mersin, where AGBU took care of part of the orphans. Regarding the Ayntap orphanage, the delegate of Cilicia Hakob Aghazarm visited the Ayntap orphanage in August 1919. He established a special caretaker-steering body chaired by Nerses vicar Tavugchyan, while Gevorg Aslanyan was appointed president. Aghazarm personally participated in the first sessions. Shortly after, the director of the Hama orphanage – Ghazaros Ghplikyan, moved to Ayntap with the last remaining orphans and became the director of the new orphanage. The Society would like to keep up to 500 orphans in the orphanage, but it failed to reach that goal due to the political situation. The Ayntap orphanage orphans moved to Jounieh coastal settlement in Lebanon in July 1920. The Society cooperated with the American Relief organization to fund the orphanage. The article describes the educational and artisanship activities of the orphanage. The Society was led by the ideology of national unity, emphasizing the significance of the activities aimed at protecting the Armenian identity of orphans. The Society periodically printed the name lists of the orphans of Adana and Ayntap orphanages in its official “Vorbuni” magazine and names of their parents, their birthplaces, and other information to activate the work to find the relatives of orphans or foster the adoption process. During its activities, the Society saved up to 3,400 orphans; 1,500 were first kept in Cilicia and later relocated to Lebanon.