Figure 1.--Here Armenian refugees are gathered on a Black Sea beach, Novorossiisk, Russia. It is Russia's main Black Sea port, located near Georgia. The photoigrapoh was taken about 1920. The photographer was G.P. Floyd who apparently was working with the American Red Cross. Source:Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection (Library of Congress No. 12/1312.

The Turks were very effective in their killing operations. There were, however, some survivors. Some 0.8 million Armenian refugees escaped the Turkish genocide according to a 1922 report. [U.S. State Department] This number does not include Armenians known to be still in the hands of the Turks and some 0.1 million women and children forced to convert to Islam. Many of the refugees survived by treking south through desert areas to Syria or east across the mountains to the Russian Caucasus. About half of the refugees escaped to Russia in the midst of World War I with few resources to spare. After the Russian Revolution they becane the responsibility of the First Republic of Armenia. Which also has scarce resources. The Armenian refugees who made it to Syria were more fortunate. The Arabs unlike the Turks had no animus toward the Armenians. In the final year of the War, the British seized the Levant. Syria and Lebanon became a French League of Nations Mandate. Palestine (including modern Jordan) became a British Mandate. America was able to organize Near East Relief to assist the Armenians. Armenians also made it to Greece. We also note some who made it by boat to the Russian Black Sea coast. Many of the refugees survived by treking south through desert areas to Syria or east across the mountains to the Russian Caucasus.

Russia

About half of the refugees escaped to Russia in the midst of World War I with few resources to spare. It was in Tsarist Russia that most Armenian refugees found salvation. and humanitarian aid. As onesource mentions, "'Russia' and 'humanitarianism' are rarely coupled in the historical literature on the 20th century." But Tsarist officials made a real eefort to save Armenians. The Caucasus was onevofvthe last mentioned theaters of the War. The Russians turned political and public reaction into real action. The Russian Imperial Government and non-governmental Russian organizations provided humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of desperate Armenian refugees. The Ottomans joined he War, in large part to get land lost to the Russians back. And the main Ottoman efforts was launched in the Caucasus. The commanders proved incompetent. The campaign was a disaster for the Ottomans. Turkish authorities blamed their failure on Armenian trechery. Turkish authorities targetted Armenian civliams (men, women, and children) as a 'strategic threat'. They justifyed their actions as militarily necessary massacring Armenians or driving them into the deserts of Mesopotamia and Syria. Those who did not perish became refugees on the Russian-Ottoman battlefront. Armenians had suffered untold hardships during all of the Russo-Turkish wars (18th and 19th centuries). World War I in contras was unprecedented in its impact for the Armenians. Never before was the machinery of the Ottoman state and army organized for such systematically and catastrophic killing. It was all covered bybthe fog of War in the least covered battlefikd of the War. Unlike Belgium whuch was rescued by an international consortium, only the Russians with limited resources were in a position to help the Armenians. The Germans locked in a fiere battle of their own with the Russians were silent. In the 19th century they had joined other European countries in championing Christian populations in the Empire. With the Armenians they were silent.

Syria

The Armenian refugees who made it to Syria were fortunate. The Arabs unlike the Turks had no animus toward the Armenians. In the final year of the War, the British seized the Levant. Syria and Lebanon became a French League of Nations Mandate. Palestine (including modern Jordan) became a British Mandate. America was able to organize Near East Relief to assist the Armenians. Most of that was organized in Syria and Palestine.

Greece

Armenians also made it to Greece. The Armenian presence in Greece was not new. Armenians have been noted in Greece and Greek islands for centuries dating back to the anvient world. Their common Chritian heritage was a factor here. What was involved, howver, was the movement of indivisuals and individul families. This changed fundamentally with the 20th century and World War I. The brutal Turkish genocide of the Armenian people (1915) resulted in Armenians from Cilicia, Smyrna, Ionia, Constantinople and other regions of Turkish Anatolia seeking safety in Greece. Armenians settled in Thessaly, Macedonia, Thrace, and other areas of Greece. Smaller numbers found refuge on Crete and Kerkyra (Corfu). Some 70,000-80,000 Armenians settled in Greece. [Paulston, p. 72.] The Greeks generously received the Armenians. An exchange of population followed the Greek-Turkish War (1920-22) which included according to the League of Nations some Armenians including some 17,000 orphans. [Zenian] An estimated 1.5 million Greeks were expelled. Eventually because of the numbers involved, an Armenian community developed in Greece (1920s). Over time the Armenian community in Greece has declined in numbers, many migrating to the United States.

America

Ottoman policies toward Chiristians in the Empire, especially Armenians, began to hardenin thevlate 19th century as Balkan peooles revolted aainst Ottoman rule. During the difficult final years of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalists began to target thec Armenians and other Christians in Anatolian with violent attacks. They were increasingly seen and treated as non-Moslem infidels (giavors). Turks massacred an estimated 0.3 Armenians (1894-95). The result was large numbers of Armenians fleeing areas of the Ottoman Empire where their ancestors had lived for millenia. The flow of Armenians ended with the outbreak of World War I when travel was no longer possible (1914). An estimated 64,000 Turkish Armenians are believed to have reached America before the War. After Workld War I, a second wave of immigrationn began (1920-24). The Ottoman entry into World War I on the side of the Central Powers proved to be a disaster for the Armenian people. Ottoman attacks on Christians had been limited to a degree by the intervention of the Great Powers. As a result of the fog of war and the failure of the Germans to intervene with their ally, Ottoman officials and Turkish nationalists carried out a horendous genocide in which an estimated 1.0 million Armenians were murdered (1915-20). Because of the War, few Armenians could escape to America. Most of the Armenians who survived were Armenians who managed to reach Russian occupied eastern Turkey or the Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire (Mesopotamia, Syriam Lebanon, and Palestine). After the War, an estimated 31,000 Armenians reached America. Many came from colonies like Syria and Lebanon rather than directly from Turkey. This flow was cut off when Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act which drastically curtailed immigration (1924). The Armenian quota was only 150 people annually. America's primary resopnse to the Turkish Armenian Genocide was Near East Rrelief.

Sources

Paulston, Christina Bratt and Donald Peckham. Linguistic minorities in central and eastern Europe (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1998).

Zenian, David. "Greece: Alays a safe haven to Armenians," AGBU (November 1, 1999).

Created: 3:39 AM 1/11/2017
Last updated: 11:11 AM 8/19/2019