NEW REVELATIONS ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The French College in Aintoura, Lebanon or Jemal Paha’s orphanage where Armenian children were to be turkified
ARTICLE BY: Nora Parseghian
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Simon Beugekian
The Armenian nation lived the most horrible phase of its history in
1915. The Ottoman authorities executed the Genocide
which resulted in the killing of over 1 million
Armenians, while most of the Armenians remaining on
the western parts of historic Armenia were compelled
to leave there cities and villages and deported,
marched towards the deserts of Iraq and Syria.
Parts of the deported Armenians reached Lebanon where they believed
that they were left in peace without realizing that
in one of the not-so-far villages of Lebanon, namely
Aintoura, near Zouk, Keserwan, which is about half an hour drive from the capital city
Beirut, a plan of Turkification of Armenian orphans
had been put in motion in 1915.
Such a new page in the history of the Armenian Genocide was
recently discovered by Missak Keleshian, who is an
avid collector of all kinds of photos of the
Armenian Genocide. This is how he speaks about this
most recent discovery: “A few months ago I was
reading a book entitled "The Lions of Marash" by
Stanley E. Kerr, (President of the American Univerity of Beirut) who tells about his personal experiences
with Near East Relief during the years 1919-1922. In
the book I came across a shocking photo with the
following caption: “Jemal Pasha...on the steps of
the French College at Aintoura, Lebanon. Jemal Pasha
had established an orphanage for Armenian children
in the college building and had appointed Halide
Edib to be its directress”. Halide Edib Hanum
was a famous Turkish feminist and very well known
for her efforts to turkify Armenian orphans. Beside
being shocking, the photo was the first step that
lead to a new discovery.
“On December 8, 2005 I visited the village of Aintoura and located
the school where the photo was taken. It’s a famous
French College and it was established by the Jesuit
priests 1657-1783 and Lazarist priests 1783-1834. I
met with the school principal Superior Lazarist
Father Jean Sfeir and after showing him the photo, I
asked for his permission to research the school’s
archives for additional information about it and
reveal its entire history. He was also amazed by the
photo and asked the archivist of the school to
assist me.”
“The archivist of the school Mr. Jean Sebastian Arhan, a Frenchman who
came to Lebanon 43 years ago and has been since
working in the archive of the French College in
Aintoura. I showed him the photo and explained to
him what I was looking for. To my amazement he was
not only well aware of that part of the school’s
history that I was interested in but he had also
gathered all the archival material pertaining to
that period in a separate file which he gave to me.”
According to Missak Keleshian, the most important revelation of the
photo is the presence of Jemal Pasha and Halide
Hanum beside Armenian orphans. Halide Hanum (Halide
Edib Adivar 1884-1964) was one of the world renowned
feminists of her times. She had received higher
education American College for Women in1901. Best
known for her novels criticizing the low social
status of Turkish women; her first novel Seviye
Talip, was published in 1909, Her first husband,
Salih Zeki, then she remarried Dr. Adnan Adivar in
1917.
She served as a sergeant in Turkey’s nationalist military. Lived in
UK, France, and as one of the early feminists met
with Gandhi and visited the United States of America
for meeting with the leaders of the feminist
movement there. She fell in love with Kemal Atatourk
but the latter rejected her. Halide Hanum was a
strong supporter of the pashas who planned,
organized and executed the Armenian Genocide and
played a crucial role in the efforts to turkify the
remnants of the Armenians and was one of the leaders
of that effort with Nigar Hanum.
Halide Adivar was Member of Parliament 1950-1954.
On October 29, 1914 the Ottoman Empire declared war against France,
Great Britain and Russia. Therefore the agreement
signed between the great powers and the Ottomans giving Mount Lebanon
special status on June 9, 1861 was voided. The last christian
governor of Lebanon, Ohannes Kouyoumdjian Pasha, is
replaced by Ali Mounif Bey, during whose reign
Lebanon lived horrible condition including hunger,
very harsh economic conditions and a surge in the
number of executions.
At the end of 1915, the kaymakam (district governor) of Jounieh
informs the responsible of the Aintoura College that
they must close it down. The clergy are compelled to
leave to another monastery on a higher altitude,
others are taken to Anatolia and Ourfa while a few
older priests, who are unable to travel, remain in
Aintoura.
Following the expulsion of the Lazarist priests the school is
transformed into an orphanage for Armenian, Turkish
and Kurdish children. In 1915 the school housed 800
orphans and 30 soldiers who guarded the school. The
staff consisted of 10 Lebanese and the director was
Nebih Bey. This is when efforts to turkify the
Armenian orphans start to be implemented. The boys
are circumcised and they are given Arabic and
Turkish names by keeping the first letters of their
Armenian names. This is how Haroutiun Najarian
becomes Hamid Nazim, Boghos Merdanian becomes Bekim
Mohammed, Sarkis Sarafian becomes Safwad Suleyman.
Poor sanitary conditions, lack of nourishment and
diseases prevail in the school and as a result a big
number of children die. Turkish responsibles
visiting the school blame Nebih Bey and accuse him
of incompetence. In 1916, the commander of the
Fourth Turkish Army Jemal Pasha decides to visit the
orphanage. Upon being informed that the official who
had appointed him to his position and charged him
with the responsibility of turkifying the orphans is
planning a visit, Nebih Bey orders the statues of
St. Joseph and the statue of father Saliege removed
from the school’s entrance. Jemal Pasha arrives at
the school accompanied by feminist Halide Hanum, who
is immediately appointed to replace Nebih Bey as the
principal of the orphanage. Halide Hanum is assisted
by five Lebanese nuns from the Sacred Heart Order,
who are responsible of the sanitation and nutrition
of the orphans and other chores. Beside the Aintoura
orphanage, Halide Hanum is also responsible of the
Sister Nazareth school in Beirut, which is closed
down in 1917.
400 new orphans between the ages 3-15 are brought to Aintoura with
Jemal Pasha. They are accompanied by 15 young women
from Turkish elite families, who join the team of 40
people working towards the islamization and
turkification of the orphans. Halide Hanum, the
principal of the school, was the highest authority
and was supervising all the activities aiming at the
full turkification of the orphans in the shortest
possible interval. Her goal was to transform the
Aintoura College into an idea Turkish institution.
While famine was prevailing in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon
and the Turkish plan to exterminate the Armenians by
the sword and the Arabs by famine was being carried
on, cows, sheep and flour were abundant in the
Aintoura orphanage. The goal was to have well fed
and healthy newly turkified children. Lebanese
outside the compound walls used to gather and beg
for food.
Teaching at the orphanage was in Turkish. Older orphans were
trained in trades – shoemaking, carpentry and others
and the mullah assigned to the schools called the
children to prayer five times a day. Every night the
band used to play “Long live Jemal Pasha”.
In the summer of 1916 leprosy starts spreading within the orphanage
while the Ottoman Armies start loosing on the fronts
in the Balkans and in Palestine. Lutfy Bey, Rashid
Bey and Halide Hanum abandon the school and the
orphanage starts falling into chaos. Students start
leaving the school compound and disorderly conduct
leads to fights between the Turkish and Kurdish
students on one side and the Armenian orphans – who
were blaming the parents of the Turkish and Kurdish
students of having killed their parents – on the
other. It is only through the interference of the
Turkish soldiers stationed at the school that
killings are avoided.
From the 1200 orphans kept at the Aintoura orphanage one thousand
are Armenians and the remaining 200 are Turkish and
Kurdish. The Armenian orphans used to keep forks and
other sharp objects to defend themselves. When the
Ottomans retreat and the French and British arrive
in the region, accompanied by members of the clergy,
they find a chaotic situation in the school. One of
the Lazarist leaders approaches Bayard Dodge, an
officer of the American University of Beirut for
assistance, who immediately complies with the
request and arrange for shipments of food through
the American Red Cross.
On October 1, 1918 the Turkish Army abandons Lebanon. On October 7
Father Sarlout returns to Aintoura and realizes that
the situation is untenable. He arranges for the
Turkish and Kurdish orphans to be transported to
Damascus to ease the tension within the orphanage.
He then gathers the Armenian orphans and starts
working with them to remember their Armenian names
and tries to explain to them that the turkification
process they were going through is no longer in
force. Once convinced, the Armenian orphans start
calling each other by their original names then they
gather all the forks and sharp items they were
hiding and “surrender” them to the school officials.
The statue of St. Joseph is returned to its podium
and the French flag flies over the school. But
father Sarlout realizes that his resources are
limited and he cannot support that many orphans. He
calls upon Bayard Dodge and the American Red Cross
to support the school and the orphans. Mr. Crawford
is then appointed principal of the Aintoura school,
the staff of the school is replaced by Armenian
teachers and the orphans are offered lessons in
Armenian and English. Later “Near East Relief” takes
over the school and keeps it until the fall of 1919,
when the male orphans are sent to Aleppo and the
females to the Armenian orphanage in the village of
Ghazir, Lebanon.
While the school was under Turkish control, as a result of
malnourishment, lack of sanitary conditions and
diseases (mainly typhus), 300 Armenian orphans die.
They are buried during 1916 in the backyard of the
school. In 1993 the school directors decide to build
an extension in that same backyard. When they start
digging the ground they come across human remains
which they gather and rebury in a few joint graves
in the cemetery belonging to the Aintoura priests.
When the Turks leave and Father Sarlout returns to the school, he
finds there 670 orphans – 470 boys and 200 girls.
“Wondering in the different parts of the school, one corner looked
very familiar to me. At a first glance I couldn’t
remember where or how I had seen that spot but I was
sure that this was not new to me. When I returned
home I started working in my collection of
photographs and after three hours I found what I was
looking for: it was the photo of a young orphan,
which was actually taken in the same corner of the
Aintoura school that looked familiar to me. The
original of the photo was in the archives of the
Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia in
Antelias, Lebanon, in the documents and photos
belonging to Maria Jacobson. The writing on the side
of the photo notes: “Armenian orphan, clean-cut and
bright”. The seal of “Near East Relief” is still
visible at the bottom-left of the photo. At the
time, the photo in question did not seem that
important but toady, following the newly discovered
facts about the Aintoura college, it was another
piece of the puzzle I was faced with”,- says
Keleshian.
By putting the photos side by side and researching
the archives of the Aintoura College, Missak
Keleshian succeeded in reconstructing one of the
most horrifying phases in the life of the orphans of
the Armenian Genocide – Turkification, which was
nothing else but another portion of the general plan
of annihilating the Armenian nation.
