Mouradian: Aleppo Armenians, the Genocide, and a Reversal of Roles

The city of Aleppo constituted a major hub for deportation routes during the Armenian Genocide. Convoys that survived the treacherous journey began to reach the area in May 1915. In a report dated June 5, the U.S. Consul in Aleppo, Jesse Jackson, explained: “There is a living stream of Armenians pouring into Aleppo from the surrounding towns and villages…. No animals are provided by the Government, and those who are not fortunate enough to have means of transport are forced to make the journey on foot.”

Many had no shelter. In a memoir he wrote decades later, John Minassian, a deportee from Sivas, revealed that he found refuge for a short time in the courtyard of Reverend Hovhannes Eskijian’s house in Aleppo, where “some twenty families had been crowded… all were in tatters, and were slowly dying of hunger and lack of care. Barely alive, they had little protection here, but they did have a friend in the Reverend.” According to eyewitness Hayg Toroyan, “The Armenians of Aleppo generally accepted the deportees with open arms. They opened their homes to them…. Yet the streets, the fields, and forgotten corners of the city were full of thousands of desolate people whose nests had been destroyed.”