Settlement of Armenian Refugees in Syria and Lebanon, 1919-1939, by Dr. Tom Greenshields

BEIRUT — The book focuses on the consequences of the Franco-Turkish agreement of October 20, 1921, which led to the second exile of the Armenians who had gathered in Cilicia with the hope of the proclamation of an Armenian state as the realization of their dream of homeland, after their genocidal tribulations by the Ottoman government and the leadership of the Committee for Union and Progress.

However, the dream was shattered by the above-mentioned agreement, which handed over Cilicia to the rising state of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal. Consequently, the Armenians were left with no choice but to flee the country to avoid an impending genocide and ethnic cleansing, as the policy of Kemalist Turkey was to continue on the track of the CUP and to ethnically homogenize the new state.

No sooner had the Franco-Turkish agreement been announced than tens of thousands of Armenians left Cilicia heading for the adjacent countries, mostly going to Syria and Lebanon, and to a lesser extent to Cyprus, Greece, Palestine and Egypt. The refugees were settled in Syria and Lebanon with the help of the international community and the instrumental support of Western philanthropic organizations.

Back in the early 1970s, a Ph.D. student of Durham University, Tom Greenshields endeavored in studying the settlement of these refugees in Syria and Lebanon. Based on the archival materials of the League of Nations alongside a number of other relevant archives, as well as magazines which covered the settlement process and published pertinent news and reports, Greenshields produced a seminal study which is still unprecedented.

This profound study caught the attention of the HU Press that recognized its academic value, and contacted the author for a permission to publish the thesis in a book format. Dr. Tom Greenshields graciously permitted the publication of this thesis in book format by the Haigazian University Press.

The book stands out as an unparalleled, unique and extensive study of human geography. It is considered an important resource for migration studies and for in-depth studies on group settlements, their integration into host societies and the diverse sociopolitical, economic and cultural challenges such processes face. It may serve as a comparative reference for both the settlement of Armenian refugees in Cyprus and Greece and the settlement of Greeks in Cyprus and Greece after the Smyrna affair in 1923, as well as for the settlement of other refugee groups both in the Middle East and in other parts of the world. The book reconstructs and validates narratives of the first two decades of the post-Genocide origins of the Armenian communities of Syria and Lebanon.

This publication was made possible by the donation of the Adalian family in memory of their mother, Araxy Der Boghosian Adalian, and her uncle Paul Der Boghosian, a student of Armenag Haigazian.