How Armenians in Aleppo Aided Deported Anatolian Armenians

As the Ottoman Empire deported Armenians from Anatolia, forcing them to journey hundreds of kilometers on foot south towards the Syrian desert, many passed near the city of Aleppo (in present-day Syria). The vast majority of Aleppo’s 450,000 residents were Christian and Muslim Arabs, but the city had a small but thriving community of about 18,000 Armenians. They held prominent positions in local commerce, banking, railroad, and medical professions. ¹

One of the Armenians of Aleppo was Haig Toroyan, who saw the death marches and camps of Armenians in 1915 and 1916 while disguised as the Christian Arab translator for a German military official. His testimony, published in 1917, became the first published eyewitness account in the aftermath of the genocide. ²

When the first deported Armenians from Anatolia (whom Toroyan refers to as “Armenians from Armenia”) approached Aleppo, a group of the city’s Armenians went to meet them. Toroyan, himself, was not among those who was there to meet the deported Armenians, but he includes in his testimony the description of another Aleppo Armenian who was there:

They stood motionless, not knowing where they were to go or what they were to do. They could neither protest, nor speak—they were silent. Sometimes, a woman would shake her head as she sighed from weariness or pain, or a child would fall from exhaustion. And they waited there in that state. For an instant, we doubted that these were the ones we were looking for, but when we realized that these unfortunate ones were Armenians, we became, like them, stunned. We could neither walk nor speak; we stood face-to-face with them in a silent pain. This is how our first meeting with Armenians from Armenia took place.

Toroyan describes how the Aleppo community responded as deported Armenians continued to arrive in the city:

The deportees arrived in successively worse conditions. Emaciated, in a vegetative state, many close to death; they had all lost any sort of human appearance. About 70,000 deported Armenians were settled in Aleppo; these groups had come from different places, the remnants of big and prosperous cities. Women and children, who had not been able to keep their families together, arrived from Bafra, Drabizon, Erzurum, Dikranagerd, and these cities’ environs, since every family was divided among the groups going to different places.

The local [Aleppo] Armenians organized the relief effort with great fervor and devotion: the doctors, led by Dr. Samuel Shmavonian (president of the Benevolent Society), visited the sick without respite. Dr. Shmavonian became such a visible figure through his personal efforts and sacrifices that the government took him into custody. He was released a few days later thanks to the interventions of influential people. Taking up his former role once again, he became infected with a contagious disease and died.

A women’s organization also played an important role. These women, through their own efforts, almost single-handedly protected and comforted those 70,000 exiles. They personally prepared meals for the deportees, when needed, begging from one street to the other, for clothes and provisions—their devotion knowing no limits. The efforts of all these individuals, in addition to the small amount of aid provided by the government, considerably softened the deportees’ situation. A medical group was established under the supervision of Dr. Samuel, and a group of adolescents and young adults was also formed under another individual’s direction. This latter group worked day and night with the aforementioned women, helping to settle the deportees: to wash, clean, heal, and feed them, and whenever possible, to procure work for those who were willing and able.

Aleppo’s Armenian population generally welcomed its unfortunate fellow Armenians with open arms: they opened their doors to the refugees; and everyone sheltered five to ten of these exiled people in their homes, whether these were acquaintances of theirs or not. Nevertheless, the city’s streets, fields, and unfamiliar corners were crowded with thousands of homeless and unfortunate souls. The church’s district presented an especially unbearable picture. The roads were crowded and closed, and the deportees slept on the streets right next to their excrements. Walking among these exiles was impossible and coming to their aid was difficult in the extreme. Although part of the homeless population had been settled in national properties—caravanserais, schools, the attic of the church, everywhere—the crowding of those unfortunates resulted in many deaths and the disappearance of many boys and girls.

The government gradually halted its aid and changed its policies. They searched the homes of local Armenians, and although they found nothing suspicious, they nonetheless arrested those who were aiding the exiles, some of the wealthy locals, and me. This was a mere formality, a kind of warning, and we were released 24 hours later.

At the same time, the government declared that any exiled women, girls, boys, and so on who were being sheltered by local Armenians needed to be sent away. Any local who did not comply with this order would be deported themselves and become exiled. ³

Discussion Questions

1. Who in this reading was in the position to act in response to the crimes being committed against Armenians?
2. What could this person or group have done in order to stop or prevent acts of violence against Armenians? What options for action might have been available to them?
3. Why might their decision about how to respond have been difficult to make? What dilemmas did they face?
4. What did the person or group ultimately do?
5. Why do you think they made this choice?

• 1Zabel Yesayan, The Agony of a People: Haig Toroyan’s Eyewitness Account of the Armenian Genocide, trans. Arakel Minassian (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2025), 75–76.
• 2Ibid., xii.
• 3Ibid., 76–78.