“The Georgetown boys” and “The Forty

orphans”: Two cases of formation of the

Armenian Diaspora
Zabel Yesayan
 Positive attitudes
Letter of Yesayan to Poghos Nubar Pasha

• Some were purchased by rich Muslims or freed by them from the hands
of the police, and have succeeded, as a result, in making relatively
tolerable lives for themselves. These women accordingly feel gratitude
towards those who saved them from a terrible fate.
• Some have lost their whole families, and so face an uncertain future.
• Some have had children by their Muslim husbands, and do not want to
abandon these children.
• Some, after living disreputable lives, are borne down by feelings of
shame and lack the courage to return to their compatriots.
• Some have lost all sense of moral value.
• Some have no confidence that they can live in safety in their country.
• It is therefore necessary to create women’s groups to address the
situations of these women, inspire them with courage, provide them
moral support, and examine and solve their complex situations calmly,
with justice and humanity.
 Responding to the problem
• Establishment of shelters
-Giving medical care to the returnees
-Protecting them from threats
-Offering opportunities for developing new skills
-Finding potential husbands

(Armenian Apostolic Church and AGBU

supported such shelters)
• First shelter in Aleppo 1919
• Another one in Damascus 1919

Supported by the Armenian Church and AGBU

 Questions to be considered
• Should survival be seen as an act of
resistance? Does any form of survival
constitute an act of resistance?
• Is any form of survival ethical?
• Did the women held by Muslims have a role
in the national reconstruction?
• What about their children from Muslim
husbands/abductors?
Genocide survivor orphan-couples' wedding in the same day in Syria, 1920-1921. Old Armenia
 Diaspora

From Greek διασπορά, "scattering, dispersion"

 Definition(s) of Diaspora
1. that are dispersed from an original “center” to
at least two “peripheral” places;
2. that maintain a “memory,” vision or myth
about their original homeland;
3. that believe they are not – and perhaps
cannot be – fully accepted by their host country;
4. that see the ancestral home as a place of
eventual return when the time is right;
5. that are committed to the maintenance or
restoration of this homeland,…
Safran, William, “Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and return”,
Diasporas, vol. 1, n° 1, 1991.
––, “Comparing Diasporas: A review essay”, Diasporas, vol. 9, n° 3, 1999.
 Types of Diaspora

entrepreneurial diasporas
political diasporas
victim diasporas
labor diasporas
 The forty orphans
(and Kevork Nalbandian)
The Georgetown boys and girls
Canada’s noble experiment
Ethiopia
Amharic alphabet
 Pre-history

• Mateos Armenawi (“Matthew the Armenian”),

1512 (mission to Portugal)

• Murad (Mission to Holland, the bronze church

bell)

• Kevork Terzian, 1880s

Armenian school students in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1918.
• 1923, Crown Prince of Ethiopia Haile Selassie
(1892 - 1975) visiting Jerusalem
Rastafari
The Liberty Bell Temple in Los Angeles
• Tezeta. The Ethiopian Armenians (trailer)
https://youtu.be/B0xBybuEOgY

• Nalbandian’s anthem (1930-1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0FU5hjd7YM

Nalbandian’s anthem in London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXdvCsEqH-A

• Boris Adjemian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco1V4UF5sM
Vahe Tilbian
Addis Acoustic Project
 The Georgetown boys:
Canada’s Noble Experiment

• 109 boys, between 1923-1924

• 39 girls, in 1927 (Georgetown girls)
• First Armenians arrived in Canada in 1887
• Only 57 Armenians in 1914-1915
• 486 Armenians, in 1923-1924
• 304 Armenians, in 1924-1925
• 1917, Armenian Relief Fund (Armenian Relief
Association of Canada) founded by Levon
Babayan
• 1920, $300.000 raised with the help of
Toronto Globe
• 1923, permission received to bring 100
orphans to be resettled in Georgetown,
Ontario (40 kilometers north-west of Toronto)
• A farm purchased in 1923, under supervision
of Professor A. Maclaren and his assistant A.
Alexanian
• 1 July, 1923, first group of 50 boys arrives
(ages 8-12) from the orphanages in Corfu
• 2 October, 1924, second group of 40 boys
arrives
• August 1926, 8 more boys arrive from Syria
• Funds raised to help the boys
• 1925, boys sent out to Canadian families as
foster children
• By October 1927, of the original 98 boys, 91
were placed on farms in Toronto
• Peter Adourian, grandson of a Georgetown
boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEZ0u6MB
DHI
The Georgetown boys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Ehz9dW
hXM
American woman helping Armenian elder women initially
from Ottoman territory with English
Courtesy of Radcliffe college at Harvard University