Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1916

This article provides a reassessment of what is referred to as the second phase of the Armenian genocide, emphasizing the role of an Armenian-led humanitarian network in saving thousands of lives. The scholarship (and the popular discourse) on humanitarian efforts during the Genocide focuses on western missionaries and consuls, who emerge as selfless heroes protecting and saving hundreds of thousands of helpless Armenians. Armenian agency is neglected. Here, it is argued that it was the Ottoman Armenians who drove this humanitarian resistance waged in the Ottoman Empire. Western humanitarianism provided tremendous material and moral support, yet it was the Armenians themselves who led the resistance effort and shouldered the larger share of the burden, distributing humanitarian aid and funds to deportees huddled in church and school courtyards and, ultimately, in concentration camps – despite the dangers involved. This Armenian-led humanitarian resistance network comprised of church committees, influential Armenian dignitaries, doctors, and nurses, as well as missionaries and local Muslims and Christians helped anchor and support thousands in Aleppo in 1915-1916, and saved the lives of thousands of others elsewhere in Syria