03.06.2022


The presentation of the book “The Aleppo Rescue Home: 1464 Accounts of Armenian Genocide Survivors” by Edita Gzoyan Ph.D., AGMI Deputy Director for Scientific Works, took place in the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute conference hall on 2nd June.

The work puts 1464 stories of Armenian Genocide survivors, held in the archives of the League of Nations (Geneva, Switzerland), into circulation in their original English with an Armenian translation and corrected toponyms, footnotes and photographs of survivors. The latter were rescued, through the efforts of Karen Jeppe, the Danish missionary and League of Nations Commissioner, finding refuge in the Aleppo Rescue House.

AGMI Director Harutyun Marutyan greeted the participants with an opening speech and stressed the importance of the great work carried out by Edita Gzoyan, mentioning that the research carried out is unique in that the horrors suffered by the most vulnerable group, women and children, are presented through documents held in the archives of the League of Nations, which was the most important international organization of the time.

The author, Edita Gzoyan, in her address, noted that she had worked on the book for more than 15 years. During that time, she worked in the archives of the League of Nations in Geneva several times. The book is an important source on various aspects of the Armenian Genocide for researchers. The author expressed the hope that it would be, for the descendants of Genocide survivors, a source of information about their ancestors, especially since such a case was recorded during its preparation. The author stressed that the stories presented in the book once again clearly show that a large number of Armenian young women and children were forcibly abducted by Turks, Arabs and Kurds, violating the 5th point of article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, which is the “forcible transfer of children from one group of people to another.” Edita Gzoyan ended her speech expressing her gratitude to all those who contributed to the publication of the book.