Deir ez-Zor camps

Last updated
Deir ez-Zor camps
Concentration camp
Den armenske leder Papasian ved Der-ez-Zor - PA 0699 U 36 150 (restored).jpg
Bodil Biørn's caption: "The Armenian leader Papasian considers the last remnants of the horrific murders at Deir ez-Zor in 1915–1916."
Syria adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Deir ez-Zor in contemporary Syria
Coordinates 35°20′00″N40°9′00″E / 35.33333°N 40.15000°E / 35.33333; 40.15000
Location Deir ez-Zor, Ottoman Empire
Operational1910s
InmatesArmenians
Killed150,000
Armenian refugees collected near the body of a dead horse at Deir ez-Zor Armrefugees.jpg
Armenian refugees collected near the body of a dead horse at Deir ez-Zor

The Deir ez-Zor camps were concentration camps [1] in the heart of the Syrian desert in which many thousands of Armenian refugees were forced into death marches during the Armenian genocide. The United States vice-consul in Aleppo, Jesse B. Jackson, estimated that Armenian refugees, as far east as Deir ez-Zor and south of Damascus, numbered 150,000, all of whom were virtually destitute. [2]

Contents

History

Those Armenians who survived during the genocide in 1915-1916 were driven onwards in two directions: towards Damascus or along the Euphrates to Deir ez-Zor. During the early period of massacres, 30,000 Armenians were encamped in various camps outside the town of Deir ez-Zor. They were under the protection of the Arab governor, Ali Suad Bey, until the Ottoman authorities decided to replace him with Salih Zeki Bey, who was known for his cruelty and barbarity. [3] [4] When the refugees, including women and children, reached Deir ez-Zor, they cooked grass, ate dead birds, [5] and although there was a cave near a place called Deir ez-Zor that was used at the end of one march to store prisoners until they starved, no "camp" seems ever to have been planned for the Armenians. [6]

According to Minority Rights Group,

Those who survived the long journey south were herded into huge open-air concentration camps, the grimmest of which was Deir-ez-Zor... where they were starved and killed by sadistic guards. A small number escaped through the secret protection of friendly Arabs from villages in Northern Syria. [7]

According to Christopher J. Walker, "'Deportation' was just a euphemism for mass murder. No provision was made for their journey or exile, and unless they could bribe their guards, they were forbidden in almost all cases food and water". Those who survived landed up between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor, "a vast and horrific open-air concentration camp". [8]

Armenian genocide

The Ottoman government persecuted the Armenian people and forced them to march out to the Syrian city of Deir al-Zour and the surrounding desert without any facilities and supplies that would have been necessary to sustain the life of hundreds of thousands of Armenian deportees during and after their forced march to the Syrian desert. [9] [10]

Haj Fadel Al-Aboud, who was the mayor of Deir al-Zour, provided them with food and housing and means of livelihood and security. The Armenians returned the favor to Al-Aboud when French colonial authorities sentenced him to death in Aleppo; they supported and defended him, which led the French to reduce the sentence to exile in Jisr al-Shughur. [11]

Memorial

Armenian pilgrims gathered in the Syrian village of Margadeh, near Deir ez-Zor, to commemorate the 94th anniversary of the Armenian genocide Margadeh.jpg
Armenian pilgrims gathered in the Syrian village of Margadeh, near Deir ez-Zor, to commemorate the 94th anniversary of the Armenian genocide

In the village of Margadeh, (88 km from Deir ez-Zor, an Armenian chapel dedicated to those massacred there during the genocide "houses some of the bones of the dead". [12] Lebanese and Syrians make pilgrimages to this memorial organized by the Armenian Apostolic Church of Aleppo. [13]

Nouritza Matossian wrote for Armenian Voice :

Last month I visited the desert of Deir-ez-Zor in the killing fields, caves and rivers where a million Armenians perished. I was shown a piece of land that keeps subsiding. It is called the Place of the Armenians. So many thousands of bodies were buried there that the ground has been sinking for the last 80 years. Human thigh bones and ribs come to the surface. [14]

"For Armenians, Der Zor has come to have a meaning approximate to Auschwitz", wrote Peter Balakian in The New York Times . "Each, in different ways, an epicenter of death and a systematic process of mass-killing; each a symbolic place, an epigrammatic name on a dark map. Der Zor is a term that sticks with you, or sticks on you, like a burr or thorn: "r" "z" "or" — hard, sawing, knifelike". [15] In 2010, the President of Armenia, Serzh Sarkisian, stated: "Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor with Auschwitz saying that 'Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the Armenians'. I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the facts in a reverse way: 'Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews'. [16]

The memorial and museum were destroyed by ISIL in 2014. [17] The site was recaptured in 2017. [18] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pledged to restore the site, as part of the rebuilding of Syria. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deir ez-Zor</span> City in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria

Deir ez-Zor is the largest city in eastern Syria and the seventh largest in the country. Located on the banks of the Euphrates River 450 km (280 mi) to the northeast of the capital Damascus, Deir ez-Zor is the capital of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. In the 2018 census, it had a population of 271,800.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aram Andonian</span> Armenian journalist, historian and writer

Aram Andonian was an Armenian journalist, historian and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kessab</span> Town in Latakia, Syria

Kessab, also spelled Kesab or Kasab, is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Latakia Governorate, located 59 kilometers north of Latakia. It is situated near the border with Turkey on the slope of Mount Aqraa, 800 meters above sea level. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Kessab had a population of 1,754 in the 2004 census. Along with the surrounding villages, the sub-district of Kessab has a total population of around 2,500. Kessab has a dominant Armenian population, which dates back to the medieval ages.

The Armenians in Syria are Syrian citizens of either full or partial Armenian descent.

Al-Baggara or Bakara is an Arab tribe of the Euphrates tribes spread widely between Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. The tribe was named by the name of their grandfather, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, one of the grandsons of Ali ibn Abi Talib.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian Genocide Memorial Church, Der Zor</span> Church in Syria destroyed, allegedly, by ISIL in 2014

Armenian Genocide Martyrs' Memorial in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, was a complex dedicated to victims of the Armenian genocide. The construction of the Martyrs' Memorial started in December 1989 and was completed in November 1990. It was consecrated on 4 May 1991 by Catholicos Karekin II of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. The memorial complex served as church, museum, monument, archive centre and exhibition. It was under the direct administration of the Armenian Prelacy, Diocese of Aleppo. Every year, on 24 April, tens of thousands of Armenian pilgrims from all over the world visited the Deir ez-Zor complex to commemorate the genocide victims, with the presence of their religious leaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenia–Syria relations</span> Bilateral relations

Armenian–Syrian relations are foreign relations between Armenia and Syria. Armenia has an embassy in Damascus and a consulate general in Aleppo. In 1997, Syria opened an embassy in Yerevan. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa visited Armenia in March 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deir ez-Zor clashes (2011–2014)</span> Conflict during the Syrian Civil War

Protests against the Syrian government and violence had been ongoing in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor since March 2011, as part of the wider Syrian Civil War, but large-scale clashes started following a military operation in late July 2011 to secure the city of Deir ez-Zor. The rebels took over most of the province by late 2013, leaving only small pockets of government control around the city of Deir ez-Zor.

Ra's al-'Ayn camps were desert death camps near Ra's al-'Ayn city, where many Armenians were deported and slaughtered during the Armenian genocide. The site became "synonymous with Armenian suffering".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian Diocese of Beroea</span>

Armenian Diocese of Beroea, is one of the oldest dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church outside the historic Armenian territories, covering the Syrian city of Aleppo and the governorates of Deir ez-Zor, Idlib, Latakia and Raqqa. It is known as Beroea, being named after one of the ancient names of Aleppo; when the city was renamed Beroea (Βέροια) in 301 BC by Seleucus Nicator until the Arab conquest of Syria and Aleppo in 637 AD. The seat of the bishop is the Forty Martyrs Cathedral of Aleppo. It is under the jurisdiction of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deir ez-Zor Governorate campaign</span> Military operation

The Deir ez-Zor Governorate campaign of the Syrian civil war consists of several battles and offensives fought across the governorate of Syria:

The Deir ez-Zor offensive was a military operation launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on the Deir ez-Zor air base and the surrounding areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deir ez-Zor offensive (2016)</span> ISIL military operation

The Deir ez-Zor offensive (2016) was an ISIL military operation, during which it took over the northern suburbs of Deir ez-Zor on 16 January 2016, and killed from 135 to 300 people, while also kidnapping about 400 others.

The September 2016 Deir ez-Zor air raid was a series of 37 U.S.-led Coalition airstrikes near the Deir ez-Zor Airport in eastern Syria on 17 September 2016, lasting from 3:55 p.m. to 4:56 p.m. Damascus time in which Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers were killed conducting operations against the Islamic State. Russia reported that at least 62 SAA soldiers were killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 80 were killed and 120 wounded. The United States said that the intended target was Islamic State militants and that the attack on Syrian soldiers was due to a misidentification of ground forces while the Syrian and Russian governments claimed that it was an intentional attack against Syrian troops. The attack triggered "a diplomatic firestorm" with Russia calling an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting. Later, the Syrian government called off a ceasefire that had been the result of months of intense diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and Russian governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Deir ez-Zor (2014–2017)</span> Siege in the Syrian Civil War

The siege of Deir ez-Zor was a large-scale siege imposed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against several districts in the city of Deir ez-Zor held by the Syrian Army, in an attempt to capture the city and secure full control of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. The ISIL siege of the city lasted for almost 3 years and 2 months, after which the Syrian Army launched a successful offensive that fully recaptured the city nine weeks later.

Haj Fadel Government was a government formed during the Occupation of Zor in the eastern region of Syria and based in Deir al-Zour`s city after the departure of the Ottomans in 1918, headed by Haj Fadel Al-Aboud and it was called his name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fadel Al-Aboud</span> Syrian politician (b. 1872, d. 1936)

Fadel Aboud Al-Hassan or Haj Fadel Al-Aboud was a Syrian leader and head of the Haj Fadel government in eastern Syria after the Ottomans left the region in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayyash Al-Haj</span> Syrian leader

Ayyash Al-Haj Hussein Al-Jassim was a Syrian revolutionary who led the armed struggle against the French in the Deir al-Zour Governorate in 1925 during the Great Syrian Revolt. He was sent into exile to Jableh in western Syria with his family after they were convicted of planning and carrying out future rebellions against the French in other parts of Syria. They also sentenced his eldest son Mohammed 20 years in prison on the island of Arwad, and executed his son Mahmoud by shooting with a number of other revolutionaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epic of Ain Albu Gomaa</span> Military operation by revolutionary groups during the Great Syrian Revolution

The epic of Ain Albu Gomaa was a military operation carried out by revolutionary groups in the city of Deir Ezzor in early June 1925 against the French forces during the Great Syrian Revolution.

References

  1. ↑ Winter, Jay (2009). America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Cambridge University Press. p. 162. ISBN   978-051-149760-5. OL   34442571M.
  2. ↑ Bramwell, Anna C. (2021) [1988]. Refugees in the Age of Total War. Taylor & Francis Group. p. 45. ISBN   978-100-045957-9. OL   33927375M.
  3. ↑ Walker 1990, p. 223, 220.
  4. ↑ Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2020). Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide. Princeton University Press. p. 263. ISBN   978-0-691-20258-7. OL   29464070M.
  5. ↑ Friedman, Saul S. (2004). A History of the Holocaust. Vallentine Mitchell. p. 330. ISBN   0-8530-3435-4. LCCN   2003057169. OL   17142643M.
  6. ↑ Everdell, William R. (1997). The First Moderns: Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth-century Thought. University of Chicago Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN   0-2262-2480-5. LCCN   96044334. OL   1004603M.
  7. ↑ George, Joan (2002). Merchants in exile the Armenians in Manchester, England, 1835-1935. Gomidas Institute. p. 164. ISBN   1-9036-5608-7. OL   22062404M.
  8. ↑ Walker 1990, p. 205, 210.
  9. ↑ "Exiled Armenians starve in the desert; Turks drive them like slaves, American committee hears ;- Treatment raises death rate". The New York Times . 8 August 1916. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012. (cited by McCarthy, Justin (15 August 2010). The Turk in America: The Creation of an Enduring Prejudice. University of Utah Press. p. 177. ISBN   978-1-60781-013-1.)
  10. ↑ Danieli, Yael (1998). International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 23. ISBN   978-0-306-45738-8. [Victims] were often held without food for days so they would be too weak to escape.
  11. ↑ Alshamary, Anwar, Biggest Baggara Tribe, Dar Almaref, Homs, 1996, Page: 363..
  12. ↑ Mannheim, Ivan (2001). Footprint Syria & Lebanon Handbook. Footprint Handbooks (published 25 July 2001). p. 391. ISBN   978-190-094990-3. OL   8762669M.
  13. ↑ "Deir ez-Zor, International Travel News, 2007". Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  14. ↑ ""Ararat" World Premier in Cannes, by [[Nouritza Matossian]]// Armenian Voice, Summer 2002, Issue 46". Archived from the original on 2005-03-17. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  15. ↑ Bones, by Peter Balakian, The New York Times , December 5, 2008
  16. ↑ Marutyan, Harutyun (2014). "Museums and Monuments: comparative analysis of Armenian and Jewish experiences in memory policies". Études arméniennes contemporaines (3): 57–79. doi: 10.4000/eac.544 . ISSN   2269-5281.
  17. ↑ "ISIS Destroys Armenian Genocide Memorial in Syria". 29 September 2014.
  18. ↑ "Photos: Der Zor's Armenian Genocide Memorial Church Liberated by Syrian Armed Forces". 6 November 2017.
  19. ↑ "Assad to rebuild Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Deir Ezzor". 10 January 2019. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.