Միջագետքի անապատների հայ որբախույզները (1918-1923 թթ.)

Abstract

The article describes the activities of people engaged in the search for orphans in the Mesopotamian Deserts in the years of the Armenian Genocide and subsequent years. Their slogan was “Let’s Save the Orphans of the Desert”. They wandered through the deserts, often disguised in Bedouin robes, in search of their fellow compatriots, discovered them, released them from Arab or Kurdish “captivity” and handed them over to organizations involved in providing assistance to orphans. The article highlights the activities of R. Heryan, L. Yotneghbaryan, P. Shishikyan, Vagharshak Metsmorukyan, Abraham Garakeozyan, who made a tremendous contribution in this field, as well as new names of people engaged in the search for the orphans were revealed, whose goal was to withdraw as many of the Armenian orphans as possible from the desert.

The characteristics of the work of people engaged in the search for orphans, as well as the difficulties they encountered in the course of their activities, are presented. The newspaper periodicals of that time, memoirs and eyewitness accounts, as well as materials stored in the Academy of Sciences of the RA and the nominal fund of R. Heryan served as a primary source for the article. The press coverage of activities related to the search for orphans was also analyzed.