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CNN INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHTS 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF MUSA DAGH RESISTANCE
Asbarez
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
CNN International featured on Monday a report covering the heroic
defense of Musa Dagh during the Armenian Genocide. The segment,
produced by Yerkir Media for broadcast on CNN, marks the 95th
anniversary of the famed resistance against the Turkish army in 1915.
Reporting the story, Yerkir Media correspondent Gayane Avetisyan
meets Musa Dagh descendants in Armenia as they celebrate the famed
resistance by their ancestors.
Armenian communities around the world that trace their heritage to
this once thriving community in the historic Armenian Kingdom of
Cilicia, celebrate the anniversary every year with a unique festival
and reenactments of the resistance.
Of the hundreds of villages, towns, and cities across the Ottoman
Empire whose Armenian population was ordered removed to the Syrian
desert, Musa Dagh was one of only four sites where Armenians organized
a defense of their community against the deportation edicts issued
by the Young Turk regime beginning in April 1915.
By the time the Armenians of the six villages at the base of Musa
Dagh were instructed to evict their homes, the inhabitants had grown
suspicious of the government's ultimate intentions and chose instead
to retreat up the mountain and to defy the evacuation order. Musa
Dagh, or the Mountain of Moses, stood on the Mediterranean Sea south
of the coastal town of Alexandretta (modern-day Iskenderun) and west
of ancient Antioch.
With a few hundred rifles and the entire store of provisions from
their villages, the Armenians on Musa Dagh put up a fierce resistance
against a number of attempts by the regular Turkish army to flush them
out. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Armenians had little expectations
of surviving the siege of the mountain when food stocks were depleted
after a month.
Their only hope was a chance rescue by an Allied vessel that might be
patrolling the Mediterranean coast. When two large banners hoisted by
the Armenians were sighted by a passing French warship, swimmers went
out to meet it. Eventually five Allied ships moved in to transport
the entire population of men, women, and children, more than four
thousand in all.
The Armenians of Musa Dagh had endured for fifty three days from
July 21 to September 12, 1915. They were disembarked at Port Said
in Egypt and remained in Allied refugee camps until the end of World
War I when they returned to their homes. As part of the district of
Alexandretta, or Hatay, Musa Dagh remained under French Mandate until
1939. The Musa Dagh Armenians abandoned their villages for a second,
and final, time when the area was annexed by Turkey.
In the face of the complete decimation of the Armenian communities
of the Ottoman Empire, Musa Dagh became a symbol of the Armenian
will to survive. Of the three other sites where Armenians defied
the deportation orders, Shabin Karahissar, Urfa, and Van, only
the Armenians of Van were rescued when the siege of their city was
lifted by an advancing Russian army. The Armenians of Urfa and Shabin
Karahissar were either massacred or deported. Musa Dagh stood as
the sole instance where the Western Allies at war with the Ottomans
averted the death of a community during the Armenian Genocide.
From: A. Papazian
Asbarez
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
CNN International featured on Monday a report covering the heroic
defense of Musa Dagh during the Armenian Genocide. The segment,
produced by Yerkir Media for broadcast on CNN, marks the 95th
anniversary of the famed resistance against the Turkish army in 1915.
Reporting the story, Yerkir Media correspondent Gayane Avetisyan
meets Musa Dagh descendants in Armenia as they celebrate the famed
resistance by their ancestors.
Armenian communities around the world that trace their heritage to
this once thriving community in the historic Armenian Kingdom of
Cilicia, celebrate the anniversary every year with a unique festival
and reenactments of the resistance.
Of the hundreds of villages, towns, and cities across the Ottoman
Empire whose Armenian population was ordered removed to the Syrian
desert, Musa Dagh was one of only four sites where Armenians organized
a defense of their community against the deportation edicts issued
by the Young Turk regime beginning in April 1915.
By the time the Armenians of the six villages at the base of Musa
Dagh were instructed to evict their homes, the inhabitants had grown
suspicious of the government's ultimate intentions and chose instead
to retreat up the mountain and to defy the evacuation order. Musa
Dagh, or the Mountain of Moses, stood on the Mediterranean Sea south
of the coastal town of Alexandretta (modern-day Iskenderun) and west
of ancient Antioch.
With a few hundred rifles and the entire store of provisions from
their villages, the Armenians on Musa Dagh put up a fierce resistance
against a number of attempts by the regular Turkish army to flush them
out. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Armenians had little expectations
of surviving the siege of the mountain when food stocks were depleted
after a month.
Their only hope was a chance rescue by an Allied vessel that might be
patrolling the Mediterranean coast. When two large banners hoisted by
the Armenians were sighted by a passing French warship, swimmers went
out to meet it. Eventually five Allied ships moved in to transport
the entire population of men, women, and children, more than four
thousand in all.
The Armenians of Musa Dagh had endured for fifty three days from
July 21 to September 12, 1915. They were disembarked at Port Said
in Egypt and remained in Allied refugee camps until the end of World
War I when they returned to their homes. As part of the district of
Alexandretta, or Hatay, Musa Dagh remained under French Mandate until
1939. The Musa Dagh Armenians abandoned their villages for a second,
and final, time when the area was annexed by Turkey.
In the face of the complete decimation of the Armenian communities
of the Ottoman Empire, Musa Dagh became a symbol of the Armenian
will to survive. Of the three other sites where Armenians defied
the deportation orders, Shabin Karahissar, Urfa, and Van, only
the Armenians of Van were rescued when the siege of their city was
lifted by an advancing Russian army. The Armenians of Urfa and Shabin
Karahissar were either massacred or deported. Musa Dagh stood as
the sole instance where the Western Allies at war with the Ottomans
averted the death of a community during the Armenian Genocide.
From: A. Papazian