Vahram Shemmassian to give lecture on Armenian Refugee Camp at Port Said in 1915

PanARMENIAN.Net - "The Armenian Refugee Camp at Port Said, Egypt in 1915” lecture by Prof. Vahram Shemmassian will be held on April 14, 2011, in the Merdinian Armenian Evangelical School in Sherman Oaks, LA, California.

Abstract One of the least examined aspects of the Armenian Genocide is the refugee camp in Port Said, Egypt. Although concentration camps existed in greater Syria for the final liquidation of Armenian deportees, the “Tent City” of Port Said was the only safe haven for Armenian survivors in the Near East, while the atrocities and forced marches were still taking place. More specifically, the camp was established in mid-September 1915 to accommodate the Musa Dagh Armenians, who had resisted the genocide and fought the Turkish army for forty days before being transported to Egypt, aboard French warships and one British aircraft carrier. French and British efforts to relocate them to a Mediterranean island, a north African colony, or even Russian (Eastern) Armenia notwithstanding, the refugees stayed in the camp for four years, through the fall of 1919. This lecture, to be delivered in Armenian, will shed light on the details of the camp’s establishment until the end of 1915. As such, it will touch upon the following issues: camp setup and administration, first reactions on the part of the Egyptian Armenians, other locals, and foreigners by way of the press, relief measures, and visitations, food, health, industries, church, school, cultural activity.

Vahram Shemmassian holds a Ph.D. in History from UCLA. He is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the California State University, Northridge. His areas of study are the Armenians of Musa Dagh and survivors of the Armenian Genocide. He is the leading authority on Musa Dagh. In the summer of 2010 he received the “William Saroyan Medal” from the Minister of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia, Ms. Hranoush Hagopyan, for his contributions to the field, as well as the dissemination of Armenian culture in the Diaspora in general.