The League of Nations and Armenian Refugees. The Formation of the Armenian Diaspora in Syria

Abstract The League of Nations played an important role in securing the Armenian community after the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. Nonetheless, the Armenian Question, which had a definite political accent during the First and Second Assembly of the League of Nations, remained unresolved. Afterwards, the League reformulated its policy towards the Armenian case, which involved an explicit shift from a political to a humanitarian point of view. The humanitarian actions had a number of different aspects: the liberation of the Armenian Genocide survivors from Turkish and Islamic institutions, the provision of Nansen passports to Armenian refugees, the settlement of Armenian refugees in Soviet Armenia and the establishment of Armenian communities in Syria and Lebanon. This article touches upon these initiatives, concentrating on the settlement of the Armenians in Syria. The League of Nations elaborated a massive program for the settlement of Armenian refugees there, which laid a foundation for the establishment of the huge Armenian diaspora in that country.