During the years of the Armenian Genocide and the difficult period that followed, along with non-governmental organizations, the Armenian Church also played a significant role, reaching out to thousands of emigrants. The first stop of most of the emigrants was St. Etchmiadzin, and the Mother See took the first blow of the Armenian Genocide in Eastern Armenia. In that period, the Catholicos was Gevorg Y. Surenyants. On December 28, 1914, the Fraternal Relief Committee was established under the leadership of Gevorg E. Surenyantsi and under his direct chairmanship.

The main mission of the organization was to provide support to wounded Armenian volunteers, as well as tens of thousands of emigrants who were deprived of their homes and material resources.

Starting from the summer months of 1915, a chaotic situation prevailed in Etchmiatsin. Everywhere there were thousands of migrants, orphans, the epidemic in its turn reaped a bountiful harvest in Etchmiatsin, famine in its turn.

Catholicos Gevorg Y. Surenyants was doing everything in that period to be able to help his people. In the official magazine of the Mother See of Saint Etchmiadzin, “Ararat”, we read exclusive details about the initiatives of the Catholicos of those days. From the November-December 1915 issue of the magazine, we learn that the Catholicos wrote a letter even to US President Woodrow Wilson at that time, asking him to help the Armenian emigrants. The Catholicos wrote the letter on December 19, 1915.

“Washington, United States to President Wilson.

According to the information that has reached us, in Mesopotamia, in Aleppo and Mosul, as well as in Cilicia and Pauls, several hundred thousand Armenians are found in a condition where their lives are even in danger.

The resources of my nation in the time of war are very small to help their brothers who are in need of blood, especially since we have no way to reach out for help, and we lack all means to send help to the places of poverty.

Mr. President, well knowing your noble heart and your humanitarian feelings towards the poor, I appeal to you with a warm request that you please take the great initiative to save my people in Tajikistan, organizing important measures to procure food, clothes and a place to live, to save them from inevitable loss.

The sufferings of my people in Tajikistan are bottomless and the endless human history has no such examples. I have great faith that the tragic situation of my nation and my appeal to the Knight President of the great Trans-Oceanic Republic will find an immediate response in his heart and soul, and the noble American nation will without delay reach out to help a people with a historical past that is condemned to immediate annihilation today.”

Signed after the real thing

“George E. Catholicos and Supreme Patriarch of all Armenians.” (“Ararat”, 1915, November-December, p. 843-844).

Studying the situation in that region, we learn that not only migrants, but also people living in the city, volunteers working in Etchmiatsin, and even clergy were getting sick and dying from the infection in Etchmiatsin. In the same issue of the magazine, we read that the Catholicos was also seriously ill during the writing of the above mentioned letter.

“On Dec. 21, His Holiness, feeling slightly ill, went to bed, but on the following and third day, the illness took an acute form and the temperature of His Holiness reached 40. On the advice of Dr. Eichler, who was following the course of the disease and taking care of him, a medical council was immediately invited, which was attended by MD, who was invited from Yerevan. Yovhannisian, thanks to which N. S. The serious condition of the anointing patient gradually recovered and he was put in a state of recovery. The doctors took all the care and care and always visited and were on duty.” (Ibid., p. 845).

During the years of the Armenian Genocide, St. Etchmiadzin became not only a spiritual center, but also a pillar of national salvation, accepting the first and heaviest wave of emigration. The initiatives of Catholicos Gevorg E. Surenyants, starting from the establishment of the Fraternal Aid Committee to the correspondence requesting international support, testify to the exceptional manifestations of the responsibility and devotion of the church. In those tragic days, the church, overcoming the epidemic and famine, became not only a witness of the disaster, but also a symbol of the struggle and hope standing alongside the people.

Z. Sh:i was late

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