“Your Religion is Worn and Outdated”

Résumé En Fr

The assimilation of orphaned Armenian children during the Great War was an integral part of the Armenian Genocide. In every sense, figuratively and actually, the Armenians became, as Ronald Grigor Suny has poignantly put it, an “orphaned nation”. A particularly moving example of this policy was the orphanage established by Cemal Pasha in Lebanon, at Antoura, with the purpose of Islamizing and Turkifying Armenian orphans. The three memoirs by Antoura inmates, cited in this article, prove beyond a doubt that Islamization and Turkification were carried out. One of the main points made in this article is that Halide Edib, the famous Turkish nationalist and prolific writer, was very much part of the project. Appointed as the general director of education in Cemal Pasha’s Syria, she was personally involved in the project of Turkification and Islamization at Antoura, although she was later to deny it in her memoirs. Therefore, this article is as much about Halide Edib as it is about Antoura.

L’assimilation des enfants arméniens orphelins pendant la Grande Guerre a fait partie intégrante de la mise en œuvre du génocide qui fit des Arméniens une « nation orpheline » (Ronald Grigor Suny), au sens propre comme au sens figuré. L’orphelinat créé par Cemal Pacha au Liban, à Antoura, dans le but d’islamiser et de turquifier les orphelins arméniens, offre un exemple particulièrement révélateur de cette politique de turquification et d’islamisation, portée notamment par Halide Edib, célèbre écrivain nationaliste et féministe turque, même si celle-ci l’a nié a posteriori. Ses mémoires sont ici relus à la lumière de ceux laissés par trois anciens pensionnaires arméniens de l’orphelinat d’Antoura.