According to the
U.S. Department of State, in 1922 there were 817,873 Armenian refugees who had originated from Turkey. This figure was based upon information provided by the British Embassy in
Constantinople and 1921 data from the
Near East Relief Society. The total given did not include able-bodied Armenians detained by
Kemalist Turkey, nor Armenian women and children – approximately 95,000, according to the
League of Nations – who have been forced to convert to Islam. According to the same source, there were 281,000 Armenians still living in Turkey in 1921: 150,000 in
Istanbul and 131,000 in
Asia Minor.
Middle East By 1925, nearly 275,000 Armenian refugees had fled to Middle Eastern territories not controlled by Turkey.
Eastern Armenia An estimated 350,000 to 600,000 refugees fled from the Ottoman Empire to the new Armenian republic in
Eastern Armenia. In addition due to the
Pan-Turkic military actions, additional Armenian refugees fled from
Azerbaijan and the
North Caucasus. By late 1920, about 360,000 (almost half of Armenia's population of 720,000) or 200,000 refugees remained. This proved an insurmountable humanitarian issue for the
First Republic of Armenia. Typhus was a major sickness, because of its effect on children. According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 192,000 people died due to the typhus epidemic and famine by the summer of 1919. The government of
Hovhannes Kachaznuni was faced with a most sobering reality in the winter of 1918–19. The newly formed government was responsible for over half a million Armenian refugees in the Caucasus. It was a long and harsh winter. The homeless masses, lacking food, clothing and medicine, had to endure the elements. Many who survived the exposure and famine succumbed to the ravaging diseases. By the spring of 1919, the typhus epidemic had run its course, the weather improved and the first
American Committee for Relief in the Near East shipment of wheat reached Batum. The British army transported the aid to Yerevan. Yet by that time some 150,000 of the refugees had perished. Vratsian puts this figure at around 180,000, or nearly 20% of the entire nascent Republic. A report in early 1919 noted that 65% of the population of Sardarabad, 40% of the population of eight villages near Etchmiadzin and 25% of the population of Ashtarak had died. File:Armenian refugees carding wool in Tiflis (NatGeo 36, 1920).JPG|Armenian refugees from Turkey carding wool in Tiflis, Georgia. Photograph by Melville Chater from the
National Geographic Magazine, 1920. File:Armenian child refugees (Aleppo, Syria, 1915).jpg|Armenian refugees in
Aleppo, Syria File:Armenian refugee camp in beyrouth.png|Armenian refugee camp In
Beirut, Lebanon File:Greek and Armenian refugee children near Athens, 1923.jpg|Greek and Armenian refugee children near
Athens, Greece, in 1923, following their expulsion from Turkey == Notable survivors ==