Marash (Now known as Kahraman-marash) is a city now in Turkey and called Kahraman-Marash. It was also known as Andiok, Andiok Giligio                                                                                                 General view of Marash. Copyright (c) 2004, Raffi Kojian,

view of Marash. Copyright (c) 2004, Raffi Kojian.

Gesaria (Now known as Kayseri)    Gesaria, also frequently transliterated as Gessaria, now known in Turkey as Kayseri.  An Armenian Church reopened in recent years, though there are no Armenians left.

Hajin (Now known as Saimbeyli)

Hajin always maintained autonomy from the Ottoman Empire. In 1920, the Armenians of Hajin resisted a seige by Kemalist troops for eight months without any help from the outside. Only a handful of Armenians survived this seige, and the Turks renamed the city Saimbeyli in tribute to Sayib Bey, who was one of those responsible for this destruction of Armenians.

In 1909 there was a massacre 30,000 Armenians at  Adana which resulted in a great many orphans.  Here we see the girls orphanage that was established at Hadjin. The staff is in the fifth row most of whom are wearing white. Included are Mennon Brethren Missionaries Sister Rose Lambert,  Fredericka Tonk, and Sister Ida Tschumi

Adana, the name of both a city and a provice, is located in historic Cilicia, now in Turkey, and before the Armenian Genocide had a large Armenian population. The city of Adana or in Western Armenian, Atana also known as Atan, Atanah, Atania, Andiokis ar Sarosiv.                           At the beginning of the 20th century the city had a population of 45,000, of which 13,000 were Armenian.              Today's population is over 300,000, primarily Turks.

Adana massacres, April 1909: "Armenian children whose flesh was ripped off with cotton-chopping tools and whose knee tendons were severed,"

Musa Dagh

The resistance of the Armenians in Musa Dagh was legendary, captured in the famous fictional international bestseller by Franz Werfel, "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh". The actual resistance in fact lasted 53 days, until French ships unexpectedly arrived and rescued the survivors. Today, just one tiny Armenian village survives on this mountain, in fact the only Armenian village remaining in all of Turkey.

Sis (Now known as Kozan)

Sis was the seat of the Catholicossate of Cilicia. When Sis fell to the Turks, the Catholicossate moved to Antelias, in Lebanon, following many of the Armenian refugees from the area.

Aintab (Now known as Gaziantep)

On the fringes of Cilicia lies Gaziantep (W Arm: Aintab). Gaziantep had an Armenian Church called St. Mary's. St. Mary's Church was converted into a prison for a period, before being turned into Kurtulus Mosque.

Urfa (Now known as Şhanliurfa)

Fortress of Hromkla

Virtually the only remaining Armenian monument in Cilicia after the invasion by Mustafa Kemal's Republican forces is the Hromkla Fortress, overlooking the Euphrates River. The name Hromkla is Arabic for "the Fortress of the Romans" (actually referring to the Byzantines). The Turks call it "Rumkale", a name with the same etymology.

Hromkla was an Armenian pricipality of sorts for a century and half, which was ruled by the Catholicossate, and was completely surrounded by Muslim territory. Heads of the Armenian Church undertook religious, political, diplomatic, literary and artistic activities.

Nerses Shnorhali was coadjutor to his brother from 1113-1166, then Catholicos himself until 1173 when he died. Toros Roslin worked here in the second half of the XIIIth century. Roslin is considered by most to be the best ever painter of illuminated manuscripts.

The fortress is also where the reliquary of Skevra - one of the finest examples of Armenian goldsmith art - was made. It was lost for centuries before being rediscovered in Italy in the XIXth century and is now at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The Catholicossate moved from here to Sis.