The Armenian refugees who settled in Nea Kokkinia

The first Exodus of Armenian refugees to Greece took place in 1915-1916, followed in 1921 by a mass movement of Armenians towards Syria and Greece after the evacuation of Cilicia. The wave of Armenian migration to Greece reached its peak after September 1922, when Armenian refugees arrived in the country along with the Christian refugees, experiencing the same harsh conditions and facing the same difficulties during their settlement and rehabilitation. The majority of the Armenian refugee population settled in urban areas and received aid from international relief organisations, such as Near East Relief, the American Red Cross, as well as American missionary unions and Armenian organisations in Europe and America, such as the Armenian Benevolent Union, the Armenian Blue Cross and Friend’sMission for Industrial Relief.

The core of the Armenian settlement in Nea Kokkinia was located on both sides of the Kanapitseri stream, east of the bridge which used to stand at the intersection of the streets today known as March 7th, Tzavela and Belogianni. The settlement was established after September 1922, when the populations that were arriving at the port of Piraeus looked for empty land on the outskirts of the cities where they could settle. The originally erected tents gave way to wooden sheds and makeshift brick houses. The Armenian refugees created their own communities in the places where they settled and established their own institutional forms of representation by creating schools, churches, and clubs, along with political, cultural, sports and charity associations. As anthropologist Panagiota Antoniou notes in her doctoral thesis, through participating in these institutions, the Armenians were striving to cement their relationship with their community and maintain the Armenian way of life.

The community’s first co-ordinated efforts were directed towards establishing a church and a school. The original makeshift temple and school soon gave way to more permanent spaces which became the community’s main meeting spots and points of reference. The members of the Armenian Blue Cross (a branch of the American Red Cross) and the Corps for the Establishment and Construction of the Zavarian School (which consisted of Almouhanian Michael, Arsagouni Yeya, Avedikian Takvor, Avsarian Vahan, Eodemisian Krikor, Giourounlian Arakel, Gazarosian Ramela, Mangoyan Ovannes and Derkikorian Sarkis) created the Zavarian Association – School and undertook the construction of the building that would house it. To this purpose, they managed to raise 750 drachmas with the assistance of their compatriots. In autumn 1927, the ‘Hripsimiantz kindergarten’ opened its doors with the contribution of the kindergarten teacher Haiastan Ousaklian, while the ‘Zavarian Elementary School’ boasted 6 teachers and 80 students under the direction of Zakar Zakarian. Since the 1928-1929 school year, the ‘Zavarian’ School has been housed in the same space where it can still be found to this day. Besides its educational contributions, the Zavarian foundation also operated as a shelter, offering care and relief to homeless and orphaned children.