19.02.2025


In parallel to orphan care activities Hovhannes Toumanyan has initiated and realized a number of projects aimed at solving the consequences of the Armenian Genocide.

On March 1918, the Union of Armenian Compatriotic Unions was established under the presidency of Hovhannes Toumanyan. Concentraiting the activities of the patriotic unions established in different Armenian provinces around him, Hovh. Toumanyan has carried out extensive work to organize fundraising to provide material support to the Armenian refugees, as well as ensure the peaceful coexistence of Armenians with neighboring nations (including Muslims). On behalf of the Union of Armenian Compatriotic Unions and the Armenian Writers Union, Toumanyan has called on the parliaments, academies, universities, and scientific societies of different countries in the world, describing the hard plight of the Armenian people and asking for moral and material aid.

On 31 October 1918, the day after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the conclusion of the Mudros armistice, a meeting of the Central Council of the Armenian Compatriotic Unions was held in Tbilisi, where it was decided to submit a memorandum to the Paris Peace Conference to be held in 1919. In order to prepare the memorandum War Victims Relief Committee was established under the leadership of Hovhannes Toumanyan. In a short time this state committee has undertaken an extensive work to record and legalize the human and material losses of Armenian people during the war.

In February 1920, adjunct to the National Council of Georgia, the Armenian Orphans and Refugees Relief Committee was established again under the leadership of Hovhannes Toumanyan.

Toumanyan’s humanitarian activities were far more extensive: in 1920, selling the copyright to publish his books, Toumanyan allocated 10,000 rubles to Armenian orphans, 10,000 to earthquake victims in Georgia, and 10,000 to starving people in Russian.

As a president of the Armenian Relief Committee, established in 1921, Toumanyan has traveled abroad, obtain assistance for Armenia giving a new impetus to the activities of the Armenian Relief Society.

In 1922, Toumanyan's health sharply deteriorates. All-Armenians poet passed away in Moscow on 23 March 1923 from pancreatic cancer. His last words were words: “Stay firm…”



Photo՝ Hovhannes Tumanyan, 1914 թ.
Hovhannes Tumanyan Museum