Musa Dagh: The Place & The People
Musa Dagh or Jebel Mousa (Mountain of Moses) is situated in what is today the Turkish
province of Hatay, the small finger of coastline territory that points southwards into
Syria. In the foothills of Musa Dagh lie the six villages of Musa Dagh:
Kabusia, Vakif, Haji Hababli, Khdr Bek, Bitias and Yoghun Oluk.
The People
"Vakif is The last Armenian village in Turkey today" wrote the Turkish
Çumhuriet
newspaper in 1995. In 1938 all six villages of Musa Dagh were populated by Armenians,
about
5000 of them. In 1939, when the Kemalists seized Musa Dagh (under French mandate), the Musa
Daghians were given a new "home" in
Anjar, Lebanon. These people were the heroes of THE
FORTY DAYS OF MUSA DAGH, who had fought against the Turks in 1915.
