Report: The Bird's Nest Armenian Orphanage in Byblos (Lebanon)

The Bird’s Nest in Byblos (Jbeil, Lebanon) was an orphanage built to house the Armenian refugees who had escaped the 1915 Genocide. It served generations of Armenian children. The southern part of the plot includes the Saint Kayaneh chapel, built by the orphans themselves in 1921. That chapel is the only place of worship for the Armenians of Byblos

On 21 February 2015, the Armenian Catholicosate of the Greater House of Cilicia, keeper of the Bird’s Nest since 1967, announced that it will be renting out the southern section of the plot to real-estate developers who will transform the area into a beach resort. The Catholicosate`s statement specifies that the nearly one hundred year-old Saint Kayaneh chapel will be included in the handover. In addition, the thirty-three bodies who have been resting for over eighty years in the cemetery will be dug up, moved to the northern section of the plot, and put into a collective tomb. Recently, an attempt was made to exhume the remains, and destroy the cemetery, but a complaint was filed and the works stopped.

A group named "Protect the Bird`s Nest in Byblos" has organized a petition calling on the Armenian Catholicosate and the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities to preserve the site, demanding that the Lebanese Ministry of Culture declare the Bird`s Nest to be a "site of importance." They have authored a report, with maps and images, that documents the site`s history and landmarks.

"On the hundredth year commemoration of the Genocide, we take a stance against the erasure of more Armenian history and heritage. We refuse the desecration of more cemeteries and the displacement of more bodies. We are all the more resistant to this given the fact that these actions are being undertaken by the hands of our very own representatives.

With this petition, we as Armenians, as Lebanese and as Citizens, ask that all concerned authorities exercise their duties and responsibilities towards us and towards history, our patrimony and human dignity."

For signing the petition to put a stop to the unearthing of the remains of the Genocide survivors in the Bird`s Nest, click here.