Musa Dagh

Musa Dagh (; , Musa leṛ; Jebel Musa; meaning "Moses Mountain") was the site of an Armenian resistance in 1915. The denizens of that region had been given an official order from the Turkish government to perform violent expulsions of six Armenian villages: Kabusia (Kaboussieh), Yoghunoluk, Bitias, Vakef, Kheter Bey (Khodr Bey) and Haji Habibli. This was a fragment of a wider operation conducted by the Ottomans since 1915. As Ottoman Turkish forces converged upon the town, the populace, aware of the impending danger, fell back upon Musa mountain and thwarted assaults for fifty-three days. One of the leaders of the revolt was Movses Der Kalousdian, whose Armenian first name was the same as that of the mountain. Allied warships, most notably the French 3rd squadron in the Mediterranean under command of Louis Dartige du Fournet, sighted the survivors, as Werfel was told, just as ammunition and food provisions were running out. The warships then transported them to safety in Port Said, Egypt. French and British ships, beginning with the Guichen, evacuated 4,200 men, women and children from Musa Dagh.