25/07/2025
On this day, 25 July 1921, with a first notarised act at the Mixed Court of Alexandria, benefactor Garabed Melkonian bequeathed his and his late brother's entire movable and immovable property - worth about 500,000 Egyptian or 600,000 English pounds - to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Zaven Der Yeghiayan, in order to construct and maintain three schools in Turkey and Cilicia.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) and the establishment of the first Republic of Armenia in the Caucasus (28 May 1918) did not leave him and his brother Krikor unmoved: although almost uneducated, the two intelligent and philanthropist brothers greatly appreciated the value of education; Krikor wanted to establish a girls’ school, whereas Garabed wanted to establish both a girls’ and a boys’ school. Adana Bishop Moushegh Seropian also had an important role, as he first pitched the idea to the Melkonian brothers to build an orphanage for the orphans of the Adana massacre in 1909.
Immediately after his brother’s death (Alexandria, 3 June 1920), Garabed Melkonian publicly announced that he would make their immense fortune available to the newly-established Republic of Armenia; however, his donation never materialised because of the Soviet regime that was established in Armenia on 2 December 1920. Therefore, he started looking for other ways to realise his vision.
Following the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), there was an understandable uncertainty about the future of Armenian properties and entities in the newly-established Republic of Turkey. After much consideration and reviewing a number of alternative custodians and locations, the co-educational Melkonian Educational Institute was eventually constructed in Nicosia, Cyprus, between 1924-1926, under the care of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU).
Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra
