The Musa Dagh Resistance Memorial

The Musa Dagh resistance refers to the 53-day self-defense battles fought by the Armenian inhabitants of villages surrounding Musa Dagh against regular and irregular Turkish forces. During the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish army was massacring peaceful Armenian civilians. However, the Armenians of Musa Dagh's villages, sensing the imminent danger, retreated to the mountain and began their self-defense, which lasted from July 21 to September 12, 1915. French and British naval forces arrived to assist the defenders and evacuated over 4,000 Armenians to Egypt, where many later joined the French Armenian Legion. Inspired and deeply moved by these events, Austrian author Franz Werfel wrote his famous novel ""The Forty Days of Musa Dagh"" in 1933.

After World War II, many Musa Dagh Armenians immigrated to Armenia and founded the village of Musaler in the Ejmiatsin region, where, on September 16, 1976, a memorial was erected in honor of the defenders of Musa Dagh.