Early in May 1915, "Vali" Ismail Hakkı Bey received an order from Constantinople (now İstanbul) to deport the Armenians of the city. "Vali" was able to delay the deportations and let the Armenians to sell their movable assets to acquire money for the trip. First convoy of deportees consisting of more than 4000 Armenians left the city on May 20. The Catholicos of Cilicia, Sahak II wrote a letter to Djemal Pasha, then Syria-Cilicia General "Vali", to prevent further deportations and the chief secretary Kerovpe Papazian met the pasha in Aley in early June and delivered the message of Catholicos. Djemal Pasha immediately wired the Vali to not to deport more Armenians. With his efforts, Adana Armenians earned an exemption at a summer, while the rest of Cilician Armenians were being deported and hundreds of thousands of exhausted Armenian deportees of Western Anatolia were passing through the city. Armenian intellectuals that were deported on April 24th from Constantinople, Rupen Zartarian, Sarkis Minassian, Nazaret Daghavarian, Harutiun Jangülian, and Karekin Khajag were kept in custody at the Vilayet Hall for few days. They could manage to have a meeting with the Catholicos at the Cathedral; their last attempt for survival. Later in June, two prominent leaders, Krikor Zohrab and Vartkes Serengülian were also kept in the city on their final journey towards Diyarbakır.