Abstract:

With the end of the First World War, one of the important issues for Christian aid organizations was the emergence of the Armenian orphans, which have been carried out by missionary organizations for years. As the Western mission organizations had previously hosted thousands of Armenian orphans in the orphans opened in various regions of Anatolia, and it was understood that these orphans would no longer be treated in the territory of Anatolia due to the situation that occurred after the First World War. It was at this point that the disaster of the orphans in the areas where Protestant mission organizations such as Maraş, Harput and Urfa worked effectively was revealed to Syria. The work on the transfer of these orphans to the territory of Syria was taken over by the "Near East Relief" (Near East Relief), a mainly U.S. aid organization. The Assistance Committee commissioned Jakob Künzler, who has been working for many years at the Urfa Station of the German Eastern Mission in 1922 to organize the transfer of about 8,000 Armenian orphans to Syria and to get permission from local authorities. J. Künzler managed the work done to transfer children in Harput, Maraş, Mardin, Diyarbakır and Malatya, including their mission area, from different routes to Syria. This study will evaluate the establishment of the Middle East Aid Committee and the beginning of its activities in the Anatolian territory, how and under what conditions the Aid Committee transfers the orphans to the Syrian territory, the difficulties under the transfer and the aid provided to children.

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