The
American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, from 1919 the
American Committee for Relief in the Near East (ACRNE), also know as
Near East Relief, was a relief organization established during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. Its primary aim was to alleviate the suffering of the Armenian people under
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
rule, especially after the
GenocideThe Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
committed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915.
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.Henry Morgenthau was a lawyer, businessman and United States ambassador, most famous as the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. He was father of the politician Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and the grandfather of Robert M...
, America's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, played a key role in rallying support for the organization. The primary effort occurred between 1915 and 1930, in distributing humanitarian relief across a wide range of geographical locations.
Operations
The leadership of James L. Barton and Cleveland H. Dodge was the main instrument in this pledge.
Stage one, May 1915 - April 1917
In 1915, under the
Tehcir LawThe Tehcir Law was passed by the Ottoman Parliament on May 27 1915 and allegedly came into force on June 1 1915, with publication in Takvim-i Vekayi, the official gazette of the Ottoman State...
, the Ottoman Empire began confiscating the possessions of the Armenians of
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
, while undertaking the forcible deportation of the Christian minority, ostensibly to
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
. The "American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief" was founded in the USA in 1915. The US Department of State's American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions" contributed to founding the Committee.
According to the agreements, the funds were delivered through the American Embassy in Constantinople. The Ottoman parliament passed a law to coordinate the relief efforts originating from the Armenian immigrants (USA) and its distribution to the Armenians under the knowledge of the government by these institutions. The money and resources were directly transferred to the Armenians who were in need by the Armenian missionaries and USA consuls, without Ottoman Government involvement.
First Year
In 1915 the relief effort fell into four categories;
- general relief (supply the needy with a daily ration of bread)
- special relief (for those considered only mildly or temporarily destitute, such as transit or Sick "Armenian Soldiers")
- medical work (the numbers are reaching thousands monthly)
- missionaries (giving food, education clothing bedding to orphans)
ACRNE worked in concert with the American Councils in Syria to help over 150,000 refugees and "several hundred thousand" in
Caucasus frontThe Caucasus Campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire, later including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Central Caspian Dictatorship and the UK as part of the Middle Eastern theatre or alternatively named as part of the Caucasian Front during World War I...
.
Second Year
In 1916, relief activities increased, with funds being dispersed to Anatolia, beyond the initial Syria, Egypt and Greece. In other places such as in Aleppo missionaries had enough support for 1,350 orphans and asking more founds to reach the others.
Third Year
On April 1917, the USA entered into war against Ottoman Empire. This disrupted the ground activities of the committee, however the emergency drive of the ACRNE continued with increasing amount during the next 14 months before the end of the
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. In July 1918, James L. Barton, (the chairman) said "$10,000,000 had already been raised and distributed from the onset of the program, the need would continue into the postwar years".
Stage two, December 1918 - 1930
With the end of the hostilities,
Armistice of MudrosThe Armistice of Moudros ended the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I...
and the
Occupation of IstanbulThe Occupation of Constantinople was the occupation of the capital of the Ottoman Empire, following the Armistice of Mudros by the Triple Entente of World War I. The first French troops entered the city on November 12 1918, followed by British troops the next day...
, Allies have access to Ottoman Empire with the assigned Allied High Commissioners ("military administration") (USA -
Mark Lambert BristolMark Lambert Bristol was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy.-Biography:Born in Glassboro, New Jersey, Bristol graduated from the Naval Academy in 1887. During the Spanish-American War he served aboard Texas and participated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba...
, British -
Somerset Arthur Gough-CalthorpeAdmiral of the Fleet Sir Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe GCB, GCMG, CVO , sometimes known as Sir Somerset Calthorpe, was a British Royal Navy admiral....
). With the new structure the change in mission the committee had taken and committee renamed itself to the "American Committee for Relief in the Near East". These changes were incorporated to USA by act of Congress in 1919.
In this new stage, Red Cross nurses were also assigned to the American Committee for Relief in the Near East.
Activities, 1919
Relief efforts were astonishing. Early in January 1919, ACRNE opened a unit in
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
(Constantinople). The ACRNE received red-carpet treatment in the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. Collaborating with the Empire ACRNE managed to deliver cereal at the rate of 5,000 tons a month. By the end of 1919, about 30,000 metric tons of food and clothing had arrived. Using Constantinople as a distribution center beginning in 12 February over a $1,000,000,000 worth of goods, including 2,000 tons of flour, 2,500 cases of canned foods, 500 cases of
condensed milkCondensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product that can last for years without refrigeration if unopened...
, 18 trucks, 20 ambulances, 500 sewing machines, 200 oil stoves, 1,750,000 yards of cloth, 50,000 blankets, 800 hospital cots, 26 tents, 78 X-ray machines and 200 tons of coal moved to the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
.
Between 1915 and 1930, the American relief organizations raised $116,000,000 of assistance, delivering food, clothing, and materials for shelter. ACRNE distributed goods worth nine million dollars in the first half of 1919 and dispensed much of ten million dollars in grain and other commodities. The Near East Relief placed thousands of orphans in mission facilities in the USA, with the expectation that these orphans would grow to manhood and womanhood
Methods of operation
ACRNEs methods of operation and fund rising showed a departure from traditional methods. Instead of using
clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term ultimately comes from the Greek κλῆρος - klēros, "a lot", "that which is assigned by lot" or metaphorically, "inheritence"....
and volunteers, ACRNE used professional full time employees with keen business skills, which was a drastic change from previously directed relief the efforts. Near East relief, besides the traditional (Red Cross) methods of the Sunday observances across the USA; used the press corps much more effectively and routinely; used modern methods of communication and imagery to transfer the ideas were impressive. “Between 1915 and 1928, over twenty different American magazines ran hundreds of stories on the Armenians, which by the relief committee’s design, were central to raising money.”
ACRNEs fund rising showed a departure from traditional methods with increase in sophistication and intensity, during 1919. ACRNE adapted a monthly news bulletin and hired
Talcott WilliamsTalcott Williams, , was an American journalist and educator, born at Abeih, Turkey, the son of Congregational missionaries. He graduated from Amherst in 1873. Afterwards. he was employed at the New York World, and as a correspondent for the New York Sun and the San Francisco Chronicle...
of
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
’s journalism faculty for the editorial.
A newspaper article, also published in
Literary DigestThe Literary Digest was an influential general interest weekly magazine published by Funk and Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kauffman Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, Public Opinion and Current Opinion....
, adapted a script of fanatical
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
s forcing 500 chaste Armenian teenagers to accept
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
, so that they can be servants in
haremHarem refers to the sphere of women in a usually polygynous household and their quarters which is enclosed and forbidden to men...
s. This articles published in full-page. Another advertisement material included was depictions of lands made luminous by the footprints of Jesus, and Christ-led people rescuing needy fellow Christians.
Aurora Mardiganian
ACRNE also used a new method by putting a face to increase the dissemination among different sectors. The face and story was adapted from
Aurora MardiganianAurora Mardiganian was an Armenian American actress and a survivor of the Armenian Genocide.-Biography:...
. The ACRNE also sent a team to Ottoman Empire to prepare a movie version to play in the theaters. ACRNE leased time from theatres in fifty cities. The movie included wide variety of famous people. Scenes included flogging of girls who refused to enter harems, short of being raped. The most dramatic scene was the nailing of twelve Armenian maidens to crosses.
Summary
In its fifteen years of existence, ACRNE eventually spent over ten times of initial estimate, see original estimate, that amount and helped an estimated close to 2,000,000 refugees ACRNE cared for 132,000 Armenian orphans from Tiflis and
YerevanYerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. It is situated on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
,
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
,
DamascusDamascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and its current population is estimated at about 1,669,000...
, and
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
, Sivas.
A relief organization for refugees in the Middle East helped donate over $102 million (budget $117,000,000) to Armenians both during and after the war.