Amerikan Yakın Doğu Yardım Heyeti’nin İzmit’teki Faaliyetleri, 1919-1922

Abstract

A relief organization, called Armenian Relief Committee, was established in order to aid the deported Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. This organization was united with two other relief organizations, called Palestine-Syrian Relief Committee and Persian Relief Committee, under the name of American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. In 1918, it changed its name into American Committee for Relief in the Near East and in 1919 it became Near East Relief. It carried on its activities all over the Ottoman lands. İzmit was one of these places where Near East Relief established a hospital, two orphanages (one in Bardizag and one in Ismid) and soup kitchens. In these orphanages, the organization raised a lot of Armenian children. NER also helped many refugees with supply, food, and old clothes assistance. Besides, NER treated many patients in their hospital. Its financial source was the donations of American benefactors. Thousands of people donated money and supplies. In order to continue getting donations, Near East Relief id show Armenians as oppressed and Turks as cruel. Thanks to all these activities Armenian people were transformed, at a certain level, into an American society and the USA expanded its sphere of influence in the Near East.