Figure 1.--Here Kansas Boy Scouts deliver clothing they collected for Neareast Relief to Gov. Jonathan Davis. The photograph is undated, but was probanly taken in 1924.

The Committe was only able to resume its operations after the War. The Committe after the War provided aid to Armenians who had fled to Russian-controlled areas. The Committe was renamed the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (1918). Congress incorporated the Committee as the Near East Relief (NER) (1919). This guaranted the NER the sole right to use the name in fund raising efforts. The NER under its various names collected and distributed $102 million to assist the Armenian people. [Goldberg] That doesn't sound like much today, but in 2000 dollars that was probably close to $2 billion. Many groups assisted the NER such as the Boy Scouts and the Red Cross. One Hollywood star that played an important role supporting Near East Relief in 1924 was Jackie Coogan. The aid was delivered in various forms, including food, clothing, and various materials for shelter. Such aid arrived by the shipload. The NER established and supported refugee camps, clinics, hospitals, orphanages, and vocational training facilities. The NER helped save an estimated 132,000 Armenian orphans in the Near East. Aid is believed to have reach 2 million people. [Moranian] Many of the Armenians who survived the Turkish genocide did so largely because of the NER. Large numbers of the people in modern Armenian have ancestors sho were saved or aided by the NER. The NER also played a major role in aiding Greece. The Greeks received American relief food and supplies during World War I. This continued in the immediate aftermath of the War. Another major refugee crisis occured as a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-22) which followed World War I. The NER finally closed its oprtations (1930).

Ottoman Empire/Turkey

The Ottoman government and the Allied Powers signed the Armistice of Mudros (October 1918), ending the World War I fighting. British and French troops seized control of Ottoman capital of Constantinople. The Allies opened the capital anf other Ottoman territories they occupied to refugees, incliding foreign refugees and relief groups. This allowed relief groups, most notably Near East Relief to send in relief workers and supplies for the first time since the beginning of World War I. There were also changes from the Ottoman side. Mustafa Kemal and other members of the former Ottoman military (the Young Turks) launched the Turkish National Movement. These re the same people who confucted the Armenian Genocide. The Kemalist Army began attacking Allied forces and Christian settlements throughout Anatolia. The renewed hostilities set in motion a massive new wave of refugees. Many desperate refugees headed to Constantinople.

Post-War Near East Relief to the Armenians

The Near East Committe was only able to resume its operations after the War. The efforts were a furst focused on the Armenian refugees who had managed to escape into Arab lands of the empire. The Committe after the War provided aid to Armenians who had fled to Russian-controlled areas. They also aided Armenians who has escaped to Greece. With the end of the War, Armistice of Mudros, and the Occupation of Constantninople/Istanbul, The Allies have access to areas withon th Ottoman Empire. There were two Allied High Commissioners as part of the military administration: Mark Lambert Bristol (American and Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe (British). With the new structure the change in mission the committee had taken, the NER Committee renamed itself as the American Committee for Relief in the Near East .

Congressional Renewal

The Committe was renamed the American Committee for Relief in the Near East--ACRNE (1918). Congress incorporated the Committee as the Near East Relief (NER) (1919). This guaranted the NER the sole right to use the name in fund raising efforts.

Fund Raising

ACRNE revolutionizd fund-raising efforts. During the War, NER had used traditional methods, clergy and volunteers. ACRNE in contrast used professional full-time employees with business skills, a sharp departure from NER fund raising methods. [Moranian, 200-10.] Near East relief in addition to established (Red Cross) methods of the Sunday observances across America, used the press more effectively and routinely. They used modern methods of communication and imagery adopting the developing commercial advrtising apprpach which American businss was raising to a science. One observer reports, “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.” [Moranian, 194-95.]

Extent

The NER under its various names collected and distributed $102 million to assist the Armenian people. [Goldberg] That doesn't sound like much today, but in 2000 dollars that was probably close to $2 billion.

Private Charity

Many groups assisted the NER such as the Boy Scouts and the Red Cross. One Hollywood star that played an important role supporting Near East Relief in 924 was Jackie Coogan.

Type of Aid

American aid was delivered in various forms, including food, clothing, and various materials for shelter. Such aid arrived by the shipload. The NER established and supported refugee camps, clinics, hospitals, orphanages, and vocational training facilities.

Lives Saved

The NER helped save an estimated 132,000 Armenian orphans in the Near East. Aid is believed to have reach 2 million people. [Moranian] Many of the Armenians who survived the Turkish genocide did so largely because of the NER. Large numbers of the people in modern Armenian have ancestors sho were saved or aided by the NER.

Constantinople

Refugees flooded into Constantninople. There were two major groups: Russians and Turks. The Russians refugges were a result of the Russian Civil War. As the Whites began to lose the Civil War, Constaninople in Allied hands was an exit point to escape the rath of the Bolshevik Red Army. The other group was the Turks as fighting escalated between the Greeks and Turks. There were also some Greeks (5,000 refugees). There were also smaller number of Armenians with the allies hiolding he city there was safty from futher Turkish killing (3,200 refugees). Relief groups estimate that over 0.1 million refugees had entered Constantinople (April 1921). [Pathfinder Survey] Precise estimates of refugees are impossible. There were refugees from the Balkan Wars, World War I, and Armenian Genocide and many of these earlier groups which still refugees had achieved some degree of self-suffiency. Most of the refugees, especially the Russians, had arrived in Constantinople with the intention of reaching other dstintions or perhps returning home when the danger abd crisis subsided. Getting visas to enter other coutries proved difficult. And the danger did not abate. The Bolsheviks won the Civil War. And the fighting between the Greeks and Turks intensifid. Constantinople this became congested with people who had nowhere to go nd no way od sustaining themselves. Disease became a problem. There were no schools. Food stocks ran out and hunger began to turn into starvation. An especially tragic problem was thousands of orphaned children.

Russians

As the fortunes of the Whites wained, reaching constantuople by ship was one of the last way that the Whites had of escaping the Bolsheviks and death. The American Red Cross estimated that that some 65,000 Russian refugees , fighters in the White armies and their families, had reached Constantunople. The fihjting was bad enough, but then a terrible famine descended on southern Russia. And the Bolsheviks rejected offers from the United states to provide food and other relief supplies. The Russian refugees sailed from Odessa, Novorossisk, and Crimea. The American Red Cross was the primary relief group working with the Russians. British and French organizations also assisted.

Turks

Turks also flooded into Constantinopl. Here the impetus was he Greco-Turtkish War which flared around the city. The American Red Cross estimated that some 27,000 Turkish refugees sought refugee in Constantinople as a result of the Greco-Turkish War, primarily from Thrace to the west, and Smyrna to the southwest. The Turkish Red Crescent estimated a larger number, some 50,000 Turks.

Turkish National Revival

The Allies after World War I began dividing up the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were reigned at his point to the loss of the Arab Lands (Mesopotamia and the Levnt). Areas in Anatolia were a different matter. A major issue became Smyrna in eastern Anatolia. The Allies were willing to assign Smyrna to Greece and permit it to be occupied by the Greek Army. The allied occupation of Constantinople ad other areas of the Empore along with suggestions that the Allies were going to create an Armenian state helped fuel the rise of Turkish nationalism. The Turkish Army, led by Mustafa Kemal, launched what they saw as a war of independence against Greece. The British sought a negotiated settlement. Ghe Greeks decied, however, on a military sollution. The result was the Greco-Turkish War. After the British withdrew military support. Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey) was one of the cities in Eastern Anatolia fought over during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-22). Smyrna was an important strategic point in the War as it was a port city.

Saving the Greeks

The Greeks received American relief food and supplies during World War I. This continued in the immediate aftermath of the War. A major refugee crisis, however, occured following the War I aa a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1920-22). After the British withdrew support, the Turkish Army smashed the Greek Army. The Greco-Turkish War was a disaster for Greece. A population exchange was agreed. But as a result of military defeats, Greeks were largely removed from eastern Anatolia where their ancestors had lived for millenia. The refuges flooded into Greek cities which in the aftermath of World War did not have the capability of caring for them. The resulting refugee crisis was worse than the situation during World War I. Greece even in normal times is not self-sufficent in food. And the post-War era was not normal times. Greece was in political and economic turmoil. Food shortages were severe. Fighting continued with the Turks. There was no way the Greeks on their own could care for the massive refugee flow from Antolia. NER shifted from a primarily Armenian operation to one also aiding the starving Greek refugees. Relief supplies flowed into Piraeus, an important Greek port since ancient times. Child film star Jackie Coogan took at interest in Greek relief and help raised funds for food to feed the Greeks. Greek refugees exploded the population of Piraeus from 133,482 people in 1920 to 251,659 in 1928. Other centers for refuges experienced similar population expolsions.

Termination

The NER finally closed its oprtations (1930).

Sources

Moranian, Suzanne E. “The Armenian Genocide and American Missionary Relief Efforts,” in Jay Winter, ed. America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Pathfinder Survey of Constantinople (1922). This was a joint publication coauthored by eight aid organizations including the Red Cross working in the city. They estimated that some 101,955 refugees were living in Constantinople by April 1921.

Created: 1:42 AM 8/16/2010
Last updated: 9:41 AM 2/9/2018