The Health Mission Of American Missionaries In Line With The Aid Activities In Turkey

Ottoman Empire had to fight a lot of serious distresses after the first half of 19th century. The primary one was that the Ottoman Empire fell into a period of regression opposing the increasing economic, military and political power of the European world. The improvements by the Ottoman Empire to halt this regression, especially in the martial area, were not sufficient and thus, such distresses continued to increase in all the bodies of the state. That situation caused the imperial states to make improvements and reforms in the state order and operation of Ottoman. With the addition of religion wars along with the economic, martial, political, educational and cultural wars, this paradox continued. This war is the war of Christianity to gain power against Islam. With this purpose, the imperial states that wanted Ottoman Empire to shatter sent their missionaries that would serve the Christian world to Ottoman lands. The continuous independence and nationalism promised to non-Muslim communities (Greeks, Bulgarians) in the Ottoman Empire by the European states caused these communities to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians were affected by the circumstances and resorted to acts of violence in order to draw the attention of Europeans. Such acts of violence were communicated by the European press on a biased exaggeration or bastardization. This changed into an anti-Turkish propaganda in the Western public opinion. The Ottoman Empire failed to find an effective way of eliminating these anti-Turkish propaganda acts despite all its efforts. Therefore, American missionaries were quite influential on the Armenians during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire having the great strategic and geopolitical importance. The most efficient group of these missionaries was American missionaries. Despite the missionary having a lot of varieties, the medical missions that aim to reach more people was one of the most efficient ways, also used by American missionaries. In this study, we tried to address American medical missions, services and aims.

Keywords

Missionary, Medical Mission, the Red Cross, Health, American Board.