General Directorate of Orphanage from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey 1914-1927

The 93 War, the Balkan War, and World War I that took place in the last periods of the Ottoman, had political, economic, and social consequences that changed the social structure. The lands lost and the loss of more than a million people raised the issues of refugee migration and hence the protection of orphans. Especially in the Balkan Wars the land losses and the declined population was a harbinger of social events that was to occur. The wave of immigration that the Ottoman State could not control brought about the problem of sheltering immigrants and protecting the orphans. Orphanages, in the Ottoman, was born as a result of this heavy picture. Orphanages was established with the aim of sheltering, protecting, and educating the children of the martyrs in the first stage and the orphans and homeless children of the migrants after Balkan War in the second stage. The ten-year period from establishment of the Orphanages to its closing included the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the first years of the republic. Armenian deportation, which is an issue faced by the Ottoman in the international arena, increased the pressure on the institutions after the armistice, so much that the Ottomans faced the accusation that Armenian children were forcibly detained convert to religion. The Orphanage archive, which provides information about the protection of Armenian women and children who were exempted from deportation in Ottoman lands, also sheds light on a historical reality in this respect.