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Doctors, Disease, and Death: WWI and Armenians at the Syrian Protestant College
In early April 1917, the United States, besides declaring war on Germany, also ruptured its diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire. Immediately after this decision, German officials, along with Ottoman soldiers, surrounded the campus of the Syrian Protestant College (SPC) in Beirut. SPC closed its doors, and the Germans eagerly awaited a chance and Ottoman permission to occupy the campus. Eventually, the US did not declare war on the Ottoman Empire, and the campus was spared an occupation.
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Very interesting, detailed and different viewing angle.
Fascinating! I appreciate the work that has been done to research this history and am grateful that it has been brought to light. My grandfather Katchadour Soghikian MD did not graduate from SPC (AUB nowadays), but from the French Medical School in Beirut in 1907. He returned to his family’s original homestead in Kharpert and was employed by the Ottomans to be the physician for Sis and Hajeen and Deurt-Yol (Adana). While he was in Adana in 1909 Turkish mobs were incited to fight the Armenians in the city, and our grandfather was told by Ottoman soldiers to leave the country and was escorted out of the city on horseback. He made his way to Egypt where he had heard that the British/Egyptian army was hiring physicians. He worked all over the Sudan as an army physician for 12 years. Then he settled in Heliopolis, married my grandmother Marie Sethian from Aleppo.
They had three sons: Krikor who became a physician and settled in California in 1950 for a lifetime of work and support of the Armenian community there; Shahan who graduated from AUB in 1948 ,then received his MS in Engineering from Columbia University, and settled in Lebanon where he developed his own Civil Engineering company; and Zareh, who settled in California near Krikor.
Thank you Hratch for the extensive research work you have accomplished. I find this very interesting specially since my maternal grandfather Yeghia Aroyan graduated as MD from SPC in 1902. I realise now that the lives of my grandmother and her 5 children might not have been spared had the SPC faculty provided names of past graduates in 1915.
“After the end of the war, Bliss asked the SPC alumni to share with the College their war experience. A large number of Armenian students complied with the request and wrote back to the president about their dreadful experience”. Is there a record kept in the university of the SPC alumni about their war experiences? My grandfather served in the Turkish Army Ambulance Hospital on the Iraq front in 1914-1915 and it was 7 years before he was reunited with this wife and children. I do not have much information about the years during the war and the search for his family.
I would really appreciate any additional information you may have. Is there a list of names of those who attended the unveiling of the plaque in June 1923 at AUB?
Thank you again for sharing your knowledge with us.
Thank you Hratch Kestenian for such an interesting and detailed article about another chapter in our sad history.
Fascinating synopsis about the Armenian students in the SPC, the present day American University of Beirut. Armenians are much indebted to this venerable institution. Hopefully you will consider publishing your dissertation. For those of us hailing from Kessab, father and son Drs. Soghomon and Albert Apelian remain unforgettable.
Thank you for this interesting article on medicine a century ago!
Thank you Hratch for this wonderful article by an alumni of the AUB. I will forward it to my two sons. I might add that the whole story is movie material for wider dissemination.
Several of my Armenian kin attended SPC/AUB. My grandmother’s father, Kalost Najarian (MD), my grandfather, Levon Yenovkian, in pharmacy and as dispenser, an one more that I cannot recall but I have a copy of the thesis. Dr. K. Najarian and his wife were killed after coming out of the home of Muslim friends when the mob threatened to kill all of them. They were killed. My grandfather, Levon Y. left with the French (Dr.Kerr’s book), later sending for his wife, son, and mother, and living in Palestine, then, in 1957, crossing the Israeli/Lebanon border to come and live with us in Lebanon.
Thank you for the very interesting article!
Thank you, Hratch, for bringing these details to light. I appreciate reading the broader context in which my paternal uncle, Dr. Nishan Bakalian (SPC class of 1912), was killed in Diyarbakir. Best wishes for your continued research and achieving your degree!
We found a notebook belonging to dr.nisahan bakalian. In the notebook, the flowers dr.bakalian collected were classified systematically. but we could not find any information other than his death. Do you have a photo or a document?
mr. nishan bakalian
We found a notebook belonging to dr.nisahan bakalian. In the notebook, the flowers dr.bakalian collected were classified systematically. but we could not find any information other than his death. Do you have a photo or a document?
Hratch,
I cannot say how much your research has meant to me and my family
finding trace of Dr. Joseph Kaisermann, my grandfather. This has led to
us finding the whole of the Kaisermann Tree. My cousin in Philadelphia
is now in contact with me and he has helped in finding so many facts and
furthering the tree, even pictures of our forefathers and their means of
making their living. So very grateful. Judy, Collier, (born Kaisermann)