Throughout the war, Altunian’s daughter Nora ably assisted the reverend in running the orphanage.22 In the early stages, she organized fund-raising campaigns for it in the Armenian community. When the number of children reached such levels that additional sources of support had to be found to provide for them, the young woman appealed directly to Jemal. He reacted by ordering the Ottoman army to supply the orphanage with food, firewood, and heating oil. But the most important thing he did for the institution was to sign an administrative order prohibiting the local authorities from interfering with its operations.23 It is, to be sure, unimaginable that an establishment of this kind could have survived on
Ottoman soil without the active support of Aleppo’s Americans and Germans. The Swiss Zollinger, who had earlier served as the German consul in the city, assumed the role of go-between between the Americans, Germans, and Swiss, on the one hand, and Shirajian on the other, and was able to funnel large sums to the orphanage.24 At war’s end, about 1,500 children were living there.25 It is worth noting that Shirajian’s every attempt to have Armenian taught in the orphanage met with a categorical refusal from the Young Turk officials; here, obviously, the tolerance of the local authorities reached its limits.
Late in December 1915, at the insistent request of two German missionaries, Paula Schäfer and Beatrice Rohner, Jemal Pasha authorized the creation of another Aleppo orphanage for abandoned Armenian children. The orphanage was put under the supervision of the local authorities. The main argument mobilized by the two Germans to convince the Pasha to agree to open a new institution of this kind was that it would improve general health conditions in the city.26 Approximately four hundred children were accommodated in the orphanage, which had the support of the German consul in Aleppo, Dr. Walter Rössler, and received American subsidies as well.27 Under these ... Read all
AGBU in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq in the Post-War Period
Nora Altunian, Dr. Altunian's daughter, with Rev. Shirajian in the courtyard of the Aleppo orphanage (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/ Paris).
AGBU’s Work in the Immediate Post-WWI Period - An Armenian Destiny (Video)