THE SEIZURE OF MUSLIM CHILDREN AFTER THE RELOCATION

Abstract

Orphanages, rich families and influential people within their communities were allowed to adopt Armenian orphans because of the Relocation and Resettlement Law passed on May 27, 1915 that tried to ameliorate the atrocities committed towards Muslims in World War I. In 1918 after the end of the war an account of the Armenian orphan children was gathered and it indicated that the identities of the children were going to be investigated, but Armenians and Allied Forces soldiers began to gather children from houses, orphanages and even the streets. Muslim children, who were not orphans, were separated from their families. The efforts of the Ottoman Empire remained inconclusive and those children taken to orphanages in Istanbul from Anatolia were Christianized. Many of those children were forced to accept that they were Armenians, given Armenian identity cards and were sent abroad with Armenian orphans in 1920.