Dr. Mark H. Ward & Major Forrest D. Yowell

The Near East Relief buildings of the upper district of Kharput/Harpoot were used to house NER personnel, including Dr. Ward and Major Yowell
© Nikolaos Hlamides collection

Mark H. Ward graduated as a surgeon in 1911 and was sent to Turkey as a medical missionary for the Near East Relief in 1915. From 1918 he was stationed at the Kharput (Harpoot) unit as the Medical Director and temporarily as acting Director where he organized relief work, including the opening of orphanages, schools and hospitals to provide much needed care to Turkey's diminishing Christian element. In the area of Kharput, Ward collected 5000 orphans and assisted thousands of refugees. In October 1921, Major. Forrest D. Yowell of Washington DC became director of the Kharput unit. Throughout his directorship, Yowell filed reports of the abominable treatment of Christians with the American Consul at Aleppo and to the American High Commissioner.

In 1922 Major Forrest D. Yowell was forcibly deported from Kharput for reasons the Turkish officials refused to divulge. On March 5th Yowell was arrested and sent south to the Syrian frontier under guard. Subsequently, Dr. Ward was expelled from Turkey on March 15th 1922. "I was deported by the Turks," Dr. Ward said, "for no other reason except that I was administering relief to the Christian peoples under Turkish rules". Dr. Ruth Parmalee, medical director, from Boston and Isabel Harely, orphanage director, from Rhode Island were also expelled from their posts in Kharput. Ward and Yowell, along with their colleagues, carried charges that the Turkish government planned to exterminate the Greek and Armenian minorities in the Near East to British and US authorities. "These American deportations are the culmination of a long series of unfriendly acts, and are the prelude to fresh Turkish outrages against the Christian population of Asia Minor," declared Mayor Yowell.

Before returning to Washington, Dr. Ward arrived in London where he reported: "From May, 1921, to March last, when I left, thirty thousand deportees, of whom six thousand were Armenians and the rest Greeks, were collected at Sivas and deported through Kharput to Bitlis and Van. Of these thirty thousand, ten thousand perished last winter and ten thousand escaped or have been protected by the Americans. The fate of the other ten thousand is not known. The deportations are continuing; every week's delay means deaths to hundreds of these poor people. The Turkish policy is extermination of these Christian minorities". In Major Yowell's report on the deportations he declared that "Two thirds of the Greek deportees are women and children. All along the route where these deportees have traveled Turks are permitted to visit refugee group and select women and girls whom they desire for any purpose. These deportations are still in progress, and if American aid is now withdrawn all will perish. Their whole route today strewn with bodies of their dead, which are consumed by dogs, wolves, vultures. The Turks make no effort to burry these dead and the deportees are not permitted to do so. The chief causes of death are starvation, dysentery, typhus. Turkish authorities frankly state that is their deliberate intention to exterminate the Greeks, and all their actions supports this statements. At present fresh deportations and outrages are starting in all parts of Asia Minor from northern seaports to the south eastern district".

The Kemalist government resented the humanitarian aid administered by the NER to the Christians. Dr. Ward quoted Turkish officials. One Turk resolved: "We have been too easy in the past. We shall do a thorough job this time." Another remarked: "Why do you Americans waste your time and money on these filthy Greeks and Armenians? We always thought that Americans knew how to get their money's worth. Any Greeks and Armenians who don't die here are sure to die when we send them on to Bitlis, as we always choose the worst weather in order to get rid of them quicker" . The NER was not permitted to take any Greek orphans into its institutions and sick Greeks were only accepted into the hospitals of the NER by written order from the Turkish Director of Sanitation of the Vilayet. Turkish officials forbid the NER to distribute food, clothes or money to the Greeks. Simultaneously, the Turkish government began to arbitrarily seize orphanages and food storage warehouses to restrict aid being administered to Greeks. In March of 1916 orders were issued by Talaat Pasha, Minister of Interior Affairs, declaring that all children were to be removed from orphanages and destroyed because they would compromise dangerous future elements for the Turks and in essence pose a significant threat to Pan-Turanism. Regrettably, despite its attempts to persuade the Turkish government, the NER was not able protect all orphans. Turks entered the NER orphanages and removed any child fifteen or older. The boys were often shot on the grounds that they were deserters from the Turkish army and the girls were taken by Turkish soldiers into harems and repeatedly violated.

In 1922 Mark Ward, utilizing extracts from his diary, wrote the report 'The Deportations in Asia Minor 1921-1922' which was jointly published by the Anglo-Hellenic League and the British Armenia Committee in London. After Ward's expulsion from Turkey he became medical secretary of the American Board supervising the general health of missionaries in twelve countries. At the age of 68, on the 23rd of December 1952 Dr. Mark H. Ward died in Newton, Massachusetts.