Anatolia College in Merzifon

The Anatolia College in Merzifon or American College of Mersovan (Turkish: Merzifon Amerikan Koleji) was a coeducational high school located in the town of Merzifon in the Rûm Province of the Ottoman Empire (in modern-day Amasya Province, Turkey) established and directed by American missionaries between 1886 and 1924.

Theological seminary

The school was established in 1864 as a theological seminary after the American college in Bebek, İstanbul, the later Robert College, abandoned its theological training and concentrated in only general education due to growing number of young people interested in English language. The school in Merzifon served in the beginning to educate the children of the Greek and Armenian community in Anatolia, who wanted to become pastors or preachers.

College

See also: Anatolia College

In 1886, as more and more young people wanted a general education, the program at the theological seminary in Merzifon was expanded to include a four-year liberal arts college. The institution was named Anatolia College, and Charles Tracy became the first president, who served until 1912. The college's motto adopted was "The Morning Cometh" in reference to the ancient Greek word meaning the dawn for the name of the school "Anatolia". The college seal showed the view from the campus of the sun rising over lofty Akdağ at the eastern end of the Merzifon Plain. The over 100 students, principally Greek and Armenian, came most from outside of Merzifon and boarded at the school. The faculty was Greek, Armenian, and American.

When Armenian activists posted broadsides in 1893, Ottoman troops jailed many Armenians and damanges some buildings of the college as the Armenian students and teachers were accused of being in contact with the rebels. The damaged parts were rebuilt later with compensation paid by the Ottoman Government. The college was incorporated under the laws of the State of Massachusetts in 1894.

After the end of the WWI, the facilities of the college at the campus consisted of a kindergarten, a school for the Deaf, a college-level program, one of the largest hospitals in Asia Minor, and an orphanage for 2,000 orphans in addition to the theological seminary and high schools for boys and girls, all housed in more than 40 buildings of New England style. The activities of the American missionaries came de facto to an end with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.

Relocation to Greece

After the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) and subsequent population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the college was closed in Merzifon to be reopened in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1924, as Anatolia College.

Book about the College

American missionary George E. White, who was a teacher from 1890 and president from 1913 until 1921 at the school in Merzifon, wrote his memories in a book Adventuring With Anatolia College.

See also

• Anatolia College
• List of missionary schools in Turkey
• List of high schools in Turkey

External links

• Ciao Net (Columbia International Affairs Online) Some Remarks on Alevi Responses to the Missionaries in Eastern Anatolia (19th-20th cc.) by Hans-Lukas Kieser, University of Basel, Switzerland
• Adventuring With Anatolia College by Dr. George E. White (HTML) posted by George Baloglou, State University of New York, College at Oswego
• Brief History of The American College of Thessaloniki
• Ottoman Official Attitudes Towards American Missionaries by Cagri Erhan, Department of International Relations, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey (research.yale.edu - YCIAS Working Papers Database)
• Website of Anatolia College

References

• Bir Amerikan Misyonerinin Merzifon Amerikan Koleji Hatiralari (Memories of an American Missionary at the Merzifon American College), George E. White, Translated by Cem Tarık Yüksel, Enderun Kitapevi, İstanbul-1995. (Turkish)
• Adventuring With Anatolia College, George E. White, Herald-Register Publishing Company, Grinnell, Iowa, March 1940