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In 1920, the city of Gyumri was home to the world's largest orphanage, where more than 20,000 Armenian orphans, whose parents had been killed by Turks and Kurds during the Armenian Genocide organized by the Turkish government in Western Armenia, found refuge.
These children were rescued from Turkish captivity with a 1-cent gold coin each and were rescued by the US authorities and NGOs.
In 1915-1916, American and French missionaries rescued 814,000 Armenian children from Turkish captivity and distributed them to special orphanages in more than 70 countries around the world.
These are the grandparents of the modern global Armenian Diaspora. Another 20,000 children were placed in the shelter of the city of Gyumri. These are the grandparents of the majority of modern Lenakans.
Another 360,000 Armenian children remained in Turkish captivity. They were forced to convert to Islam, given Turkish names, and forbidden to remember their Armenian parents. They now have several million descendants in Turkey, who are officially considered “Turks” and “Kurds.” These are the so-called “crypto-Armenians.”
This topic is taboo in Turkey. However, modern technologies (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.) allow us to convey this truth to all of humanity. Today, we have the opportunity to show the whole world archival photos and documents.