An Example of the Impact of American Missionaries on the Creation of Turks and Muslim Perceptions in the Western Public: Edwin Munsell Bliss

Abstract

The beginning of the Armenian issue, which has never fallen from the agenda of our country, goes as far as the beginning of the 1915 events until the beginning of the 18th century. Especially the missionary activities supported by the great states in terms of their own political interests since the second half of the 18th century became the main factor that enabled the Turkish-Armenian relations in the Ottoman Empire to become tense. Among the states, we call great powers; America was the most prominent in missionary activities. The Protestants who fled to America to get rid of the Catholic-driven slaughter in Europe spent a missionary establishment in Boston, known as the American Board, at the end of the 18th century. The main aim of the institution; Protestantism and the Bible all over the world to promote and widespread. Young American missionaries who study both science and religion in all American schools affiliated with the American Board organization have been working with great ideals around the world. The American Protestant missionaries propagated the propaganda that the Armenians who were kept alive by keeping the diaries of the so-called survivors were slaughtered by the Turks while they tried to receive education and health affairs and received acceptance and respect among the Christians and they produced the ideological and ideological dimension of the Armenian question with the writings they wrote and the reports they sent to other countries. These missionaries wrote about the oppressed Armenian and dreadful Turkish theme in their writings and expressed the events against Islam in general and against the Turks in particular. They have arguably influenced the objectivity of the perception of the Ottoman and Muslim image in the world public opinion. One of these missionaries is Edwin Munsell Bliss. Bliss, who we would describe as an American missionary, author and editor, expressed the oppressed Armenian and terrible Turkish theme in his writings and he negatively affected the Ottoman image in the Western public opinion with undocumented and unfounded criticisms directed against the Islamic religion in general and the Turks in particular. In this study, we will examine the example of Edwin Munsell Bliss and examine the impact of the writings written by the missionaries and shared with the Western public and try to highlight the history of the problem.