The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople has always been the true and sacred bulwark of the Western Armenians as well as of its children exiled by the will of fate. This fact is testified by the documents of exceptional value and interest kept up to the present day at the archives of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (founded in 1461), with which I had the chance to get acquainted during my private journey to Turkey in 1997.
The documents contained in the fund bearing the general title "America" includes a long period beginning from the 1880s up to the present days. The archival documents are classified in chronological order, consequently, it is possible to have a clear idea about a definite historical period. Thus, if the documents dating from the 1880s contain voluminous materials concerning a given period, then a notable rareness is observed in the materials dating from the years of the First World War, while a complete disappearance of documents is obvious in the following years. In the materials of the post-war period, certain increase in the number of documents is again noted, but not to the former extent. It should be emphasized that the archival materials of the Armenian Patriarchate in Turkey have been periodically "cleaned" as a result of the pressing historico-political circumstances prevailing in the country, while others have been transferred to the United States of America and elsewhere. That is why the materials, which have reached us now, are of a neutral nature, devoid of any political, party, nationalistic and past historical colorations. Nevertheless, these documents, which have passed through the turmoil of historical events and which have been miraculously saved and have reached us, are of an exceptional value as a primary source, owing to their originality and historiographic importance.
These documentary materials include numerous letters, petitions and documents addressed until 1898 to the Armenian primacy of America which was then under the authority of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (the Armenian primacy of America officially passed under the jurisdiction of the Mother See of Etchmiadzin in 1902) and subsequently to the newly-created Armenian Diocese of America, those addressed to the Armenian Patriarches of Constantinople, to the Armenian Primates of America from the leaders of the various Diaspora organizations and individuals and from the Armenian-populated localities of the USA, as well as those which have been carried to Constantinople under various circumstances.
The above-cited sources provide information about the situation of the Armenian emigrants in the USA, their social-economic conditions, the wish to return to the native localities, the suitability of sending Armenian female orphans from Constantinople with the purpose of preventing the Armenian youth from becoming apathetic toward Armenianness, the necessity of having adequate and efficient clergymen, the adoption of Armenian orphans, the collection and care of orphans, the needs of the Armenian churches in America, the problems concerning the various Armenian denominational churches of the Diaspora, the official ecclesiastical and political relations, the activity of the different Armenian organizations of America, their nation-favouring and fatherland-favouring enterprises, personal and family requests for searching their kins rescued from the Genocide and problems for sending them material aid, as well as a number of discontents, complaints, etc.
The above-mentioned documents kept in the archives of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey, being published and put in scientific circulation for the first time, owing to their originality and their historico-cognitive value constitute an important investment for the elucidation and the thorough study of the various aspects of the intracommunal life in a given period of the Armenian community of America, giving credit to the Armenian Patriarchate and the Armenian community of Constantinople, which have passed through the turmoil of various historical and political ordeals and yet have conserved their firm existence up to the present day.
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