The Architectural Activities of Protestant Missionaries in the Ottoman Period: The Erzurum American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Campus

Social and public rights were given to non-Muslim communities with the Edict of Gulhane and the Imperial Reform Edict. As a result, missionary activity was institutionalized in the Ottoman Empire through structures such as schools, printing houses, and hospitals, with the activities focused on Armenians since the first half of the 19(th) century. Erzurum's Armenian population made it a significant and suitable city for observing missionary activities of which many were carried out there. At that time, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was an important Protestant missionary organization because it had the only missionary campus in the center of Erzurum. It located itself in the city with the concept of a central mission with an Upper and Lower House that served as the central station connecting the stations outside of Erzurum.