On March 23, 1916, Celal Sahir Bey, the editor-in-chief of a prominent Istanbul-based national newspaper,
Türk Yurdu, announced the opening of the House of Orphans in Konya. In his short essay about the orphanage, Celal Sahir Bey expressed his joy at witnessing “the existence of such institutions in rural provinces of the Empire to protect and feed the children of homeland.” During the few years the orphanage was active, it functioned as a hub for war orphans, who were perceived as sexual and moral anomalies, gathered at the state’s order from various provinces of the empire for their so-called rehabilitation into nation as proper men and women ready to serve for their nation. However, until its closing, the image of orphanage Celal Sahir depicted gradually tarnished due to the orphans running away at night to engage with “improper interactions,” “immoral intimacies” observed among especially orphan boys, and the sexual abuse of at many orphans by the orphanage administrator Münir Bey.
How do we read such convoluted relations formed between subject and space in tumultuous time like the First World War? How did the wartime Ottoman orphanages, presumed rehabilitative and disciplinary institutions, shape the orphans’ experiences and social interactions? This paper explores these questions by looking at the case of House of Orphans in Konya between 1916-1920. Using orphanage records, newspapers, and official documents, and deploying queer and feminist approaches as my analytical lenses, my paper makes two main arguments. Contrary to its defined mission, I argue that due to the moral stigma attached to orphans, they were more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence within the orphanage, often perpetrated by the administrators. Second, despite their vulnerable position, the orphans' intimate relationships and friendships with each other reshaped the hierarchies and established adult networks within the institution.
