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Armash (Armenian: Արմաշ) was a small Armenian-populated town located in the Ottoman Empire, near the Sea of Marmara. With its seminary and monastery of Charkhapan Surb Astvatsatsin (Warder-off-of-Evil, Holy Mother of God), Armash served as the spiritual center of Armenians in western Asia Minor until 1915, when its inhabitants were rounded up and sent on death marches to the Syrian desert by orders of the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress party.
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Map of Akme%C5%9Fe, Turkey
History
Founded in 1611 by Armenian families fleeing from the Jelali revolts, Armash became the seat of the first Armenian prelate of Izmid, Bishop Markos Paron-Ter (1697–98). The Monastery of the Holy Mother of God was constructed sometime during the seventeenth century and underwent renovations in the eighteenth. In the early 1800s, church leaders also established a school and manuscript repository. The Monastery of the Holy Mother of God was burned down during the brief struggle between the Ottoman sultan and the rebellious Jannisary Corps. It was rebuilt shortly thereafter.
A seminary, which was the only Armenian seminary in western Anatolia, operated adjacent to the monastery. Among other secondary schools, the seminary of Armash was considered one of the most outstanding Armenian institutions in the Ottoman Empire. Patriarch of Constantinople Malachia Ormanian and Patriarchate of Jerusalem Yeghishe Tourian both served as deans of the seminary.
During the Armenian Genocide, Armash's Armenian population was rounded up by Ottoman authorities and sent on death marches to Syria. The seminary was looted of its priceless artifacts and the Monastery of the Holy Mother of God was demolished and later replaced with a mosque. According to Vrej Nersessian, a great number of graduates from the monastery who "had become the primates or diocesan bishops in the provinces of Turkish Armenia" also perished during the death marches.