Seferyan Efendi

Seferyan Efendi (Ottoman Turkish: سفرين افندی b. 1820 – d. 30 May 1899) was an Ottoman physician, diplomat and translator. He worked as a military surgeon during the Crimean War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. In 1879, he was assigned to an envoy to Russia and worked to solve the disputes over the status of Armenians in Caucasus. In 1882, he worked as a scholar at the Imperial School of Medicine. His field of research included infectious diseases, military psychiatry and anatomy. He contributed to Turkish language by offering equivalents for Western medical terms. He was rewarded the Crimea Medal in 1855 and the Order of the Medjidie in 1856.

Life
Seferyan was born to an upper-middle-class Armenian family in Smyrna (İzmir) in 1820. His father worked as a supervisor in a textile factory and acted as a middleman for foreign traders. His mother was well-educated and worked in the local charity. Seferyan enrolled in the Mesropyan College in 1830. He could speak Armenian, Turkish, Greek and French. In 1840, he tried to enroll in the Naval Medical School (Tersane Tıp Mektebi) but his application was denied because of his lack of familiarity with Italian. In 1841, he instead attended the newly founded Imperial School of Medicine. In 1844, he graduated and returned to his family in Smyrna. He started working in Surp Lusavorçyan Hospital and guided nurses for more effective forms of treatment by instructing them on hygiene and gathering statistics about the patients.

When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Seferyan volunteered in the Imperial Army. He was deployed as a military surgeon at the Danubian Frontier under Omer Pasha. He treated the wounded soldiers in Varna and helped with the transportation of military supplies. His work was well received by the command, and on 24 March 1854, he was promoted to the rank of kolağası (Senior Captain). Later, he was transferred to Crimean Peninsula and worked at the garrison in Yevpatoria. In 1855, he was decorated with the Turkish Crimea Medal. In 1856, he was rewarded the Order of the Medjidie by the Sultan himself. He attempted to rehabilitate traumatized soldiers and published his research after the war.

In 1856, Seferyan attended the National Academy of Medicine in Paris for higher learning and earned his doctorate four years later. He returned Turkey in 1861 and continued working in the medical sector. With the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish War in 1877, Seferyan was appointed as the head of the Surp Pırgiç Hospital in Constantinople. In 1879, he was assigned to the Turkish consulate in Russian-controlled Erevan to resolve the dispute about the status of Ottoman Armenians in territories ceded to Russia with the Treaty of Berlin. The mission sought the protection of Armenians against Kurdish lords and determined the authority of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In 1882, he returned to academic life and worked at the Imperial School of Medicine. During his tenure, he created an extensive collection of translated works from French. He took part in the reformation of the school curriculum and public health services. He developed an emergency program against epidemics, particularly against cholera outbreaks. He was not popular among students for his strict tutelage style. And a dispute with Austrian academician Josef Hyrtl damaged his reputation. He falsely claimed that Hyrtl's technique on corrosion casting led to faulty models. In 1889, he was accused of embezzlement of university funds. Although a subsequent investigation cleared him of charges, Seferyan decided to step aside, possibly due to old age.

In 1890, Seferyan retired from the profession and settled in the countryside in Smyrna. From this point on, there is a lack of detail about his later years. In his memoirs, he mentions that he was living under handsome conditions and that he had 7 children, of whom 2 died during birth. On 30 May 1899, he passed away of natural causes.

Legacy
Seferyan's life story is virtually omitted from the records of Turkish official historiography. Turkish nationalist historians, believing that an Armenian Christian could not contribute positively to the Ottoman society, decided to completely ignore his deeds. According to liberal Turkish historian Halil Berktay, acknowledging that a non-Muslim could contribute to the Ottoman state contradicted the exclusionist idea that Armenians were enduring rebellious elements who conspired with European imperialist powers. The main source for Seferyan's biography originates from the Ottoman statesman Reshid Akif's 1919 book titled Seferyan Efendi: His public and private life. Reshid Akif himself took part in the post-WWI government and gave testimony about the mass killing of Armenians. With the proclamation of the Republic in 1923, the book was no longer in print, and with the 1980 coup d'etat, it was officially banned. Modern scholars consider this act of censorship as a part of the denial of Armenian genocide.

Awards

 * Turkish Crimea Medal, 1855, Ottoman Empire
 * Order of the Medjidie, 1856, Ottoman Empire