Floyd Olin Smith (December 1, 1885 – August 6, 1961) was an American physician who served in the Ottoman Empire (1913–1917) and the Philippines (1918–1927) under Near East Relief and the Red Cross.
During his time in the Ottoman Empire, Smith was a caretaker of many Armenians who were victims of the Armenian genocide. He wrote extensively about the treatment of his patients and provided detailed medical assessments of each of them. Smith later worked in the Philippines for nine years, and remained in there for another thirty years. During World War II, he was captured by Japanese forces and was held as a prisoner of war. He returned to the United States where he spent the rest of his life.
Early life
Floyd Smith was born on December 1, 1885, in Rowley, Iowa to parents Arthur and Jane Smith. After attaining a Bachelor of Science degree from Lenox College in 1907, Smith continued his studies at the University of Iowa where he attained his medical degree in 1911. He served as an intern at the Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. He married Bessie Heath in Hopkinton, Iowa on 4 October 1912.
Work in the Ottoman Empire
Floyd Smith was sent to the Ottoman Empire by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). He sailed from Boston on 31 December 1912 and initially settled in Paris, France where he remained there for six months in order to learn French. Smith then arrived in the Ottoman Empire in 1913 where he passed medical examinations in Constantinople.
After he was briefly sent to Jerusalem he was then transferred to Aintab (today Gaziantep) located in the eastern provinces of the Empire. While in Aintab, Floyd and Bessie Smith had a child named Arthur. However, both Floyd and Bessie became gravely ill. After making a recovery, Floyd Smith moved to Kharpert (today Harput) where he united with other missionaries.
By this time, his correspondence with relatives in the United States suggested that war was about to begin. In one letter, Smith noted that the conscription of Armenians into the military caused much anxiety within the Armenian community while the Turks, on the other hand, were similarly dissatisfied with the policy.
Smith was later transferred to Diyarbakir in October 1914. During his time there he was unable to continue corresponding. With the outbreak of World War I, the local British consulate in Diyarbakir entrusted Smith with the archives of the consulate. The archives were to be transferred to the American consulate for security purposes. However, Smith, along with a nurse, decided to burn the archives.
Treating victims of the Armenian genocide
When a typhus outbreak occurred in Diyarbakir, Smith was assigned to treat the provincial governor, Hamdi Bey. By this time, Hamdi Bey had a tolerant view towards the local Armenian population. However, fearing that he might lose his post as governor due to his tolerance, he ordered the arrest of many Armenians he believed would cause disturbances. Nevertheless, Hamdi Bey was still branded as someone who favored the Armenians and was subsequently removed from his post and replaced by Mehmed Reshid Bey in March 1915.
In 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers and fighting erupted at the border against Russia. In early spring of 1915, the Russians advanced successfully into Ottoman territory and the quick march of their army toward Diyarbakir, according to Turkish historian Uğur Ümit Üngör, must have confirmed Reshid's "apocalyptic fear" of the Russians and perceptions that all Armenians were Russian spies.
Floyd Smith managed to establish contact with the new governor in the first few weeks of his governorship. However, the governor then prohibited Smith from visiting him. Dr. Smith asserted, "Diyarbakir is an interior province with extremely few foreigners—an ideal setup to find out how to solve the Troublesome Armenian problem: Massacre and Deportation, or both combined. Talaat, Enver, and Jemal were fiends from hell itself." By this time, the deportations of the Armenians in Diyarbakir had already begun and there were mass arrests of Armenian men throughout the city. Smith described that during the arrests, many belongings were confiscated and sexual assaults towards women were rampant. Smith also remarked how the Armenian male population was disarmed and subjugated to torture: