The rise of the Red Crescent

This paper addresses the establishment of the Red Crescent, an equivalent of the Red Cross, in the Ottoman Empire in 1868 through the founding of 'the Society of Care and Aid for Wounded and Disabled Soldiers' (Mecrȗhȋnve Marzȃ-yi Askeriyeye İmdad ve Muavenet Cemiyeti). Following initial slow development, the Society was revitalized in April 1877 in preparation for war with Russia. Importantly, the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian conflict was the first major war conducted by signatories of the 1864 First Geneva Convention, which made provisions for the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers and protection for those providing care. Although both the Ottoman Empire and Russia were signatories, major issues remained to be resolved in practice and the heat of conflict. One of the unresolved issues was international and Russian recognition of a red crescent on a white background as a sign of neutrality, in addition to a red cross. An interim agreement was signed between the two sides with international support. Full international approval of the red crescent symbol took much longer and was only confirmed at the ninth Red Cross Conference in Washington in 1912, 35 years later. Today, the red crescent represents all majority Muslim countries' aid institutions.