In the meantime, as early as 1839, theological education was being offered in the area which is now Turkey, under the leadership of the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in Bebek and later in Marzifoon, Marash and Harput. However, because of the events which befell the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, these seminaries were closed and consolidated in the establishment of the School of Religion in Istanbul, with the Rev. Fred Goodsell as President. After the catastrophe of Izmir in 1922, the Armenian and Greek students of the School, together with Professor Loutfi Levonian, moved to Athens. In 1925, the Istanbul branch of the school was closed and the institutions were combined in the School of Religion in Athens.