The fall of Edessa in 1144 was the first major setback for Outremer and provoked the Second Crusade . All the later Crusades , however , were troubled by strategic uncertainties and disagreements . The Second Crusade did not even try to recover Edessa , calculating it to be strategically better to take Damascus . But the campaign failed and Edessa was lost for the Christians . Today , the city is called Şanlıurfa and is part of modern-day Turkey ; it retains nothing of its former importance . The Oriental Orthodox community largely disappeared after the Armenian Genocide during World War I
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
County of Edessa