Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire. An Annotated Map PDF
Preview Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire. An Annotated Map
Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire An Annotated Map Justin McCarthy Professor of History at the University of Louisville Copyright © 2010 by Justin McCarthy Printed by the Turkish Coalition of America Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire From 1790 to 1923 more than 7 million persons were The War of 1877-78 Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria. Each forced from their homes in the Balkans, the Caucasus, coveted the parts of Ottoman Europe that they viewed and Anatolia. At the same time, another six million The 1877 Russian invasion of Ottoman as their ancestral homelands. The problem was that were counted among the dead, and many more dead Europe led to the flight of 515,000 and the deaths of each desired the same property. They joined together to were never counted. It was one of the worst human 288,000 Bulgarian Muslims, nearly all Turks. Only 46% defeat the Ottomans in the first Balkan War, then disasters in history, but is little known today. When the of the Bulgarian Muslims remained. In exchange, fought among themselves for the spoils. Serbia, suffering of the time has been described, all too often 187,000 Bulgarians from what remained in Ottoman Montenegro, Greece, and Romania attacked Bulgaria. only dispossessed and dead Christians have been Europe went to Bulgaria. The Ottomans also attacked Bulgaria to reclaim some considered. Yet the greatest mortality and exile were land in Europe. experienced by Muslim peoples—Turks, Circassians, By percentage, the worst losses in the period Kurds, and others. All shared in the suffering in that took place among the Muslims in regions taken by Of the Christian peoples, it was the Bulgarians terrible time. Montenegro, Serbia and Romania. In the lands taken by who lost most: 100,000 Bulgarians fled to Bulgaria from Montenegro all of the Muslims were gone, in the lands Ottoman Thrace and from the lands conquered by the taken by Serbia, 91% (119,000) were gone, in the lands other Balkan countries. It was the Muslims, however, The West taken by Romania 83% (152,000) were gone. Bosnian who most suffered. 27% of the Turks of Ottoman Muslims fled during a Serbian revolt in 1875 and after a Europe died and 18% were surviving refugees. No one In 1790 the Ottoman Empire in Europe failed Muslim revolt against Austrian occupation of counted the numbers lost in the great slaughter and contained the lands south of the Danube River, Bosnia, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1881-2. dispossession of Albanians in the West. and most of Romania. Much of that land was to be lost through Great Power Turkish War of Independence intervention, mainly by defeating the AUSTRIAN RUSSIAN EMPIRE Ottomans in war. Russia forced the EMPIRE An unknown number of Greeks, independence of Serbia, Romania, and perhaps 100,000, went from Western Bulgaria. The Great Powers in concert Anatolia to Greece before World War I B ROMANIA fG1o9rr1ec2ee,cd et h. etThh nee ew c ArBeuaasltktiorainna n csoo fus neaitzrnei eds i nwBdeoerspen esinatr.d oeBnngyt OSNIASERBIA CRIMEA CIRCASSIA bpeserpegesascnui,ar lelay ff aebftcyte ertdh eth bBey r iBatinsahtlki,- aGtnhr ee WeGk areresec.ko nAAoirmdmeidyc BULGARIA enough to defeat the Ottomans themselves. invaded Western Anatolia in 1919. They N Only a small wedge of Europe, Eastern A THRACE A immediately began attacks on Turkish Thrace, remained to the Empire. LBANIA ANATOLIA ARMENIAERBAIJ vmilillaligoens Taunrdk sc firtoiems, tuhletiirm haotmelye s fionr Wcinegs te1r.n2 G Z Anatolia and an unknown number from Greece RE OTTOMAN EMPIRE A Thrace (what had remained of Ottoman E The small Muslim population was CE IRAN Europe after the Balkan Wars). The largely expelled from Serbia in the early Turkish Nationalists, led by Mustafa 1800s, but the effective beginning of the CRETE Kemal, defeated the Greeks by 1922. It was Turkish exodus from Southeastern Europe 1800 then the turn of the Greeks to take flight. A came in Greece. After the Greek Rebellion of post-war agreement exchanged the Greeks 1822 to 1830 all of the Turks of the new of Turkey (excepting Istanbul) for the Greek Kingdom were gone; all had either migrated or Turks of Greece (excepting Eastern Thrace). 850,000 The Balkan Wars died. When Greece expanded to the north in 1880, Greeks were exchanged for 480,000 Turks. 530,000 70,000 more Turks left the occupied territories for the At the onset of the Balkan Wars, the Muslim Turks and 310,000 Greeks had died. Ottoman Empire. By the time Greece formally annexed population of Ottoman Europe was slightly over Crete in 1913, all but a few of the Cretan Turks had been 50%—Turks in the East, Albanians in the West. expelled. Population numbers, however, were not a concern to The East Russian invasion of Anatolia. The way in which the war who was forced out of Bulgaria at age 20 in 1878 might was fought maximized civilian suffering. In 1914 and have fled to Ottoman Europe, where he survived, The Russian Empire expanded to the south. 1915 the Russians and Armenians invaded Eastern perhaps even prospered. Again forced out in 1912, he When it annexed the Crimea in 1779 approximately Anatolia. The invasion was accompanied by wholesale might have lived as a penniless settler near İzmir. In his 100,000 Crimean Tatars (Turks who had lived there for slaughter of Turks and Kurds. When the Russians were old age, disaster struck again as he was forced to flee centuries) fled the Crimea and surrounding areas for briefly defeated and forced to retreat, 300,000 from İzmir in 1919. Most likely he would have left dead the Ottoman Empire. Immediately after the Crimean Armenians fled to Russia and an unknown number to family and friends behind in each place, killed by the War, they were joined by a further 300,000 Crimean Iran. Until the Russian Revolution freed the survivors, invaders who drove him from his home. Much the same Tatars and an unknown number of Nogay Tatars. Their the Russians allowed few of the Armenians to return to story could have been told of Greeks or Armenians. place was taken by Christian subjects of the Tsar. their homes. Great numbers, perhaps half, of the Armenian refugees starved or died of disease. By 1916, In the East, Russian conquest was to lead to a the Russians had returned, forcing the flight of more The Map great exchange of Muslim and Christian populations, Turks and Kurds. From 1915 to 1916 more than a with much suffering that was to continue until 1920. In million Muslims had been forced westwards. Like the The size of the arrows on the main map 1800, the area that is today’s Armenia, Central Georgia, Armenians, they starved or were killed by disease. 62% indicates the relative size of the migrations. Placement and Azerbaijan was a loosely governed part of the of the Muslims of Van Province, for example, died. of the arrows was in some places dictated by the Persian Empire. The Ottoman Empire controlled a necessity of placing many arrows in a small space, and small area to the North of today’s Turkish border. The The Ottoman Government responded to the thus is not geographically perfect. For example, the Russians took the region in a series of annexations and perceived threat from its Armenian population by arrow for the exile of Turks from Armenia in 1918-20 conquests from 1801 to 1829. A large number of Azeri relocating 440,000 Armenians to Syria and, to a lesser should have pointed further south, were it not necessary Turks fled to Iranian Azerbaijan in 1806-7. 20,000 extent, to Iraq. to also include an arrow for the Armenian exiles to Turks fled the Erivan Province (today’s Armenian Armenia. Even approximations of many of the forced Republic) in 1827-9. Their place was taken by At war’s end, Armenians took control of migrations are unknown. Rough estimates are reflected Armenians from Iran and the Ottoman Empire, drawn Erzurum Province, but the Ottoman Army defeated in the size of arrows. by the availability of land taken from the exiled Turkish them. Armenians escaped to the Northeast, killing farmers and Russian promises of freedom from taxes. Turks and destroying villages. In addition, by 1920, “Anatolian Wars” in the small map of wartime 220,000 Turks had fled the Armenian Republic for mortality shows the percentage deaths of Muslims, Circassians and Abhazians Turkey. The French took Cilicia (South-central Greeks, and Armenians. Muslim percentages are for the Anatolia, the Adana region) after the Armistice. war zones in Eastern and Western Anatolia. Wartime The Russians continued and expanded their Armenians, especially those who had been relocated to migration, however, makes it impossible to give policy of forcing Muslims out of conquered lands. 1.2 Syria, moved into the region and attacked the Turks Armenian and Greek deaths only in the war zones. million Circassians and Abhazians, Muslim inhabitants there. Many Turks fled the Armenians and the French. Those figures are for Anatolia as a whole, but they of the Eastern Black Sea region, were expelled to the Others began a successful military campaign that drove roughly correspond to the percentages for Muslims. Ottoman Empire in the 1860s. One-third of them out the French. The Armenians followed the French subsequently died, mainly of starvation and disease. retreat. In all, 30,000 Armenians and an unknown The map does not include many migrants that During and immediately after the Russo-Turkish War number of Turks were refugees. left their homelands looking for work, were attracted by of 1877-78, 78,000 Turks left conquered lands in offers of free land and relief from taxes, or simply did Northeastern Anatolia, their places taken by 20,000 not wish to live under their home governments’ rule. Armenians from the Ottoman East. The Toll These would have included the Armenians whom the Russians attracted to their Caucasus conquests after The death toll in these wars and dislocations 1829 to take the place of expelled Turks and the Greeks World War I was tremendous. The dead on all sides were mainly and Armenians who went to America seeking a better Armenian rebels had begun to take action civilians, and many more died from disease and life. It would have included the Turks who continued to against Ottoman troops and officials and Muslim starvation than were directly killed by their enemies. leave the Balkans and Russia up until the end of the civilians before the Ottomans entered World War I. In But consideration should be given to the calamity that twentieth century. It also would have included the great the first months of the war, civilian populations moved struck even those refugees who survived. It was a life of number of all groups who moved in peace time across to cities and other safe places. During the war, hunger in refugee camps or begging on the ever-changing borders to escape persecution or simply Armenian units attached to the Russian Army and streets—homes and farms gone forever. Many made to live with their fellows. Had these been included, the guerilla units of Ottoman Armenians spearheaded the new lives, but saw them ruined again. A Turkish farmer map would have been a mass of small arrows. FORCED DISPLACEMENTS OF 5 MILLION MUSLIMS Vienna AND 1.9 MILLION CHRISTIANS, 1770-1923 Budapest A U S T R I A R U S S I A 1 8 6 0 s: N o g a y T at a rs * C 0 1S8a7r5a-j8e0v:oBosnia Bucharest 1877-8:Tatars150,00 1 7 7 0 s: Cmrime ae an n TTaatt aarrs s 1 30 00,00,0 00 0 0 Abha zi a n s 1 .2 mil. ASPIAN 1912-3n: Aslba1nia2ns 0 *,000 187M8*-8a0:n Tausr187t17k-891ı: s T 1ru rks 3 4:10 , 0000B0ul,1g0aSr80iaa07nls 7o5-0n,90:i0 c0 aT Su r1o8kfi7sa 8:5 B2 u0,lg0a01r0i9a1ns2 -149:0,T01u901r02k-3s: 4G19r11e20e-3k,: 0 EBsu 0 dl2g0a0irr,ia0nn0s e050,000 1919-2B2:u Trusrkas1 *8 6 0 s: C ri B LAnAkaCra K S E A rs8i:C01c6aSssiiavnass Trabzo18n7 8-8 2: Laz 401,807E070r-8z: uTurruk1sm 8770,70-0810:9 A1r8m-9e:nAiar1mn18s92e 7n2-19i0:8a ,Tn0-u02sr0k 0*s m:2 0 ,eT0u0n0iraksn s T 2 i2E3f0lr0i,si00v,0a00n0 0 191189-198:- 9A: rAmzeerni iTaunrsk s* 4 0,0 0 0 zeri Turks * BSakEuA s A r A 1800 Border 1821-30: Turk A1t9h2en2s-3: Turks 480,000 İzmir 1 9 1 9 - 2 2 : T u r k s 1 . 2 m i l . 1915-6: A1rm9e1nia5n-6: Turks KurdDiysa r b1a kmır il. 1 9 1 5: 1915-6: K Van1819901s:5 1 A:9 rA1mr5me-n6ein:a i nKasnu s*r d *s * Tabriz 1806-7: 11893102 BBoorrddeerr 1914-23: Greeks 850,000 Konya Adana 18-9: Turks * 1921: Arm s4400,00 OETMT OP MI RAEN urds * I R A N 1S199ta11t24e sBB Baolorkdradenrers 1896-8: Cretan M uslims Turks * 19 enians 30,000 Aleppo Mosul Christians Muslims Numbers * M E D I T E R R A N E A N S E A Unknown N 5 N MUSLIM GREEK ARMENIA BULGARIA OTHER 4 4300 4 N. Anatolia 3 Istanbul 3 20 Ottoman Europe 2 2 10 1 1 0 Muslim Christian Muslim Christian Muslim Armenian Muslim Greek W. Anatolia 0 % East Mainly East West Mainly West 0 E. Anatolia Muslim Christian C. Anatolia 1877-1878 War Balkan Wars Muslim Christian Europe(%) Europe(%) Anatolian Wars,1914-1922(%)* Deaths (millions) Forced Migration 1864-1922 1770-1923 (millions) *By Region. Due to migration, Greek and Armenian losses by individual regions of Anatolia are not precisely known, including Caucasians, 1864-7 Population of Ottoman Balkans and Anatolia by Religion, 1912 Cilicia unknowns not included Wartime Mortality, Mainly Civilian
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