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 e 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 e 1877 Russian invasion of Ottoman as their ancestral homelands. e problem was that were counted among the dead, and many more dead Europe led to the ight of 515,000 and the deaths of each desired the same property. ey 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 rst 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, su ering of the time has been described, all too oen 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. e 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 su ering 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 ed to Bulgaria from Montenegro all of the Muslims were gone, in the lands Ottoman race 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, taken by Romania 83% (152,000) were gone. Bosnian who most su ered. 27% of the Turks of Ottoman e West Muslims ed during a Serbian revolt in 1875 and aer 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 RUSSIANEMPIRE Ottomans in war. Russia forced the EMPIRE An unknown number of Greeks, independence of Serbia, Romania, and perhaps 100,000, went from Western Bulgaria. e Great Powers in concert BOSNIA Anatolia to Greece before World War I ROMANIA CIRCASSIA forced the creation of an independent SERBIA CRIMEA began, a ected by anti-Greek economic Greece. e Austrians seized Bosnia. By pressure aer the Balkan Wars. Aided 1912, the new Balkan countries were strong BULGARIA especially by the British, the Greek Army enough to defeat the Ottomans themselves. invaded Western Anatolia in 1919. ey A N L Only a small wedge of Europe, Eastern BA THRACE immediately began attacks on Turkish ARMENIA race, remained to the Empire. N AIJA villages and cities, ultimately forcing 1.2 IA B R million Turks from their homes in Western G ANATOLIA E R Anatolia and an unknown number from E AZ Greece E

C OTTOMANEMPIRE race (what had remained of Ottoman e small Muslim population was E IRAN Europe aer the Balkan Wars). e largely expelled from Serbia in the early Turkish Nationalists, led by Mustafa 1800s, but the e ective 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 ight. A came in Greece. Aer 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 e Balkan Wars Turks of Greece (excepting Eastern race). 850,000 died. When Greece expanded to the north in 1880, Greeks were exchanged for 480,000 Turks. 530,000 70,000 more Turks le 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 e East Russian invasion of Anatolia. e way in which the war who was forced out of Bulgaria at age 20 in 1878 might was fought maximized civilian suering. In 1914 and have ed to Ottoman Europe, where he survived, e 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. e 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 ee centuries) ed the Crimea and surrounding areas for briey defeated and forced to retreat, 300,000 from İzmir in 1919. Most likely he would have le dead the Ottoman Empire. Immediately aer the Crimean Armenians ed 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. eir 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 ight of more great exchange of Muslim and Christian populations, Turks and Kurds. From 1915 to 1916 more than a e Map with much suering that was to continue until 1920. In million Muslims had been forced westwards. Like the e 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. e Ottoman Empire controlled a necessity of placing many arrows in a small space, and small area to the North of today’s Turkish border. e e 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 ed to Iranian Azerbaijan in 1806-7. 20,000 extent, to Iraq. to also include an arrow for the Armenian exiles to Turks ed the Erivan Province (today’s Armenian Armenia. Even approximations of many of the forced Republic) in 1827-9. eir place was taken by At war’s end, Armenians took control of migrations are unknown. Rough estimates are reected 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 ed the Armenian Republic for mortality shows the percentage deaths of Muslims, Circassians and Abhazians Turkey. e French took Cilicia (South-central Greeks, and Armenians. Muslim percentages are for the Anatolia, the Adana region) aer the Armistice. war zones in Eastern and Western Anatolia. Wartime e 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 ed the Armenians and the French. ose gures 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. e Armenians followed the French subsequently died, mainly of starvation and disease. retreat. In all, 30,000 Armenians and an unknown e map does not include many migrants that During and immediately aer the Russo-Turkish War number of Turks were refugees. le their homelands looking for work, were attracted by of 1877-78, 78,000 Turks le conquered lands in oers 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. e Toll ese would have included the Armenians whom the Russians attracted to their Caucasus conquests aer World War I e death toll in these wars and dislocations 1829 to take the place of expelled Turks and the Greeks was tremendous. e 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 ocials 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 rst 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. Vienna FORCED DISPLACEMENTS OF 5 MILLION MUSLIMS AND 1.9 MILLION CHRISTIANS, 1770-1923 Budapest AUSTRIA RUSSIA

s * atar ay T og s: N 860 1 C

0 A 0 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 S 5 0 1 s 10 s ar P Bucharest r at Sarajevo a T 2 mil. t an 1. a e s I T rim 00 n : : C ,0 a A -8 0s 00 i 7 77 3 z -80 7 1 rs a S N 875 : Bo 8 1 s 1 ta h ni Ta an n b s a 1 ime A 2 r 0 : C s ,0 0s AE 0 6 n 0 18 a Sofia i 0 1912-3: Bulgarians 50,000 BLACKSEA ,00 s 20 s s 5 a 1878-80: Turks 100,000 c s * rk Tiflis n 1913: Bulgarians 50,000 u r

a i i : T n 7-9 C ba 1878: Bulgarians 190,000 ,000 l 7 z 40 8 : : La 1 Edirne -82 : A s 8 87 1918-20: Turks 220,000 -3 1912-3: Greeks 20,000 1 0 2 Baku 1

6 1918-9: Armenians * 9 191 1 2-4 1919-22: Turks * menians * Manastır : 8 1877-8: Turks 70,000 Ar Tu 8-9: Salonica rk 191 s 4 1 Trabzon Erivan 1 0,000 00 0 ians 2 0,0 ,0 rmen s 4 0 77-8: A rk 0 18 i Tu r * ze 0 s 0 -9: A 8 rk 0,0 91 0 1 u Ankara 3 Bursa Erzurum 1827-9: Turks 20,000 s an ri T 1877-81: Turks 40,000 ni e Sivas e z rm : A 5: A 1915-6: Kurds * 91 6-7 1922-3: Turks 480,000 1915- 1 0 6 8 : T 1 1 u Van 91 rks 5: A 1821-30: Turks * il. Kur rm m ds 1 en .2 m ian Tabriz 1 il. 1 s * s 1915-6: Kurds * 8 k 1915-6: A 90 İzmir ur rm s: A Athens : T en rm 2 i en 9-2 a ian 1800 Border 91 n Diyarbakır s * 1 s

4

1914-23: Greeks 850,000 Konya 4 0,

1830 Border 1921: Armenians 30,000 0 Adana 00 OTTOMAN 1912 Border IRAN 1918-9: Turks * 1912 Balkan EMPIRE Mosul States Borders Aleppo 1914 Border 1896-8: Cretan Muslims Turks * Christians Muslims Numbers MEDITERRANEANSEA * Unknown

5 40 4 4 30 MUSLIM GREEK ARMENIAN OTHER BULGARIAN N. Anatolia 3 Istanbul 3 20 Ottoman Europe 2 2 10 1 1 0 Muslim Christian Muslim Christian Muslim Armenian Muslim Greek 0 W. Anatolia 0 % East Mainly East West Mainly West E. Anatolia Muslim Christian C. Anatolia Muslim Christian 1877-1878 War Balkan Wars Deaths (millions) Forced Migration Europe (%) Europe(%) Anatolian Wars,1914-1922(%)* * By Region. Due to migration, Greek and Armenian losses 1864-1922 1770-1923 (millions) 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