Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction

Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction
Bulgarian soldiers pose with dead Turkish civilians, Edirne, 1913
LocationFormer Ottoman territories
Date19th and early 20th centuries
TargetTurks and other predominantly Muslim peoples, (Kurds, Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Serb Muslims, Greek Muslims, Muslim Roma, Pomaks)
Attack type
Genocide,[1][2][3][4][5] religious persecution, expropriation, mass murder, mass rape,[6][7][8] and ethnic cleansing[9]
DeathsEstimated around 5 million[10]

During the decline and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Muslim inhabitants (including Turks, Kurds, Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Serb Muslims, Greek Muslims, Muslim Roma, Pomaks)[11] living in Muslim-minority territories previously under Ottoman control often found themselves persecuted after borders were re-drawn. These populations were subject to genocide, expropriation, massacres, religious persecution, mass rape, and ethnic cleansing.[1][2][12][9][13][14][15][16][4][5]

The 19th century saw the rise of nationalism in the Balkans coincide with the decline of Ottoman power, which resulted in the establishment of an independent Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria and Romania. At the same time, the Russian Empire expanded into previously Ottoman-ruled or Ottoman-allied regions of the Caucasus and the Black Sea region. These conflicts such as the Circassian genocide created large numbers of Muslim refugees. Persecutions of Muslims resumed during World War I by the invading Russian troops in the east and during the Turkish War of Independence in the west, east, and south of Anatolia by Greek troops and Armenian fedayis. After the Greco-Turkish War, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey took place, and most Muslims of Greece left. During these times many Muslim refugees, called Muhacir, settled in Turkey.

  1. ^ a b McCarthy, Justin Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922, Darwin Press Incorporated, 1996, ISBN 0-87850-094-4, Chapter one, The land to be lost, p. 1
  2. ^ a b Adam Jones. (2010).Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction page 65 & 152. "Incorporating a global-comparative perspective on the genocide of the last half-millenium has enabled important advances in the understanding of events central to the genocide studies field – such as the process of Ottoman imperial dissolution, reciprocal genocidal killing (during the "Unweaving" in the Balkans)...The human toll of this "Great Unweaving," from Greece's independence war in the early nineteenth century to the final Balkan wars of 1912–1913, was enormous. Hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Muslims were massacred in the secessionist drive.."
  3. ^ Turkish genocide in the Balkans (in Turkish). İleri Yayınları. 2012. ISBN 978-605-5452-41-4. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  4. ^ a b Tatum, Dale C. (2010). Genocide at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Darfur. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-230-62189-3. In October 1912, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece launched an attack to dismember the decaying Ottoman Empire. This war was notable for its brutality. Acts of genocide and mayhem were committed during the war. Civilians were massacred and people's lips and noses were severed. Thus, the relationship between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians began to spiral downward. From this battle, the Serbs gained control of Kosovo, their 'mythic land' of origin.
  5. ^ a b Csaplár-Degovics, Krisztián. Die Internationale Kontrollkommission Albaniens und die albanischen Machtzentren (1913–1914): Beitrag zur Geschichte der Staatsbildung Albaniens (PDF) (in German). p. 41. One of the unexpected experiences of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 was that the members of the Balkan League committed genocides and other kinds of mass violence against other Nationalities and the Muslim population of the peninsula. Among other things the Albanian state-building project of the Great Powers aimed to prevent further genocide and other acts of violence against the Albanian population and other refugees from Macedonia and to put an end to the anarchy of the country.
  6. ^ "Carnegie Report, Macedonian Muslims during the Balkan Wars, 1912".
  7. ^ This information is given under the title "Official Documents of Bulgarian Brutality and Atrocities". See Ikdam, nu. 5922, 13 Ramazan 1331/3 August 1329 (16 August 1913), p. 3. 15 October 2017.
  8. ^ Sorrows of Turkish-Islams Bulgarian Atrocities, Sad. and Additional Information Written by H. Adnan Önelçin, İstanbul 1986, p. 27 ff The book also describes the atrocities committed in Niğbolu, Plovdiv, Varna, Dobruja and many other Muslim-Turkish villages and towns, and the atrocities are described as "Hz. It is shown as a "savagery within a most pathetic and distressing brutality that has not been seen in the world since the age of Adam.". 15 October 2017.
  9. ^ a b Mojzes, Paul (2013). "Ethnic cleansing in the Balkans: Why did it happen and could it happen again?" (PDF). Cicero Foundation Great Debate Paper. 13 (4). The Cicero Foundation.
  10. ^ Kaser 2011, p. 336: "The emerging Christian nation states justified the prosecution of their Muslims by arguing that they were their former 'suppressors'. The historical balance: between about 1820 and 1920, millions of Muslim casualties and refugees back to the remaining Ottoman Empire had to be registered; estimations speak about 5 million casualties and the same number of displaced persons"
  11. ^ Pekesen, Berna (7 March 2012). Berger, Lutz; Landes, Lisa (eds.). "Expulsion and Emigration of the Muslims from the Balkans". European History Online. Translated by Reid, Christopher. Leibniz Institute of European History. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  12. ^ Biondich, Mark (17 February 2011). The Balkans: Revolution, War, and Political Violence Since 1878. Oxford University Press.
  13. ^ Gibney, Matthew J.; Hansen, Randall (2005). Immigration and Asylum: from 1900 to the present. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-796-2.
  14. ^ Howard, Douglas A. (2001). The history of Turkey. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30708-9.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Turkish genocide in the Balkans (in Turkish). İleri Yayınları. 2012. ISBN 978-605-5452-41-4. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.