Immigrations to Turkey from Greece between 1911 and 1923 :: essays research papers

Immigrations to Turkey from Greece between 1911 and 1923 In 1911, 51% of the Ottoman Europe (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) population was Muslim but with emigrations, it downed to minorities of Muslims in some territories (McCarthy, 1995). Most of these immigrations were forced immigrations. If person immigrate, because she does not have the minimum basic needs in domicile that called forced immigration (à pek, 2000). Forced immigrations are not only the problem of present days but with twentieth century, forced immigration becomes a legal issue. Forced immigrations have an objective that to un-mix the population of the selected territories or to homogenise the territories (Barutciski, 2004). Homogenous communities are easier than mixed ones to be controlled and homogenous communities are less likely to have intercommunity conflicts. Thus forced immigrations are the reason of consolidating political power. â€Å"Bà ¼yà ¼k Mà ¼badele† or 1923 exchange of Greek and Turkish populations was not the first attempt to forma lise the population exchange but it is one of the earliest and most controversial international treaties on this subject (Barutciski, 2004) and the first internationally ratified compulsory population exchange. With the convention concerning the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations at Lausanne, after 1st May 1923 Muslims in Greek territories and Greek Orthodox in Turkish territories were compulsorily exchanged except Muslims in Western Trace and Greeks in Istanbul. 1.5 million Greek and Turk were forced to leave their homelands. There is a difference between Greek movement and Turkish movement; Greeks mostly emigrate with retreating Greek army as a result of Greek rout in 1922 and without waiting permission, but most of the Turks emigrate after the convention. More than 1 million Greek escaped from Turkey before convention of population exchange (Arà ½, 1995). According to official record of the Mixed Commission only 189.916 Greek were transferred to Greece after 1923 conventi on but 354.647 Turks transferred in this period (Hirshchot, 2004). There were not many Turks who immigrate in 1922 because, for Turkish immigrants the 1923 exchange is the only way to escape from Greek oppression in that period. The term â€Å"refugee† is not suitable for these groups as defined in international laws because they were immediately granted full citizenship. The term that is used in Turkish is â€Å"Muhacir† to refer to people who forcibly leave their homeland and enter the Ottoman Empire and Turkey and specifically the word â€Å"Mà ¼badil† is referring to the 1923 exchange (Hirshchot, 2004).