1923 Exchange Of Greek And Turkish Populations example essay topic

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 ('Ypek, 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 homogenize the territories (Barutciski, 2004).

Homogenous communities are easier than mixed ones to be controlled and homogeneous communities are less likely to have inter community conflicts. Thus forced immigrations are the reason of consolidating political power. "B"uy " uk M" " or 1923 exchange of Greek and Turkish populations was not the first attempt to formalism 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 (Ar'y, 1995). According to official record of the Mixed Commission only 189.916 Greek were transferred to Greece after 1923 convention 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 "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 "Muhacir" to refer to people who forcibly leave their homeland and enter the Ottoman Empire and Turkey and specifically the word "M" " is referring to the 1923 exchange (Hirshchot, 2004). This article put forward that, as reasons, which lay behind the population exchange, nationalistic ideologies of both Turkish and Greek governments were more important than Turkey's economic benefits from that exchange and as consequences, one can claim that measures of Turkish government solved the problems of Muhacirs and M" and provide reasonable life conditions, on the contrary, immigrants faced many problems that could not solved by Turkish government. Some people may argue that reason, which makes Turkish government enthusiastic about the population exchange, was lack of workforce in Turkey after the War of Independence ('Ystikl^al Harb i) and Turkish government wanted to benefit from immigrants to rise up Turkish economy. The Ottoman population census of 1906 shows that within the borders of present-day Turkey the population was 15 million. However, after the Balkan Wars, the First World War and the War of Independence population within the same region reduced to 13.6 million in 1927 (Aktar, 2004) because of casualties in wars, immigrations of non-Muslim minorities and decrease in birth-rate for the reason that most of the young men were in the army.

Because of this decrease in population, agricultural production in year 1923 retrograded to 1913 production levels and at those days agricultural production was the most important income ('Ypek, 2000). However, with the population exchange, Turkish government and Turkish inhabitants faced some problems with Muhacirs and M" and this cost more than benefits from immigrants. Between 1877-78 War and 1914, total budget that was spent for Muhacirs is 215 million Kuru th and this amount of money nearly equal to total foreign dept of Ottoman Empire (Akdad, nd). As Aktar mentioned, after 1923, Turkish Government spent nearly 1 million pound for settlement and other needs of immigrants (2004). After the abandonment of Greek people from Turkey, many people settled house and fields of Greeks and in cities, some property of Greeks hired for officials. With the arrival of the M", government force Turkish inhabitants to leave Greek properties and that caused conflicts because Turkish government planned to distribute that property to immigrants ('Ypek, 2000).

In those days, Turkish inhabitants had many problems too, taking away what they have, made some of them angry and they externalized Turkish immigrants. However, the real reasons that lay behind the immigration, firstly, reasons that forced governments to sign this convention must be described and the motivation of the M" must be signalled. Dr. R'ya Nur, who was the person signs the Lausanne with 'Y smet 'Yn " on"u, put forward that in a TBM M session, there were two reasons that make population exchange indispensable. First one is the population policy of Greece, they tried to eliminate Turkish population in an oppressive way to make Greece homogeneous and the second one is to make Turkey ethnically homogeneous and gain a population that was very valuable for Turkey as workforce ('Ypek, 2000). Dr. R'ya Nur thinks that the most important one is to get rid of Greek population in Turkey (1992) but one must remember that Dr. R'ya Nur was an extreme nationalist. First aim of the 1923 exchange for Nur was to rescue Turkish population in Greece from harsh conditions.

After First World War, there was no change in Greece population policy; as they did after the Balkan Wars (1912-13) Greek government had forced Turks to immigrate. They arrested Turks for claims about resistance movements, raided villages on the pretext of searching weapon and wounded or murdered people under torture ('Ypek, 2000). Secondly, as seen in his memoirs, Nur stated Greeks as a threat (Aktar, 2004): The most important was the liberation of Turkey from the elements, which through the centuries had weakened her either by organising rebellions or by being domestic extensions of foreign states. Hence the making of the country uniformly Turkish... was a huge and unequalled responsibility. (p. 87) Greek nationalism was the other reason of population exchange.

In this period, Greek give rement tried to create unified Greek population and create new lands for newly arrived Greek immigrants after 1912 (Ar'y, 1995). In 1922, with the refugees escaped form Russia and Bulgaria, Greek population increased by more than 2.2 million ('Ypek, 2000). As "Ozsoy mentioned in his book, which explain the experiences of exchange witnesses, Greek government took many Muslim's fields, animals and even houses and gave them to Greek refugees (2003). In the pretext of being conscripted, many men forced to leave their lands in Sar', Kavala and Pirithtina ('Ypek, 2000). In 1898, many Muslims emigrated and there were 2.900 Muslims remained in Yenithehir and T' as a result of the oppression of the government and Greeks. With the same reasons, nearly 40.000 people immigrated to Kandi ye from Gir it (Crete) ('Ypek, 2000).

The ideological basis of this oppression is Me gali Idea, The Great Idea, of the Greeks (Hirschon, 2004). This expansionist dream was aimed that to rise up Byzantine Empire. To strengthen the nationalistic consciousness as Brunnbauner mentioned (2001), all Turks / Muslims/Ottomans were described as "others" and created an image that "all kinds of misfortunes are due to the Turks" in Greek folklore. During the 19th and the early 20th centuries "others" were the main target of expansionism and assimilation thus with the end of 1920's many Muslims immigrated to Anatolia, to New Turkish Republic (Brunnbauner, 2001). Some people believe that measures those were taken by governments of Ottoman and Turkish Republic solved M" and Muhacirs problems. In Greece, as the exchange go by, an impartial commission that had Turkish commissioners too, observed and controlled the procedure and they send observers to many settlements to organise transportation and document real estate of immigrants ('Ypek, 2000).

Hil^al-i Ahmer Cemiyeti (Turkish Red Crescent) vaccinated the people that those had been waiting for a transport to leave Greece, to protect from plague that common in those days (Ar'y, 1995). When they arrived in Turkey Hil^al-i Ahmer Cemiyeti and local governments tried to find settlements for M" and Muhacirs. Immigrants paid reduced taxes for many years to help them to gain their economic wellness again. In many regions properties that were abandoned by Greeks who left Turkey, distributed to immigrants. Some local governments gave the opportunity to M" that hire land on the cheap (Ar'y, 1995).

Certainly, these actions of government helped immigrants; however, these were not general and absolute solutions for immigrants' problems. Many Muhacirs and M" came to Turkey to find better conditions and for many cases, to save their lives. Nearly all of immigrants saved their lives and they found relatively better conditions but in reality, it was not enough for humanity. The government took measures however, a lot of Muhacirs or M" left Greece with no money; one that had money spent it on the road to the Turkey ("Ozsoy, 2003). Journey was not comfortable, they transported in cargo ships and many people became ill in that small cargo compartments and even some people died in these ships (G"ok cat'y, 2002).

When they disembarked, if they do not have relatives, they had nowhere to go and with no money. For M", there was a hope for find new homes but they needed documents for this and in their situation, some people do not have documents because they left Greece before Exchange Committee arrived to save their lives. People who do not have documents and ones who wait for their final destinations to settle waited for even months in guesthouses (Ar'y, 1995). Settlements those were arranged by local governments were another problem for M", some farmers were located in cities, and some traders or artisans were located in small villages (G"ok cat'y, 2002).

Some families could not find places to settle and went to other cities this means another emigration for them and some families were separated to locate them in reasonable places (G"ok cat'y, 2002). 'Ypek mention that, many peoples were located in houses those abandoned by Greek emigrants but in villages Greeks ruined their houses as possible as they could and in all around Samsun only one family could be settled in a Greek property and this house was in village of Kaydapal (2000). In conclusion, with revolt of Greeks in Mora in 1821 many Muslim people immigrated to Turkey, it continued with 1877-78 93 War, 1912-13 Balkan Wars, 1923 Population exchange ("Ozsoy, 2003). Population exchange is the period that people immigrated to Turkey more easily than other years. That period was shaped by nationalistic ideologies of both Greek and Turkish governments of those days and one easily see that economic benefits cannot be a reason for this exchange.

Because benefits were not greater that burden on governments. They had come to Turkey to save their lives and they succeeded but they were deeply and very negatively affected by immigration. As the years go by, with the next generations their agony have been forgotten but people must know that nearly %20 of today's Turkey's population is Muhacir or M" (Akdad, nd).

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