According to another source, 70.000 Caucasian accepted the Russian offer and settled around Khuban, where as 250.000 people migrated to Ottoman Empire and between 1858-1865 totally 493,000 North Caucasian migrated to Ottoman lands. During these years the article on the St Petersburg Journal published on 19 May 1864 tells a real example of this migration and writes that the last opposition militia and the civic native settlers were killed and the country was cleared wholly. This article is a slap answer to those who found after a century that Caucasian left willingly their homeland, not because of Russians but as a result of Ottoman propaganda. In this article, following points were written; After being jammed by Russian and Khossakh military companies, the Abkhazians were forced to abondone their homeland in February 1864 with their families and few goods in order to settle to the pointed places around Khuban or to migrate Anatolia. The clearance operation held by the Russian Armies under the command of Major General Heyman between 06-16 March 1864 caused the Sapsigh people in the region migrate to the Ottoman lands. Major General Heyman continued its forward movement and defeated Vubih group on 19 March 1864, after that the Vubih and other Caucasian tribes lost their hope for freedom. Most of them thought to migrate to Anatolia and started to gather in camps near Black Sea. Even some coast line settlers hired some ships to sail to Anatolia at once. In 1864, 80,000 people were waiting for ship in Anapha and Novorosisk at Black Sea to go to Ottoman Empire. So, the most opponent tribes gave up their struggle. This article of a neutral Russian writer makes this migration phenomenon very clear befor history.
The migration movement gained speed after the Russian-Ottoman War between 1877-1878 which is accepted a a summit point of Russias panslavist and religiously motivated policy against the Ottomans. During this war, 18,000 young Caucasian immigrants, who settled in Trabzon after the migration, fought in the Ottoman Army and also some 3,000 volunteer Caucasian from the same province also joined the Army during war. At the same time, rebellions and oppositions in North Caucasia and Daghestan put the Russian army in difficult position and could only be taken under control by some Russian military divisions transfer to the region.
As the Ottoman-Russian war went on, the Ottomans tried to attack at the Russian in Caucasia by sending a troop of 4,000 Caucasian immigrants to Suhum in May 1877. At the same time, as they could not received help, the rebellions were suppressed on 9 May 1877 in Daghestan and on 12 May 1877 in Khuban which were started by the local militia under the control of Abdurrahman, one of the assistants of Imam Shamil.
Savaşta Osmanlı Devleti'nin yenilmesinden sonra Anadolu'daki göçmen Kakfasyalıların yaptıklarının ve Kafkasya'daki isyanların hesabını sorarcasına Kafkasya'ya yönelen ve bütün güçleriyle yüklenen Ruslar, henüz anayurtlarını terketmemiş olan Kafkasyalılara karşı bir ezme harekâtına başlamışlar ve bunun sonucunda yeni ve büyütk bir göç dalgası ortaya çıkmıştır.
After the Ottoman-Russian war between 1877 and 1878, the Russian demanden in the negotiations with to Ottomans to extend the range of the immigrants fron Caucasia to the whole muslim population in the region, as they clearly understood the hate of Caucasian people forced to migrate, and as they wanted to solve the Caucasian problem for which they had to spend great effort. In 1860, the Ottoman Government required the migration agreement to cover limited number of Cacuasian tribes, only including Turkish spoken Cauasian and Daghestan tribest, but this was not accepted by Russia. As there appeared a situation that Russia might stop the migration, the Ottoman Empire gave up all the limitations they required for the migration agreement.
The End
Back to Menu