After the Berlin Congregate and Great East Crisis between 1875-1878, Christians started to destroy Turkish and Muslim groups in the region. Thousands of Turks and Muslims were murdered, their properties and villages were plundered. There was a terrible Turk-Muslim massacre in the region.
They drove thousands of Turks and Muslims out of their lands on which they lived for hundreds of years. According to Yılmaz Öztuna and Enver Ziya Karal, the number of Turkish immigrants from the region was more than a million. They came generally from Bulgaria, Serbia, Karadag, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dobruca. These immigrants were settled in Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Cyprus, Trablusgarb, Maeedonia, East Rumelia and Trace.
Immigrants in Macedonia came from Nis, Leskofça, Karadag, Dobruca and other places of Rumelia. French Consalate in Sophia J. Chepher sent a report to French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that there came 50-60 thousand families came to Macedonia as immigrants. Maximillian Nepoleon, French Representative of the East Rumelia European Commission, reported that there were 60 Muslim-Turk immigrants only in Selaniko Province.
Macadonia was a country to where immigrants rushed. Most of the Turks from Nis and Leskofca gathered in Selaniko and Kosova provinces. Their number was about 300 thousand in 1877. Some of them were sent to Anatolia in 1878 but there were still 60 thousand Turkish immigrant families in Macedonia. That meant 250 thousand people.
Turkish and Muslim migration continued from those lost Ottoman lands after the Berlin Congregate and Great East Crisis between 1875-1878. They drove out their lands by supression. Austria invaded Bosnia in October 1908. Bulgaria announced independence. Crete was separated from Ottoman Empire and bounded to Greece. These all speeded up the migrations.
Turks in European lands of Ottoman Empire suffered from brutality especially with the Balkan War I. During this war, Serbians, Bulgarian and Karadag Christians started an annihilation campaign against Turks. They slaughtered Turks in every place. They murdered 200 Turks in Poroy, 500 in Serez, 5000 a day in a day in Uskup, 3000 Turks in Ustrumca. They burnt Turkish men in mosques and women in the streets.
Rumelia Turks had to escape for the shelter of Ottoman Empire in Istanbul and Anatolia. There migrated 413,922 Turks from Rumelia between 1912-1920 according to English historian Arnold Toynbee. The same plan was applied over Turks in the Balkan Wars and World War I. The same happened again in Bulgaria in recent years.
Non-Turk minorities in Balkans and Near East applied barbarous and cruel policies over Turks as Spanish and Portuguese did in South and Middle America. Same inhuman policies are seen in the applications of France, England, Belgium, Holland and other European countries against some Asian and African nations.
But, Ottomans treated those non-Turk nations as their brother. Keeping their culture and other nationalist characters, they could establish their own countries and governments in the 19th and 20th century thanks to Ottomans tolerant policies. However, Ottoman Empire could easily assimilate those nations and make them Muslims during its sovereign for 550 years. It that period, Ottoman Empire was the most powerful military force. There was no other country to stop Ottomans. Civilian Europe had to submit to its justice and power.
Despite these facts, Ottomans did no harm for any nation. They did not applied fascist policies as Spain and Portuguese. If they did, there would no doubt be different geographical borders in the Balkans and Near East. There would possibly be a Turkish country from Adriatic Sea to Caspian Sea, from Crimea to the Indian Ocean. There will neither be an Iran-Iraq war nor Israeli-Palestinian Conflict or Turkish migration problem.
If Ottoman Empire did the necessary thing in that time, Christianized Slavic Bulgarians could not murdered 2 millions of our brothers. They could not change their names and religions, nor they could assimilate them. But, Bulgarians should not forget that, Turkish nation never stayed inactive against anyone in history. They made everyone pay their debt. Of course, they will be asked to pay for their doings.
The End
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