Durante la decadencia y disolución del Imperio Otomano , los habitantes musulmanes (incluidos turcos , kurdos , albaneses , bosnios , circasianos , musulmanes serbios , musulmanes griegos , romaníes musulmanes , pomacos ) [10] que vivían en territorios anteriormente bajo control otomano, a menudo se encontraron como una minoría perseguida después de que se redefinieron las fronteras. Estas poblaciones fueron objeto de genocidio , expropiación , masacres , persecución religiosa , violaciones masivas y limpieza étnica . [1] [2] [11] [9] [12] [13] [14] [15] [4] [5]
El siglo XIX vio el ascenso del nacionalismo en los Balcanes coincidiendo con el declive del poder otomano , lo que resultó en el establecimiento de Grecia , Serbia , Bulgaria y Rumania independientes . Al mismo tiempo, el Imperio Ruso se expandió hacia regiones del Cáucaso y la región del Mar Negro previamente gobernadas o aliadas de los otomanos . Estos conflictos, como el genocidio circasiano, crearon un gran número de refugiados musulmanes. Las persecuciones de musulmanes se reanudaron durante la Primera Guerra Mundial por parte de las tropas invasoras rusas en el este y durante la Guerra de Independencia turca en el oeste, este y sur de Anatolia por parte de tropas griegas y fedayis armenios . Después de la guerra greco-turca , se produjo un intercambio de población entre Grecia y Turquía y la mayoría de los musulmanes de Grecia se marcharon. Durante esta época muchos refugiados musulmanes, llamados Muhacir , se establecieron en Turquía .
Por primera vez, las expediciones militares otomanas se trasladaron de Anatolia a Europa y los Balcanes con la ocupación de la península de Galípoli en la década de 1350. [16] Después de que la región fuera conquistada por el Imperio Otomano musulmán, la presencia turca creció. Algunos de los colonos eran yörüks , nómadas que rápidamente se volvieron sedentarios, y otros pertenecían a clases urbanas. Se establecieron en casi todas las ciudades, pero la mayoría de ellos se establecieron en los Balcanes Orientales. Las principales zonas de asentamiento fueron Ludogorie , Dobrudzha , la llanura tracia, las montañas y llanuras del norte de Grecia y el este de Macedonia alrededor del río Vardar .
Entre los siglos XV y XVII, un gran número de pueblos nativos de los Balcanes se convirtieron al Islam . Los lugares de conversiones masivas fueron Bosnia , Albania , Macedonia del Norte , Kosovo , Creta y las montañas Ródope . [17] [ página necesaria ] Parte de la población nativa se convirtió al Islam y se hizo turca con el tiempo, principalmente aquellos en Anatolia. [18]
Hall señala que todas las partes cometieron atrocidades durante los conflictos de los Balcanes. El terror deliberado fue diseñado para instigar movimientos de población fuera de territorios particulares. El objetivo de atacar a la población civil era crear países étnicamente homogéneos. [19]
Incluso antes de la Gran Guerra Turca (1683-1699), los austriacos y los venecianos apoyaron a los irregulares cristianos y a los montañeses rebeldes de Herzegovina , Montenegro y Albania para atacar a los eslavos musulmanes. [20]
El final de la Gran Guerra Turca marcó la primera vez que el Imperio Otomano perdió grandes áreas de territorio en favor de los cristianos. La mayor parte de Hungría , Croacia , Dalmacia , Eslavonia , Montenegro , Podolia y Morea se perdieron, y las minorías musulmanas fueron asesinadas, esclavizadas o expulsadas. [ cita necesaria ] Los otomanos recuperaron Morea rápidamente y los musulmanes pronto se convirtieron en parte de la población o, en primer lugar, nunca fueron completamente desplazados. [ cita necesaria ]
La mayoría de los cristianos que vivían en el Imperio Otomano eran ortodoxos , por lo que Rusia estaba especialmente interesada en ellos. En 1711, Pedro el Grande invitó a los cristianos balcánicos a rebelarse contra el dominio musulmán otomano. [21]
Después del asedio de Pécs , los musulmanes locales se vieron obligados a convertirse al catolicismo entre 1686 y 1713, o abandonar la región. [22] La ciudad de Hatvan se convirtió en un refugio para los comerciantes turcos y se convirtió en un asentamiento mayoritariamente musulmán, pero después de que cayó en manos de las tropas húngaras en 1686, todos los colonos turcos fueron expulsados por la fuerza y sus dominios en la ciudad pasaron a ser propiedad de mercenarios extranjeros que lucharon. en la Liberación de Buda . [23] [ necesita cotización para verificar ]
Aproximadamente una cuarta parte de todas las personas que vivían en Eslavonia en el siglo XVI eran musulmanes que vivían principalmente en ciudades, siendo Osijek y Požega los asentamientos musulmanes más grandes. [24] El profesor Mitja Velikonja explica que los musulmanes y no eslavos que vivían en Hungría , Croacia ( Lika y Kordun ) y Dalmacia , habían huido a Bosnia-Herzegovina, tras la pérdida de los territorios ocupados en estas regiones después de la guerra Habsburgo-Otomana. de 1683-1699. Velikonja afirma que se consideró el primer ejemplo de limpieza de la población musulmana en la zona que "gozó de la bendición de la Iglesia católica". Alrededor de 130.000 musulmanes de Croacia y Eslavonia fueron expulsados a la Bosnia y Herzegovina otomana . [25] [26] Básicamente, todos los musulmanes que vivían en Croacia, Eslavonia y Dalmacia abandonaron o fueron obligados al exilio, asesinados o esclavizados por la conquista de los Habsburgo y Venecia. [27]
Miles de refugiados serbios cruzaron el Danubio y poblaron territorios de la Monarquía de los Habsburgo abandonados por los musulmanes. Leopoldo I les concedió autonomía étnico-religiosa sin otorgar ningún privilegio a la población musulmana restante que, por lo tanto, huyó a Bosnia, Herzegovina y Serbia, extendiendo el sentimiento anticristiano entre otros musulmanes allí. [28] Las relaciones entre la población musulmana y no musulmana de los Balcanes controlados por los otomanos empeoraron progresivamente. [29]
A principios del siglo XVIII los musulmanes que quedaban en Eslavonia se trasladaron a Posavina . [30] [31] Las autoridades otomanas alentaron las esperanzas de los musulmanes expulsados de un rápido regreso a sus hogares y los establecieron en las regiones fronterizas. [32] Los musulmanes constituían aproximadamente 2/3 de la población de Lika. Todos ellos, al igual que los musulmanes que vivían en otras partes de Croacia, se vieron obligados a convertirse al catolicismo o ser expulsados. [33] Casi todos los edificios otomanos fueron destruidos en Croacia, después de que los otomanos se marcharan. [34]
En 1716, Austria ocupó el norte de Bosnia junto con el norte de Serbia hasta 1739, cuando esas tierras fueron cedidas al Imperio Otomano en el Tratado de Belgrado . Durante esta época, el Imperio austríaco expuso su posición a la población musulmana bosnia sobre vivir dentro de su administración. Carlos VI ofreció dos opciones : la conversión al cristianismo conservando las propiedades y permaneciendo en territorio austriaco, o la salida de los que seguían siendo musulmanes a otras tierras. [35]
A principios del siglo XVIII (1709 o 1711) los serbios ortodoxos masacraron a sus vecinos musulmanes en Montenegro . [36] [37]
Después de que los Dahije , jenízaros renegados que desafiaron al sultán y gobernaron el Sanjak de Smederevo con tiranía (a partir de 1801), imponiendo duros impuestos y trabajos forzados, ejecutaron a destacados serbios en todo el sanjak en 1804, los serbios se levantaron contra los Dahije. . La revuelta, conocida como el Primer Levantamiento Serbio , alcanzó posteriormente el nivel nacional tras el rápido éxito de los serbios. La Puerta, al ver a los serbios como una amenaza, ordenó su disolución. Los revolucionarios tomaron Belgrado en 1806, donde tuvo lugar un levantamiento armado contra una guarnición musulmana, incluidos civiles. [38] Durante el levantamiento, los centros urbanos con importantes poblaciones musulmanas fueron atacados violentamente, como Užice y Valjevo , ya que el campesinado serbio sentía un odio de clase hacia la élite musulmana urbana. [39] [40] Al final, Serbia se convirtió en un país autónomo y la mayoría de los musulmanes fueron expulsados . [41] Durante las revueltas, entre 15.000 y 20.000 musulmanes huyeron o fueron expulsados. [42] En Belgrado y el resto de Serbia permaneció una población musulmana de unos 23.000 que también fueron expulsados por la fuerza después de 1862, tras una masacre de civiles serbios por soldados otomanos cerca de Kalemegdan . [40] [43] Algunas familias musulmanas luego emigraron y se reasentaron en Bosnia, donde sus descendientes hoy residen en centros urbanos como Šamac , Tuzla , Foča y Sarajevo . [44] [45]
En 1821, estalló una importante revuelta griega en el sur de Grecia. Los insurgentes obtuvieron el control de la mayor parte del campo, mientras que musulmanes y judíos se refugiaron en las ciudades fortificadas y los castillos. [46] Cada uno de ellos fue asediado y gradualmente, a través del hambre o la rendición, la mayoría fueron tomados por los griegos. En las masacres de abril de 1821 murieron unas 15.000 personas. [46] La peor masacre ocurrió en Tripolitsa, donde murieron unos 8.000 musulmanes y judíos. [46] En respuesta, se llevaron a cabo represalias masivas contra los griegos en Constantinopla , Esmirna , Chipre y otros lugares; miles fueron asesinados y el sultán otomano incluso consideró una política de exterminio total de todos los griegos del Imperio. [47] Al final se creó una Grecia independiente. La mayoría de los musulmanes de su zona habían sido asesinados o expulsados durante el conflicto. [46] El historiador británico William St Clair sostiene que lo que él llama "el proceso genocida" terminó cuando ya no había más turcos a quienes matar en lo que se convertiría en la Grecia independiente. [47]
En 1876 estalló un levantamiento búlgaro en decenas de pueblos. Los primeros ataques se realizaron contra los musulmanes locales [48] pero al poco tiempo los otomanos reprimieron violentamente el levantamiento.
Desde 1876 hasta 1989, los musulmanes de Bulgaria ( turcos , tártaros , pomacos y romaníes musulmanes ) fueron expulsados a Turquía; como durante la Guerra Ruso-Turca (1877-1878) , las Guerras Balcánicas (1912-1913) y la expulsión de los turcos de Bulgaria en 1989 . [10]
El levantamiento búlgaro acabó provocando una guerra entre Rusia y los otomanos. Rusia invadió los Balcanes otomanos a través de Dobrudzha y el norte de Bulgaria, atacando a la población musulmana. Rusia encabezó una coalición formada por ella misma, la Legión Búlgara, Rumania , Serbia , Montenegro , así como la Guardia de Finlandia . A pesar de cierta resistencia inicial, las fuerzas otomanas finalmente fueron fuertemente derrotadas y perdieron terreno rápidamente. En marzo de 1878, el ejército otomano colapsó y se vio obligado a pedir la paz.
A medida que las fuerzas de la coalición avanzaron, comenzaron a cometer atrocidades a gran escala contra la población musulmana en las zonas en las que operaban. Como resultado, se estima que hasta 400.000 civiles musulmanes fueron masacrados entre 1877 y 1878, y hasta 500.000-1,5. millones fueron desplazados y/o se convirtieron en refugiados. [49] [50]
Los informes británicos de la época contienen información sobre las masacres. Según estos informes, 96 de las 170 casas y escuelas de la aldea turca de Issova Bâlâ (Alto Isssova) fueron quemadas. [51] Se afirma que los musulmanes de la aldea de Upper Sofular fueron masacrados, antes de eso, la escuela y la mezquita de la ciudad fueron quemadas. [51] [52]
18 turcos fueron asesinados y sus cuerpos quemados en el pueblo de Kozluca. [53]
Según informes otomanos, los musulmanes también fueron masacrados en la ciudad de Kızanlık, 400 de ellos fueron asesinados por un grupo de rusos y búlgaros. Los cosacos mataron a unos 300 musulmanes después de torturarlos de diversas formas. Como en otros lugares, los rusos fueron los primeros en recoger las armas de los musulmanes. Luego distribuyeron estas armas a los búlgaros. Luego, los búlgaros masacraron a los musulmanes con estas armas. [54]
Los soldados rusos, que entraron en las casas con el pretexto de registrarlas en los primeros días de la ocupación, se llevaron todo lo que encontraron de valor. Especialmente después de la retirada del ejército ruso, la ciudad quedó completamente en manos de cosacos y búlgaros. Mataron brutalmente a los musulmanes en las aldeas de Taşköy y Topraklık. [55]
Vale la pena señalar que en varios casos, los rusos, bajo la presión de generales extranjeros, no llevarían a cabo masacres directamente ellos mismos, sino que más bien lo dejarían en manos de los cosacos y las milicias búlgaras, curtidos en la batalla. [55]
Las ciudades de Tulça, Ishakça y Mecidiye fueron ocupadas por el ejército de coalición a finales de junio. Se distribuyeron armas a los aldeanos búlgaros, quienes luego comenzaron a asesinar en masa a los musulmanes. Se mató gente, se saquearon e incendiaron casas y pueblos. La situación tampoco fue diferente en Ruscuk y Tırnova. [55]
Según la información proporcionada por los cónsules británicos y periodistas en la región, los cosacos rodearon las aldeas y tomaron las armas de los lugareños, luego las distribuyeron a los búlgaros, quienes luego asesinaron y violaron a los habitantes musulmanes-turcos de la zona. Los que intentaron escapar fueron arrojados al fuego de las aldeas en llamas. Una vez más, no se salvaron ni hombres, mujeres ni niños. En el pueblo de Balvan, por ejemplo, 1.900 musulmanes fueron asesinados de esta manera. Cuando los rusos entraron en Eski Zagora el 22 de julio, mataron a 1.100 musulmanes en 11 días. El cónsul británico Blunt partió de Edirne el 26 de septiembre, visitó las aldeas turcas de la región y llegó a Yeni Zağra el 28 de septiembre y luego se trasladó a Kızanlık. Escribió que todos los pueblos, excepto un pueblo búlgaro en su camino, fueron quemados y vaciados. Por ejemplo, los búlgaros arrasaron todo el pueblo de Kadirbey, con entre 400 y 500 musulmanes. En su informe del 25 de julio de 1877, el cónsul adjunto británico Dupuis informó que los rusos y los búlgaros mataron a sangre fría a todo el pueblo musulmán de Kalofer y Karlova, ancianos, mujeres y niños. [55]
Los rusos y los búlgaros no sólo mataron a musulmanes en los lugares que ocupaban, sino que también violaron a mujeres y niñas y saquearon sus propiedades. También quemaron sus casas y las destruyeron. Por ejemplo, durante la ocupación de la antigua Zagora, las tiendas y casas de musulmanes y judíos de la ciudad fueron primero saqueadas y luego destruidas. Cuando Plovdiv fue ocupada, de los 15.000 musulmanes que la habitaban anteriormente, sólo quedaban 100. [55]
Cuando Burgas fue ocupada, el barrio turco de la ciudad constaba de 400 casas y quedó completamente destruido. Cuando Sofía fue ocupada, quedaban menos de 50 familias turcas en la ciudad. Las casas turcas fueron aniquiladas sistemáticamente. Tatar Pazarcık fue destruido de la misma manera. [55]
Se informa que el primer paso en las atrocidades fue generalmente desarmar a todos los turcos y musulmanes que se encontraron, y luego armar a las bandas búlgaras e irregulares que seguían a la vanguardia de la coalición principal. [56] De esta manera, los búlgaros comenzaron a masacrar a musulmanes y judíos, incluidas mujeres y niños, de manera brutal. [57] También se informa que la persecución y brutalidad de los búlgaros hacia la población musulmana fue incluso muchas veces mayor que las expectativas de los generales rusos. [58]
Bulgarian peasants were promised the lands, houses and goods owned by the Muslim-Turkish peoples. As a matter of fact, as a result of this, in a very short time, hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians were systematically settled in Turkish houses, evicting their previous owners without mercy. The Russians and Bulgarians also began to relentlessly persecute Muslims and Turks on the religious level. Qu’rans were torn apart, mosques were closed down and demolished, and Muslim dress of both men and women was violated and suppressed.[59]
Muslim and Turkish women and girls were also sexually violated and raped by the Russians and Bulgarians on a large scale, with some being sent to brothels.[60]
In the report sent to the Ottoman Government by the Tırnova memorandum about the murders and destruction committed by the Russians and Bulgarians during the occupation of Rumelia, it is stated that in the years when the war continued, around 4,770 Turks were massacred in the villages around Tırnova, and 2,120 Turkish houses were burned. The Daily Telegraph newspaper also corroborated this information. According to the paper; "We saw about 3,000 bodies around the Yeni Zağra station, they were all Turkish. It was said that dogs and pigs gnawed spoiled corpses...it was a horrible sight..." The Governor of Plovdiv also reports that all Muslims: men, women and children, were shut in the mosque in the Serhadli and surrounding villages by the Bulgarians, and all of them were massacred by having their throats cut.[61][62][63]
The Russians and Bulgarians who occupied Plovdiv on January 15, 1878, plundered the city completely, raped Muslim women and massacred many.[64] Meanwhile, the Bulgarians brutally massacred and tortured the Ottoman soldiers they captured, such as by cutting off their noses, arms and ears.[65]
Even after the war was over, it is reported that from 1879 to 1890, in the former Ottoman Rumelia Eyalet, the Bulgarians continued to systematically "destroy" the Turkish people in the region. In these years, local administrations stood idly by as Muslims were assaulted, and as armed Bulgarians, who took advantage of this situation, began to commit rape against Muslim-Turkish women and girls on a massive scale.[55]
Bulgarians gathered Turkish youth and women from their homes at night in many villages, stripped them of their abayas, drank alcohol and sexually violated them. As a matter of fact, many women who could not accept this situation preferred to jump into water wells in order not to be raped.[66]
On the eve of the outbreak of a second round of hostilities between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire in 1877, a notable Muslim population existed in the districts of Niš, Pirot, Vranje, Leskovac, Prokuplje and Kuršumlija.[67] The rural parts of Toplica, Kosanica, Pusta Reka and Jablanica valleys and adjoining semi-mountainous interior was inhabited by compact Muslim Albanian population while Serbs in those areas lived near the river mouths and mountain slopes and both peoples inhabited other regions of the South Morava river basin.[68][69] The Muslim population of most of the area was composed out of ethnic Gheg Albanians and with Turks located in urban centres.[70] Part of the Turks were of Albanian origin.[71] The Muslims in the cities of Niš and Pirot were Turkish-speaking; Vranje and Leskovac were Turkish- and Albanian-speaking; Prokuplje and Kuršumlija were Albanian-speaking.[70] There was also a minority of Circassian refugees settled by the Ottomans during the 1860s, near the then border around the environs of Niš.[72] Estimates vary on the size of the Muslim population on the eve of the war within these areas ranging from as high as 200,000 to as low as 131,000.[73][74][75] Estimates as to the number of the Albanian or Muslim refugees that left the region for the Ottoman Empire due to the war range from 49–130,000, while Serbian claims can be as low as 30,000 Albanian refugees.[76][77][78][79][80][81] The departure of the Albanian population from these regions was done in a manner that today would be characterized as ethnic cleansing.[82]
Hostilities between Serbian and Ottoman forces broke out on 15 December 1877, after a Russian request for Serbia to enter the Russo-Turkish war.[83] The Serbian military had two objectives: capturing Niš and breaking the Niš-Sofia Ottoman lines of communication.[84] Serbian forces entered the wider Toplica and Morava valleys capturing urban centres such as Niš, Kuršumlija, Prokuplije, Leskovac, and Vranje and their surrounding rural and mountainous districts.[85] In these regions, the Albanian population depending on the area they resided had fled into nearby mountains, leaving livestock, property and other belongings behind.[86] Some Albanians returned and submitted to Serbian authorities, while others continued their flight southward toward Ottoman Kosovo.[87] Serbian forces also encountered heavy Albanian resistance in certain areas which slowed their advance into these regions resulting in having to take villages one by one that became vacant.[88] A small Albanian population remained the Medveđa area, where their descendants still reside today.[89] The retreat of these refugees toward Ottoman Kosovo was halted at the Goljak Mountains when an armistice was declared.[88] The Albanian population was resettled in Lab area and other parts of northern Kosovo alongside the new Ottoman-Serbian border.[90][91][92] Most Albanian refugees were resettled in over 30 large rural settlements in central and southeastern Kosovo and in urban centres that increased their populations substantially.[90][75][93] Tensions between Albanian refugees and local Kosovo Albanians arose over resources, as the Ottoman Empire found it difficult to accommodate to their needs and meager conditions.[94] Tensions in the form of revenge attacks also arose by incoming Albanian refugees on local Kosovo Serbs that contributed to the beginnings of the ongoing Serbian-Albanian conflict in coming decades.[82][94][95]
In 1875, a conflict between Muslims and Christians broke out in Bosnia.[citation needed] After the Ottoman Empire signed the treaty at the 1878 Berlin Congress, Bosnia was occupied by Austria-Hungary.[96] Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) perceived this as a betrayal by the Ottomans and left on their own, felt that they were defending their homeland and not the wider Empire.[96] From 9 July until 20 October 1878 or for almost three months, Bosnian Muslims resisted Austro-Hungarian forces in nearly sixty military engagements with 5,000 casualties either wounded or killed.[96] Some Bosnian Muslims concerned about their future and well being under the new non-Muslim administration, left Bosnia for the Ottoman Empire.[96] From 1878 until 1918, between 130,000[97] and 150,000 Bosnian Muslims departed Bosnia to areas under Ottoman control, some to the Balkans, others to Anatolia, the Levant and Maghreb.[98] Today, these Bosnian populations in the Arab world have become assimilated although they have retained memories of their origins and some bear the ethnonym Bosniak (rendered in Arabic as Bushnak) as a surname.[99][100]
The Russo-Circassian War was the 101-year-long military conflict between Circassia and Russia.[101] Circassia was de jure part of the Ottoman Empire but de facto independent. The conflict started in 1763, when the Russian Empire attempted to establish hostile forts in Circassian territory and quickly annex Circassia, followed by the Circassian refusal of the annexation;[102] only ending 101 years later when the last resistance army of Circassia was defeated on 21 May 1864, making it exhausting and casualty heavy for the Russian Empire as well as being the single longest war Russia ever waged in history.[103]
The end of the war saw the Circassian genocide take place[I] in which Imperial Russia aimed to systematically destroy the Circassian people[108][109][110] where several war crimes were committed by the Russian forces[111] and up to 1.5 million Circassians were killed or expelled to the Middle East, especially modern-day Turkey.[101] Russian generals such as Grigory Zass described the Circassians as "subhuman filth", and justified their killing and use in scientific experiments.[112]
The area around Kars was ceded to Russia. This resulted in a large number of Muslims leaving and settling in remaining Ottoman lands.Batum and its surrounding area was also ceded to Russia causing many local Georgian Muslims to migrate to the west.[113] Most of them settled around the Anatolian Black Sea coast.
In 1912 Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro declared war on the Ottomans. The Ottomans quickly lost territory. According to Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, "the invading armies and Christian insurgents committed a wide range of atrocities upon the Muslim population."[114]
During this war hundreds of thousands of the Turks and Pomaks fled their villages and became refugees. The total number of refugees is estimated to be between 400,000 and 813,000.[115][116] The death toll is estimated to be between 632,000 and 1,500,000 Ottoman Muslim civilians killed.[115][116]
In Kosovo and Albania most of the victims were Albanians while in other areas most of the victims were Turks and Pomaks. Approximately 20,000 to 25,000 Albanians were killed in the Kosovo vilayet during the first two to four months of the campaign, with the total death toll estimated to be 120,000-270,000. The number of Albanians expelled from the territories annexed by Serbia can vary from 60,000 to 300,000.[117][118][119]
The intense influx of refugees from the region and the news of the massacres caused a deep shock in the Ottoman mainland. This further increased the hatred of minorities already present in Ottoman society. The situation became a factor that exacerbated the Ottoman genocides in World War I, which took place approximately two years after the end of the First Balkan War.[120]
A large number of Pomaks in the Rhodopes were forcibly converted to Orthodoxy but later allowed to reconvert, most of them did.[121] The Report of the International Commission on the Balkan Wars reported that in many districts the Moslem villages were systematically burned by their Christian neighbors. In Monastir 80% of the Muslim villages were burned by the Serbian and Greek army according to a British report. While in Giannitsa the Muslim quarter was burned alongside many Muslim villages in the Salonica province by the Greek army.
During the war, the Bulgarian army committed numerous atrocities, including mass murder, mass rape, torture, theft, and plundering against Turks and Muslims on a massive scale.[14][122][115][116]
Petrovo was under Ottoman rule until the Balkan Wars when it was captured by Yane Sandanski. During the war many Muslims fled from the region'the only exception were Turks of Petrovo. The reason was because there was an agreement between Christians and Muslims to protect each other. While no Christian was injured or killed during the Ottoman retreat, when Bulgarians captured Petrovo almost all Petrovo Turks were burned in the village cafe. Some women were left alive to be wives of the soldiers, other were went to Kalimantsi to work as maids. The Turkish orphans were given to Bulgarian families, and some of them still know their origin.[123][124][125]
The Carnegie Report on the Balkan Wars states the following: "The Bulgarian army marched on to Doiran; on its departure looting and slaughter began. I saw an old man of eighty lying in the street with his head split open, and the dead body of a boy of thirteen. About thirty Muslims were killed that day in the streets,--I believe by the Bulgarian bands. On Wednesday evening, an order was issued that no Muslim might leave his house day or night until further notice.[14]
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The Carnegie Commission visited the camp of the Muslim refugees outside Salonica and talked with two groups of them who came from villages near Strumica. The Greeks told them that the Bulgarians would certainly massacre them if they stayed in the town; they urged, and pressed and persuaded. Most left under pressure. A few remained, and many were forced to leave. They heard that other villages had been burnt after they left, and some of them actually saw their villages in flames.[14]
A group of these refugees from the village Yedna-Kuk, near Strumnitsa, gave their experiences during the first war. The Bulgarian bands arrived before the regular army, and ordered the whole male population to assemble in the mosque. They were shut in and robbed of 300 pounds in all. Eighteen of the wealthier villagers were bound and taken to Bossilovo, where they were killed and buried. The villagers were able to remember nine of their names.[14]
The Catholic priest Gustave Michel, superior of the mission at Kilkis, gave the following information to the correspondent of Le Temps (July 10). He could testify to certain massacres perpetrated by the Bulgarian bands at Kurkut. A Bulgarian band led by Donchev shut all the men of the place in the mosque, and gathered the women round it, to oblige them to witness the spectacle. The Bulgarian commandants then threw three bombs at the mosque but it was not blown up; so they then set fire to it, and all who were shut up in it, about 700 men, were burnt alive. Those who attempted to flee were shot down by Bulgarian commandants posted round the mosque, and Pere Michel found human heads, arms, and legs lying about half burned in the streets. At Planitsa, Donchev's band committed even worse atrocities. It first drove all the men to the mosque and burnt them alive; it then gathered the women and burnt them in their turn in the public square. At Rayonovo a number of men and women were massacred; the Bulgarians filled a well with their corpses. At Kukush the Muslims were massacred by the Bulgarian population of the town and their mosque destroyed. All the Turkish soldiers who fled without arms and arrived in groups from Salonica were massacred.[14]
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After the occupation of Salonica, disarmed Turkish soldiers in groups of two to three hundred at a time marched through Kukush on their way to their homes. They were captured by the Bulgarian bands and slaughtered, to the number of perhaps 2,000. A commission of thirty to forty Christians was established, which drew up lists of all the Muslim inhabitants throughout the district. Everyone was summoned to the mosque and there informed that he had been rated to pay a certain sum. Whole villages, were made responsible for the total amount; most of the men were imprisoned and were obliged to sell everything they possessed, including their wives' ornaments, to pay the ransom. They were often killed in spite of the payment of the money in full; he, himself, actually saw a Bulgarian commandant cut off two fingers of a man's hand and force him to drink his own blood mixed with raki.[14]
The chief of bands, Donchev, arrived and matters were still worse. He burnt three Turkish villages (345 houses in all) in one day; Raianovo, Planitsa and Kukurtovo. He shut up the men in the mosques and burnt them alive; the women were shut up in barns and sexually violated; children were actually flung against the walls and killed. This the witness did not see, but heard from his Christian neighbors. Only twenty-two Muslim families out of 300 remained in Kukush; the rest fled to Salonica. Twelve small Muslim villages were wiped out in the first war, the men killed and the women taken away.[14]
On November 6, 1912, the inhabitants of Serres, sent a deputation to meet the Bulgarian army and surrender the town. Next day Zancov, a Bulgarian Chief of bands, appeared in the town with sixteen men, and began to disarm the population. A day later the Bulgarian army entered Serres and received a warm welcome. That evening the Bulgarian soldiers, on the pretext that arms were still hidden in the houses of the Muslims, entered them and began to steal money and other valuables. Next day the Muslim refugees from the district north of Serres were invited to appear at the prefecture; they obeyed the Summons; but on their arrival a trumpet sounded and the Bulgarian soldiers seized their arms and began to massacre these inoffensive people; the massacre lasted three hours and resulted in the death of 600 Muslims. The number of the victims would have been incalculable had it not been for the energetic intervention of the Greek bishop, and of the director of the Orient bank.[14]
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The Muslims of the town were then arrested in the cafes, houses and streets, and imprisoned, some at the prefecture and others in the mosques; many of the former were slaughtered with bayonets. Bulgarian soldiers in the meantime entered Turkish houses, sexually violated the women and girls and stole everything they could lay their hands on. The Muslims imprisoned in the overcrowded mosques were left without food for two days and nights and then released. For six days rifle shots were heard on all sides; the Muslims were afraid to leave their houses; and of this the Bulgarian soldiers took advantage to pillage their shops. Muslim corpses lay about in the streets and were buried only when they began to putrify. For several days the Bulgarian soldiers destroyed houses and mosques to obtain firewood. The corn and animals of the Muslims were seized by the Bulgarian authorities without any receipt or note of requisition. Complaints made on this subject were ignored. The furniture and antiquities belonging to the schools, mosques and hospitals were taken and sent to Sofia. The Bulgarians subjected several Muslim notables to all sorts of humiliations; they were driven with whips to sweep the streets and stables; and many a blow was given to those who dared to wear a fez. In a word, during the Bulgarian occupation the Muslims were robbed and maltreated both in the streets and at the prefecture, unless they had happened to give board and lodging to some Bulgarian officer. The Bulgarian officers and gendarmes before leaving Serres took everything that was left in the shops of Muslims, Jews and Greeks, and pitilessly burnt a large number of houses, shops, cafes, and mills.[14]
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It is reported that during the war, when the Bulgarians destroyed the Turkish villages of Davud, Topuklu and Maden, they murdered not only women and the elderly, but even children in the cradle, and in Radovishte, all the Turkish men were massacred.[126]
On the train route close to the village of Maraş, Turkish corpses with their heads torn to pieces, their backs cut with bayonets, and their faces torn apart were found.[127]
Bulgarian committee members also demonstrated complete brutality in Drama. In addition to stealing the money of someone named Şaban Agha in the 400-household Roksar village, they first cut out his eyes, then cut off his nose and ears, then his arms and legs, and threw his body in the middle of the street. Again, in the same village, they murdered a young teacher, one of the Education officers, by cutting out his eyes and cutting off his ears. They left only 40 people in the said village and killed the rest in an extremely cruel and brutal manner.[128]
According to the information provided by a Russian newspaper, at the beginning of the war, Bulgarian committee members and their members burned 39 men and women alive in a mosque in the village of Debernecik, and slaughtered all the Turks in the village of Karaşova.[129]
Bulgarian committee members constantly attacked the migrating convoys, thus causing the deaths of thousands of innocent Turkish people. In Xanthi, the Bulgarians dismembered the Turks they captured, and between Komanova and Skopje they massacred approximately 3,000 Turks. In Syros, on the grounds that the Turks killed two soldiers in self-defense, the Bulgarian officer looked at his watch and said: "It's half time now, you can do whatever you want to the Turks until the same hour tomorrow," the massacre began and between 1,200 and 1,900 innocent Turkish people were killed throughout the day.[130]
Many of the Bulgarian prisoners captured during the war had female ears and fingers decorated with earrings and rings in their pockets.[131] In the town of Kirmi, which consisted of 25 villages and whose population of around 12,000 was almost entirely Muslim-Turkish, the Bulgarians burned the houses and started to oppress the people. Those who could escape fled, and most of those who could not escape were killed by the Bulgarians. In the Çakal township, which consisted of 15 villages, belongings were looted and the people migrated to Komotini. However, although they were able to return to their homes, after their teachers, imams, headmen and other notables were massacred, those who remained were forced to reintegrate. According to information received from the town of Tutrakan, all Muslim-Turks in Tutrakan were waiting for the day when they will be "martyred" at the hands of the Bulgarians and "make several sacrifices every day." It is also reported that there was no house left in Maksutlar village of Tutrakan that was not plundered or a young Turkish Muslim girl left that was not raped by the Bulgarians.[132][133][134]
The Bulgarians treated the Ottoman prisoners they captured during the war no differently than they treated civilians. For example, they brutally massacred 3,000 Ottoman prisoners they captured in Stara Zagora.[135]
It is reported that, in the village of Oklanli (or Lagahanli), the Bulgarian troops locked up Turkish women in houses, raped them over a period of 10 days, then burned them alive.[136]
Historian Uğur Ümit Üngör noted that during the Russian invasion of Ottoman lands, "many atrocities were carried out against the local Turks and Kurds by the Russian army and Armenian volunteers."[137] General Vladimir Liakhov gave the order to kill any Turk on sight and destroy any mosque.[138][139] According to Boris Shakhovskoi the Armenian nationalists wanted to exterminate the Muslims in the occupied regions.[140] A large part of the local Muslim Turks and Kurds fled west after the Russian invasion of eastern Anatolia in 1914–1918, in Talaat Pasha's Notebook the given number is at 702,905 Turks and Kurds. J. Rummel estimates that 128,000–600,000 Muslim Turks and Kurds were killed by Russian troops and Armenian irregulars; at least 128,000 of them between 1914–1915 according to Turkish statistician Ahmet Emin Yalman.[141] After the formation of the Provisional Government in 1917, some 30,000–40,000 Muslims were killed by irregular Armenian units as retribution.[141] Turkish-German historian Taner Akçam in book A Shameful Act writes of Vehip Pasha's detailed account of the reprisals against Muslims during the retreat of Armenian and Russian forces from Western Armenia in 1917–1918, setting the death figure at 3,000 in the Erzincan and Bayburt areas. Writing also of another eyewitness testimony claiming 3,000 dead in the Erzurum area,[142] and 20,000 dead in Kars in the spring of 1918. Akçam also makes mention of a study of the Vilayet of Erzurum which sets the number of massacred Muslims as 25,000 in the spring of 1918, however, providing the examination of Armenian historian Vahakn Dadrian who claims from the wartime records of the Ottoman Third Army that "altogether some 5,000–5,500 victims are involved." Akçam writes of a Turkish source which describes the number of Muslim deaths during the winter and spring of 1919 in Kars as 6,500, whereas on 22 March 1920, Kâzım Karabekir put the number at 2,000 in certain villages and regions in Kars.[143] Halil Bey in a 1919 letter to Karabekir claimed 24 villages in Iğdır had been razed.[144]
Cilicia was occupied by the British after World War I, who were later replaced by the French. The French Armenian Legion armed returning Armenian refugees of the Armenian genocide to the region and assisting them. Eventually the Turks responded with resistance against the French occupation, battles took place in Marash, Aintab, and Urfa. Most of these cities were destroyed during the process with large civilian suffering. In Marash, 4,500 Turks died.[145] The French left the area together with the Armenians after 1920. The retribution for the Armenian Genocide served as justification for armed Armenians.[146]
Also during the Franco-Turkish War, the Kaç Kaç incident occurred, which refers to the escape of 40,000 Turks from the city of Adana into more mountainous regions due to the Franco-Armenian occupation of July 20, 1920. During the escape, French airplanes bombed the fleeing Turkish population and the Belemedik hospital.
After the Greek landing and the following occupation of Western Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), the Turkish resistance activity was answered with terror against the local Muslims. Killings, rapes, and village burnings took place as the Greek Army advanced.[148] However, as reported in a British intelligence report at the time, in general "the [Turkish] inhabitants of the occupied zone have in most cases accepted the advent of Greek rule without demur and in some cases undoubtedly prefer it to the [Turkish] Nationalist regime which seems to have been founded on terrorism". British military personnel observed that the Greek army near Uşak was warmly welcomed by the Muslim population for "being freed from the license and oppression of the [Turkish] Nationalist troops"; there were "occasional cases of misconduct" by the Greek troops against the Muslim population, and the perpetrators were prosecuted by the Greek authorities, while the "worst miscreants" were "a handful of Armenians recruited by the Greek army", who were then sent back to Constantinople.[149]
During the Greek occupation, Greek troops and local Greeks, Armenian, and Circassian groups committed the Yalova Peninsula Massacres in early 1921 against the local Muslim population.[150] These resulted, according to some sources, in the deaths of c. 300 of the local Muslim populace, as well c. 27 villages.[151][152] Precise number of casualties is not exactly known. Statements gathered by Ottoman official, reveal a relatively low number of casualties: based on the Ottoman enquiry to which 177 survivors responded, only 35 were reported as killed, wounded or beaten or missing. This is also in accordance with Toynbee's accounts that one to two murders were enough to drive out the population.[153] Another source estimates that barely 1,500 Muslims out of 7,000 survived in the environment of Yalova.[154]
The Greeks advanced all the way to Central Anatolia. After the Turkish attack in 1922 the Greeks retreated and Norman M. Naimark notes that "the Greek retreat was even more devastating for the local population than the occupation".[155] During the retreat, towns and villages were burned as part of a scorched earth policy, accompanied with massacres and rapes. During this war, a part of Western Anatolia was destroyed, large towns such as Manisa, Salihli together with many villages being burned.[156] 3,000 houses in Alaşehir.[157] The Inter-Allied commission, consisting of British, French, American and Italian officers found that "there is a systematic plan of destruction of Turkish villages and extinction of the Muslim population."[158] According to Marjorie Housepian, 4,000 Muslims were executed in Izmir under Greek occupation.[159]
During the war, in East Thrace (which was ceded to Greece with the Treaty of Sèvres), around 90,000 Turkish villagers fled to Bulgaria and Istanbul from the Greeks.[160]
After the war, peace talks between Greece and Turkey started with the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923. At the Conference, the chief negotiator of the Turkish delegation, Ismet Pasha, gave an estimate of 1.5 million Anatolian Turks that had been exiled or died in the area of Greek occupation. Of these, McCarthy estimates that 860,000 fled and 640,000 died; with many, if not most of those who died, being refugees as well. The comparison of census figures shows that 1,246,068 Anatolian Muslims had become refugees or had died. Furthermore, Ismet Pasha shared statistics showing the destruction of 141,874 buildings, and the slaughter or theft of 3,291,335 farm animals in the area of Greek occupation.[161][better source needed] The peace that followed the Greco–Turkish War resulted in a population exchange between Greece and Turkey. As a result, the Muslim population of Greece, with the exception of Western Thrace, and partially, the Muslim Cham Albanians,[162] was relocated to Turkey.[163]
The forced mass displacement of Muslims out of the Balkans during the era of territorial contraction of the Ottoman Empire has only become a topic of recent scholarly interest in the 21st century.[164]
According to historian Justin McCarthy, between the years 1821–1922, from the beginning of the Greek War of Independence to the end of the Ottoman Empire, five million Muslims were driven from their lands and another five and a half million died, some of them killed in wars, others perishing as refugees from starvation or disease.[165] However, McCarthy's work has faced harsh criticism by many scholars who have characterized his views as indefensibly biased towards Turkey[166] and defending Turkish atrocities against Armenians, as well as engaging in genocide denial.[167][168][169]
Roger Owen estimates that during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire (1912–1922) when the Balkan wars, World War I and war of Independence took place, close to 2 million Muslims, civilian and military, died in the area of modern Turkey.[170] Historian Mark Biondich estimates that from 1878 to 1912 up to two million Muslims left the Balkans either voluntarily or involuntarily while Muslims casualties in the Balkans during 1912–1923 within the context of those killed and expelled exceeded some three million.[171]
The Ottoman authorities and charities provided some help to the immigrants and sometimes settled them in certain locations. In Turkey most of the Balkan refugees settled in Western Turkey and Thrace. The Caucasians, in addition to these areas also settled in Central Anatolia and around the Black Sea coast. Eastern Anatolia was not largely settled with the exception of some Circassian and Karapapak villages. There were also completely new villages founded by refugees, for example in uninhabited forested areas. Many people of the 1924 exchange were settled in former Greek villages along the Aegean coast. Outside of Turkey, Circassians were settled along the Hedjaz Railway and some Cretan Muslims at Syria's coast.
According to Michael Mann McCarthy is often viewed as a scholar on the Turkish side of the debate over Balkan Muslim death figures.[172] Mann however states that even if those figures were reduced "by as much as 50 percent, they still would horrify".[172] In the discussion about the Armenian Genocide, McCarthy denies the genocide and is considered as the leading pro-Turkish scholar.[173][174] Scholarly critics of McCarthy acknowledge that his research on Muslim civilian casualties and refugee numbers (19th and early 20th centuries) has brought forth a valuable perspective, previously neglected in the Christian West: that millions of Muslims and Jews also suffered and died during these years.[175][176] Donald W. Bleacher, though acknowledging that McCarthy is pro-Turkish nonetheless has called his scholarly study Death and Exile on Muslim civilian casualties and refugee numbers "a necessary corrective" challenging the West's model of all victims being Christians and all perpetrators as being Muslims.[176]
Muslim heritage was extensively targeted during the persecutions. During their long rule the Ottomans had built numerous mosques, madrasas, caravanserais, bath-houses and other types of building. According to current research, around 20,000 buildings of all sizes have been documented in official Ottoman registers.[177] However very little survives of this Ottoman heritage in most Balkan countries.[178] Most of the Ottoman era mosques of the Balkans have been destroyed; the ones still standing often had their minarets destroyed. Before the Habsburg conquest, Osijek had 8–10 mosques, none of which remain today.[179] During the Balkan wars there were cases of desecration, destruction of mosques and Muslim cemeteries.[179] Of the 166 madrasas in the Ottoman Balkans in the 17th century, only eight remain and five of them are near Edirne.[177] It is estimated that 95–98% were destroyed.[177] The same is also valid for other types of buildings, such as markethalls, caravanserais and baths.[177] From a chain of caravanserais across the Balkans only one is preserved while there are vague ruins of four others.[177] There were in the area of Negroponte in 1521: 34 large and small mosques, six hamams, ten schools, and 6 dervish convents. Today only the ruin of one hamam remains.[177]
According to Mark Levene, the Victorian public in the 1870s paid much more attention to the massacres and expulsions of Christians than to massacres and expulsions of Muslims, even if on a greater scale. He further suggests that such massacres were even favored by some circles. Mark Levene also argues that the dominant powers, by supporting "nation-statism" at the Congress of Berlin, legitimized "the primary instrument of Balkan nation-building": ethnic cleansing.[183]
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.
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.
Christian irregulars in the Austrian or Venetian service, and insurgent highlanders of Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania meanwhile threw off 'the Turkish yoke' by marauding, mostly against the Muslim Slavs.
Peter the Great called on Balkan subjects to revolt in 1711; Catherine the Great encouraged a Greek rebellion in 1770
According to reliable estimates, during the 16th century around one fourth of the population in Slavonia,..., were Muslims, living mostly in towns.
By 1699 130,000 Slavonian and Croatian Muslims had been driven to Ottoman Bosnia by the advancing imperialists.
... Many Muslims—Slavs and non-Slavs—fled to Bosnia-Herzegovina following the loss of the occupied territories in Hungary, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Lika after the Habsburg-Ottoman war of 1683–1699. It was the first example in this area of cleansing the Muslim population that also "enjoyed the benediction of the Catholic Church".
Ottoman rule in Croatia was terminated after the Habsburg and Venetian conquest at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. All Muslim population left these areas or was expelled, killed or enslaved.
Leopold I...not consider extending any privileges to the Muslims. They therefore fled to Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and further southeast, fanning anti-Christian sentiments among their coreligionists.
... a period during which relations between the Muslim and non-Muslim populations of the region deteriorated sharply
The entire Slavonian Muslim population fled south into Bosnia after the Treaty of Karlovac in 1699.
Many more Muslim families that had lived in Slavonia moved to Posavina after 1699 and during the first two decades of the eighteenth
As in all other reconquered territories, the Muslims (who for example comprised two-thirds of the population in Lika) in Croatia were either converted to Catholicism or banished.
With the Turks gone, almost all the Turkish buildings on Croatian area were destroyed.
The Muslim population of Montenegro was massacred by the Serbs.
Even the precise date of the bloody affair is not certain, but most historians have accepted 1709 as the year of the assault
During the Balkan wars, in total '120,000 Albanians were exterminated', hundreds of villages' were shelled by artillery and 'a large number of them were burned down' across Kosova and Macedonia. The figures do not include people killed in present-day Albania and the devastated houses, villages and towns that Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers left behind when they were eventually forced to retreat.'
The report presented to Harbord within that meeting reflected that Armenians killed 3,000 Turkish civilians in Erzurum on March 11–12, 1918. The governor general of Erzurum, Zakir Efendi, showed General Harbord the places of the slaughter of Muslims by Armenians and the mass graves.
'The members of the Commission consider that, in the part of the kazas of Yalova and Guemlek occupied by the Greek army, there is a systematic plan of destruction of Turkish villages and extinction of the Moslem population. This plan is being carried out by Greek and Armenian bands, which appear to operate under Greek instructions and sometimes even with the assistance of detachments of regular troopsThe full version can be found here (Online reports of Arnold Toynbee)
The British journalist and historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee, who was war correspondent for the "Manchester Guardian" on the Yalova Peninsula from April until 3 July 1921, suggests a total of 300 Muslim victims.
In total only thirty-five were reported to have been killed, wounded, beaten, or missing. This is in line with the observations of Arnold Toynbee, who declared that one to two murders were sufficient to drive away the population of a village.
To protect their flanks from harassment, Greek military authorities then encouraged irregular bands of armed men to attack and destroy Turkish populations of the region they proposed to abandon. By the time the Red Crescent vessel arrived at Yalova from Constantinople in the last week of May, fourteen out of sixteen villages in that town's immediate hinterland had been destroyed, and there were only 1500 survivors from the 7000 Moslems who had been living in these communities.
More than 30,000 Turkish villagers took refuge in Bulgaria to save their lives. Also around 60,000 Turkish villagers escaped to İstanbul to save their lives.
Of all the estimates of the number of Muslim refugees, the figures offered by İsmet Pașa (İnönü) at the Lausanne Peace Conference seem most accurate. He estimated that 1.5 million Anatolian Turks had been exiled or had died in the area of Greek occupation. This estimate may appear high, but it fits well with estimates made by contemporary European observers. Moreover, İsmet Pașa's figures on refugees were presented to the Conference accompanied by detailed statistics of destruction in the occupied region, and these statistics make the estimate seem probable. İsmet Pașa, quoting from a census made after the war, demonstrated that 160,739 buildings had been destroyed in the occupied region. The destroyed homes alone would account for many hundreds of thousands of refugees, and not all the homes of refugees were destroyed. European accounts of refugee numbers were necessarily fragmented, but when compiled they support İsmet Pașa's estimate. The British agent at Aydin, Blair Fish, reported 177,000 Turkish refugees in Aydin Vilâyeti by 30 September 1919, only four months after the Greek landing. The Italian High Commissioner at Istanbul accepted an Ottoman estimate that there were 457,000 refugees by September of 1920, and this figure did not include the new refugees in the fall and winter of 1920 to 1921. Dr. Nansen stated that 75,000 Turks had come to the Istanbul area alone since November of 1920. Such figures make İsmet Pașa's estimate all the more credible. Since approximately 640,000 Muslims died in the region of occupation during the war, one can estimate that approximately 860,000 were refugees who survived the war. Of course many, if not most, of those who died were refugees, as well. If one estimates that half the Muslims who died were refugees, it would be roughly accurate to say that 1.2 million Anatolian Muslim refugees fled from the Greeks, and about one-third died.
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)...наводно са 17 џамија...
U njemu je živjelo pretežno muslimansko stanovništvo za koje je podignuto sedam džamija, te je grad dobio orijentalno obilježje.