Journal of Turkish Weekly
April 27 2005
1915-1916 saw the displacement of not just Armenians but 702,905
Turks
by Murat Bardakci
source: Hurriyet
Ottoman Grand Vizier and Interior Minister Talat Pasha, in black
books that he kept from the period he was in office, recorded that in
the years between 1915 and 1916, not only Armenians but hundreds of
thousands of Turks were displaced from their homes in eastern Turkey.
The notebooks show that up to 800,000 Turks from provinces under
invasion threat from Russian forces took to the road as “emigrants,”
and that a corridor stretching from Izmit to Halep was used to
resettle up to 702,905 Turkish citizens.The area most emigrated to
was Mosul, with 150,000 resettled, and the least emigrated to was
Icel, with only 426 people.
The so-called “black books” from the archives of Grand Vizier Talat
Pasha record not only the migrations that took place from the Eurpean
side to Anatolia during the Balkan War, but also lists of citizens
displaced by the Russian invasion of eastern provinces during World
War I. The lists of people removed from their homes and out of the
way of fighting between Turkish and Russian forces reveal that while
Armenians were moved, Turks were also moved.