Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire, an Annotated Map
by Justin McCarthy, Professor of History at the University of Louisville

Forced Migration and Mortality in the Ottoman Empire

The size of the arrows on the main map indicates the relative size of the migrations. Placement of the arrows was in some places dictated by the necessity of placing many arrows in a small space, and thus is not geographically perfect. For example, the arrow for the exile of Turks from Armenia in 1918-20 should have pointed further south, were it not necessary to also include an arrow for the Armenian exiles to Armenia. Even approximations of many of the forced migrations are unknown. Rough estimates are reflected in the size of arrows.

“Anatolian Wars” in the small map of wartime mortality shows the percentage deaths of Muslims, Greeks, and Armenians. Muslim percentages are for the war zones in Eastern and Western Anatolia. Wartime migration, however, makes it impossible to give Armenian and Greek deaths only in the war zones. Those figures are for Anatolia as a whole, but they roughly correspond to the percentages for Muslims.

The map does not include many migrants that left their homelands looking for work, were attracted by offers of free land and relief from taxes, or simply did not wish to live under their home governments’ rule. These would have included the Armenians whom the Russians attracted to their Caucasus conquests after 1829 to take the place of expelled Turks and the Greeks and Armenians who went to America seeking a better life. It would have included the Turks who continued to leave the Balkans and Russia up until the end of the twentieth century. It also would have included the great number of all groups who moved in peace time across ever-changing borders to escape persecution or simply to live with their fellows. Had these been included, the map would have been a mass of small arrows.

Text by Justin McCarthy. The complete description of the migration events can be found here.