IMMIGRATIONS FROM THE BALKANS TO TURKEY AND IMMIGRANT SETTTLEMENTS IN WESTERN ANATOLIA

Abstract

It is well known that many countries fought for supremacy over the Balkans throughout the history, because of which at least some groups in the region were displaced. Turkey got heavily affected by these population movements. Especially,following the end of Ottoman sovereignty in the Balkan, struggles for sovereignty and related problems have showed up and continued up until the present time.Meanwhile, thousands of people were displaced from their homelands.Like the Balkans population in Western Anatolia have always been on the move dueto population movements and political struggles between the East and the West thathave taken place for centuries. Such population movements led to very sorrowful consequences for the Turkish and Muslims particularly from 1787 to the present time. People emigrated from the Balkans and immigrated to Anatolia in great numbers as a result of the Russo-Turkish Wars between 1787 and 1792, which was followed by immigrations after the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-1878, the BalkanWar in 1912-1914, the World War I in 1914-1918. Immigrations to Turkey went onowing to population exchanges as required by the Lausanne Treaty in 1923, the unsurpressable unrests in the Balkans in the following years, and the Bosnian Warbetween 1990 and 1995. A good many immigrant settlements have mushroomed across the country as a consequence of these immigrations to Turkey, which havecontinued from time to time over some 200 years. Physical and human geography played an important part in the distribution of immigrant settlements. Aconsiderable amount of immigrants have settled in Western Anatolia, which is today densely populated with immigrants.