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The Balkan Wars: An Expected Opportunity for Ethnic Cleansing

The Balkan states in 1912 created a system of alliances ultimately aimed at the expulsion of the Ottoman Empire from the Balkan territory and from Europe. The changes that happened during the Balkan wars in the Macedonian territory were far-reaching. Balkan Muslims largely left the areas that they had settled for centuries. The Christian population that was part of the Ottoman Empire before the wars, having certain rights and customs and a large amount of problems (lingering Ottoman feudalism, the non-existence of security, be it from the Komitadji groups of the neighboring countries, or from the vengeful Turkish persecutions), had hoped for the war to bring liberation and better life conditions. The initial enthusiasm was very quickly replaced by the fight for mere survival as well as the loss of rights and customs that the “millet” system has continuously nurtured under the Ottoman Empire. The “liberators” were often wrong (the others), which led to large migrations among the Christian population of the Balkan states. The ethnic image of the Balkans changed completely and those who remained in their homes and survived the war most often did not have any minority rights and were subjected to assimilation. The situation was most drastic in Aegean Macedonia, which in a little more than a decade changed from multinational environment to an area almost completely inhabited by the Greeks.

Balkan Wars, Ethnic Cleansing

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