The number
of Caucasian immigrants settled in Ottomand lands in 1860s is approximately between 700
thousand and 1 million. Ubucini, who made a research about population structure in Ottoman
Empire, claims the number of Caucasian immigrants as 700,000 in 1864 after the first
migration wave, and also states that this figure reached 1 million in 1866 though high
death rate among the immigrants. Another researcher, Marc Pinson, reports the number of
Caucasian immigrants as 522,000 in the first half of 1860s. Depending on Russian sources,
Berzhe writes in his important work that 492,000 immigrants abandoned their homeland from
Black Sea ports to Anatolia between 1858-1866. Neither Brezhe included in his work those
who migrated overland to Anatolia, nor he did remarks for those who left their home
afterwards. It is estimated that overland
immigrants are close to those oversea Caucasian immigrants in terms of number. Moreover,
it is clear that his figures do not reflect the truth as they depend on official Tzardom
Russian figures. In his work about Caucasion population during Tzardom ond Sovied periods,
V.A.Sarafyan writes that the number of immigrants from Caucasia was about 2 millions, in
attribution to Omar de Halle. Because all these figures are about the migration waves
before the Ottoman-Russion war between 1877-1878, they are far from reflecting the true
number of immigrants left Caucasia in general. But they can still give an idea how big
mass of people moved in this time. It shows the demographical effect of this migration
phenomenon that the population in Caucasia decreased remarkably though Russian-Khossakhs
were also settled in the region. The total population of north Caucasia was 3,200,000
between 1850-1860 and decreased to 1,662,000 in 1897 as determined by the cencus.
Under the light of this information, it is a realistic
estimation that 2 millions Caucasian had to migrate from their home land between
1859-1879. But, only 1,500,000 of these immigrants survived and settled in Ottoman land.
Between 1884-1889 500 thousand more Caucasian migrated. In this time, it is known that
remarkable number of Turk-Tatar and Bashkird Turks from Khazan and Idıl-Ural regions move
to the Ottoman lands. An importand number of the Caucasian immigrants, probably 20% of
their population died of bad conditions such as epidemic desease and lack of food. In
Samsun, where many of the immigrants were sheltered, the death speed was so high that
120-150 immigrants died every day. On the other hand, in one of the transfer points,
Trabzon, it was recorded that 53,000 immigrants died of variouns reasons. When compared to
the population in that time, the reality showed by these figures can be seen clearly.
This migration to Ottoman Empire and their settlement in large
mass of groups caused the Empire face difficult situation. Considering the conditions in
that time, it is deserves an admiration that the government and officials could organize
and apply a consistent and successful settlement policy.
Already essembled commision of General Administration of
Immigrants was improved in Abdülhamid Han the 2nd period and functioned successfully
under the management of Nashid Pasha, ex-governor of Syria, in supplying money for daily
expenses, preparing temporary camps and determining permanent settling places. The Ottoman
Empire had difficulties in finding financial funds for resolving this migration problem
and the government mortgaged the income of Karaköy Bridge, of which passage fee were
doubled, for the loan of 30,000 Ottoman Lira supplied by the Ottoman Bank and other
sources of foreign capital. Because the financial situation the country was so bad during
these years, this migration policy was not accepted by whole management team of the
country, but Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd kept his decisive approach by declaring those people
as “valuable members of Khalif’s muslim people” and received a gread respect both
from the Caucasian immigrants and the Ottoman Muslims. It is told that his close interest
and good behaviour to Caucasian immigrants were because his mother was also a Caucasian,
which he called “they migrated from Caucasia as following the Sunna of the holy Prophet
Hz Mohammad (s.a.v.) because of massacre and demolition by Russia.
Abdulhamid Khan the 2nd assigned himself as the vice
president of this commission in 1899 and had an effective role directly in this migration
problem. As news reports Armenians were attacking the Caucasian immigrants on their way to
Anatolia, the Empire require the Russia to provide a safe travel condition and save the
lives and goods of Caucasian immigrants.
Continued
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