Such strategies also vary-with very different outcomes-by gender (Van Boeschoten). The boundaries have become increasingly blurred equally, some migrant groups have exhibited complex strategies of integration (Kokkali, Parla) that seem to link their Balkan past with their current needs. Yet, doubtless owing to the complex multi-ethnic history of the region, it is frequently difficult to distinguish between short-term labour migration, permanent migration and ethnic migrations. Since the collapse of the Communist bloc, labour migration has taken off-most significantly of Albanians to Greece (Vullnetari, Kokkali, Van Boeschoten)-but also from other Balkan states, such as Bulgaria (Hatziprokopiou and Markova, Van Boeschoten). However, lesser-known ethnic migrations such as Slavs from Greece to Bulgaria (Detrez, Vukov) were of some magnitude and were important factors in regional state-building. The largest migration flows were of Muslims to Turkey (Icduygu and Sert), and of Orthodox Christians to Greece. Despite historically important labour migration in the region (Hristov), until the fall of the Berlin Wall most of the cross-border migrations within the region still contributed to the homogenization process of recent nation states. From the foundation of the first state to gain independence (Greece) to the Second World War, ethnic cleansing and demographic engineering were crucial aspects of nation state building. Given the complex ethnic mosaic of the southern Balkan region creating nation states was a very difficult task. nation-building and the other with post-war labour migration in the context of globalization. The existing literature on migration within the region since the Ottoman period consists of two main and separate bodies of literature: one deals with forced migration in the service of. This introduction presents an overview of the history of migration within the Southern Balkan region since the end of Ottoman rule, in this way providing a broader context for the individual contributions. The modern Turkish State has continued to allow members of these communities to migrate and settle in Turkey. In spite of this massive migration many Turkish and Muslim communities were left behind in various parts of the Balkans after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Although there are no exact figures, one source puts the size of this migration between late 1870s and early 1920s at as high as 1,445,000 (Eren 1993, p. They were mostly the descendants of Turks who had settled in various parts of the Balkans during the past centuries (Karpat 1985, ch.4). One reason for this can be attributed to the fact that in Turkey there are large numbers of people of Balkan descent.Īs the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans began to contract, large numbers of people who identified themselves with the Empire steadily migrated to Thrace and Anatolia. Turkey's domestic politics as well as its foreign policy have been deeply affected by these developments. The collapse of communism and the disintegration of Yugoslavia have led to tremendous instability and ethnic strife in the Balkans. An area that has been deeply affected by ethnopohtics is the Balkans. One of the important consequences of the end of the Cold War has been the growing impact that ethnicity has had on the domestic politics of countries as well as international politics. In this article, respectively the Islamization process, the Turkish-Islamic culture, de-Ottomanization policy, forced migrations and ethnic cleansing in the Balkan countries are critically analyzed.
Therefore, the Balkan Turkish and Muslim nations have struggled for survival against aggressive nationalism since the 19th century. Even more, the nationalist governments/states forced the Turks and Muslims to migrate and implemented ethnic cleansing in order to create a homogenous nation in their countries. For this purpose, they implemented a very harsh and ruthless “de-Ottomanization” policy in their countries. Nationalist governments and movements in the Balkan countries have struggled to create their homogenous nation states and homogenous nations since the 19th century. After the 1789 French Revolution, nationalism developed and expanded in the Balkan countries.
Consequently, Turkish and Muslim nations emerged and developed in the Balkans under the Ottoman rule. Comprehensive Islamization process and resettlement policies were implemented under the Ottoman rule in the Balkans.
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