Movements of emigration within the Ottoman Empire during the World War I

Loss of power in the Ottoman Empire, arising in the 17th century turned into a crashin the 19th century, particularly due to nationalist movements triggered in the FrenchRevolution. The separatist nationalist movements primarily spread within Christian minoritiessuch as Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Romanians, and then within Muslim minorities asArabs and Albanians in the Ottoman society. The increasing power of these movementsseverely hit the understanding of unity and solidarity in the Ottoman Empire -also named asPax Ottomana- .Bandit activities against the state conducted by the Anatolian Greeks andArmenians, affected by the former separatist nationalism in the Balkans, and can precisely bedefined as the sixth arm or spying for the Allies took place in the beginning of the World WarI. Since this new-born process began to prove harmful for both the local Muslim people andOttoman military troops in the fronts, some groups of Armenians were displaced to otherregions who conducted harmful activities according to the government, so as the Arab groupsdid after the riot of Sherif Hüseyin. In addition to the execution of this government decree,certain groups of Muslim people emigrated from some regions under occupation, especiallyfrom Eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Syria to unoccupied regions in Anatolia without anyuse of force.In this case, it is inevitable for some problems to occur during these extensivedemographic movements. The government under the rule of the Union and ProgressCommittee strived to avoid these problems; however these efforts proved insufficient in somecases. Therefore, in contrast to the intended accusations, it can be comprehended that theOttoman government did not intend genocide and only tried to avoid the conflicts amongsocieties as possibly as it could.As any state could do after involving in a total war, the Ottoman Empire wereobliged to pursue a mandatory displacement policy above its capacity in order to avoidcoordination with enemy states, spying activities for them and the attacks aiming at civiliansor military troops occurred within the Ottoman borders.