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POPULATION CHANGE AND THE CREATIONOF THE TURKıSH REPUBLıCProf. Dr. Justin McCARTHY*In terms of both mortality and physical destruction, the events thatovertook the Turkish people between 1912 and 1922 were among themost disastrous in history. But that time is remarkable for more than thebrutality visited on the Turks. It is also remarkable that after World WarI, at a time when Europeans and Americans provided massive amounts ofaid to other peoples, no one cared about Turkish suffering. It is remarkable,in a world that readily catalogs human suffering and easily assignsblame, that very few have ever recognized Turkish suffering. And it is remarkablethat the Turks managed to survive their losses and create a nation.It is possible to describe Turkish suffering statistically. Even thoughstatistics do not portray the depth of human misery, they can help usgrasp the extent of suffering. The data are dawn from archival and publishedmaterial of the Ottoman and Turkish Republican governments.Where possible, tables and fıgures are given here by Republican provincialboundrais. However, due to the nature of the statistics, it is sometimesnecessary to give data for the larger Ottoman provinces (vilâyets).Figures on mortality offer the most meaningful picture of the sufferingof the Turks. In Anatolia, what today is Turkey in Asia, nearly threemillion Muslims 1 were lost in World War I and the Turkish War of Independencethat followed (Figüre One). The mortality in some provinceswas staggering: In Van Province, 62% of the Muslims who were presentbefore the wars were gone by the end of 1922. In Erzurum Province, 31%were gone; in Bitlis, 31% in Hüdavendigâr (Bursa), 10%; in Aydın(İzmir), 10%. By comparison, in what became the U.S.S.R., 8% of the* Department of History, University of Louisville.1. It is impossible to identify ethnic or linguistic groups in Ottoman statistics, becausethe Ottomans kept population records only by religion. Figüre One is drawn by subtractingthe Müslim population in 1922 from the population in 1912. It does not includeimmigrants from the balkan Wars, althouhg the figüre of almost 3 million lostdoes so.509