Organised chaos as diplomatic ruse and demographic weapon. The expulsion of the Ottoman Greeks (Rum) from Foça, 1914

The process of transition from Ottoman Empire to nation states witnessed dramatic changes in the demographic and socio-economic structures of the once imperial lands. The summer of organized chaos in Foca, an Ottoman boomtown in Western Anatolia, represents one of the chapters of this dramatic transition. After the Balkan Wars, Foca became one of the contested zones of Greek and Ottoman Muslim nationalisms. In 1914, Young Turk clandestine operations ousted the Greek majority of Foca right before to outbreak of the World War i. This article argues that this particular demographic project can only be understood within a wider context. The nationalist rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece, unresolved issues of the Balkan Wars and Young Turks’ radicalization, together with their monopolization of power played crucial roles in the way nationalist competition and inter-ethnic tensions were “imported” into the region. The case of Foca provides a good example showing how such policies of demographic engineering developed in relation to dynamic changes of the period rather than being master planned in retrospect. The case of Foca also shows us that those who were subjected to nationalist violence are more likely to participate in nationalist projects. This paper discusses this over the comparison of natives’ roles and perceptions of the forced migration as opposed to those of the Muslim refugees from the Balkans.