DOC Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims; 1821-1922 by Justin McCarthy in History

Review

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful. Would be better if more geographical specific.By GogolHaving read through the book and understanding that it touches on a number of issues that are obviously sensitive to some I must say I found it rather thin on detail and far too sweeping.The book is concerning the Ottoman Muslims as defined by the Bosnian; Albanian; Bulgarian Turk; East Anatolian; Tatar and Caucasian Muslims who were murdered; raped; forcibly deported and had their land and property stolen during the Balkan war and Russian expansion.Specific areas the book covers are Greece; Bulgaria; Eastern Anatolia; The Crimea and the Caucuses. Brief mention is made of Albania also. One of the main problems with the book is it covers such a vast geographical area and historical period that its attention to real detail is a little thin. It covers history from the Balkan wars up to the formation of the Turkish republic. It would be like writing a 368 page book on the history of Central Europe during world wars one and two and expecting to have detail on the various war crimes; massacres; and population expulsions. I feel it would have been a lot better if he had remained on one specific area such as the Balkans (Much in the same way he covers the Armenian rebellion in Van)McCarthy is correct in stating that the plight of Ottoman Muslims is largely unknown in the West and a large part of Greek ; Bulgarian and Balkan history has been airbrushed. Where he is over simplistic is in his assumption that everyone in the west regards history as some kind of "civilization vs barbarianism" and that regardless of the results conquest of a people of a different religion or ethnic group is something celebrated.I also feel McCarthy has gotten himself a little too caught up in the official historical line of most Balkan countries "Turkey forged out of the ashes of an Empire" "The Greeks deep knowledge and pride in their history" etc.... It is doubtful that village Greeks in Central Anatolia had time to study Greek epics any more than the Turkish villager in Bulgaria or southern Greece sat about reading the Shahname.The book also fails to answer some points such as the Russian push into the Caucuses. Why would the Russians simply depopulate an entire Geographical area; repopulate it with "Russians" (Does he mean Cossacks?) and then offer the local Muslims the choice of expulsion or removal to another part of the Russian empire? Was it simply conquest or was it for strategic reasons in which case; is this not the same argument the Turkish government uses for the deportation of Armenians during WW1? Why did the Russians choose to put Armenian families in Georgian ares when there are ethnic differences and conflicts between the two groups (Was McCarthy not aware of this when he decided to share with us that information?) Or was McCarthy far to concerned with seeing the conflict as "Christian Vs Muslim"?This is a fascinating subject and one that is rarely studied (which is why I give it 4 stars) I would however; recommend the books of Shaw or Inalcik over McCarthy based upon this one (Though I did find his "Armenian rebellion in Van" Much better) I feel because he has tried to make this book more of a "General history" one he has skimmed far too many subjects and lacked real attention to detail.I have deliberately not mentioned his chapters on Armenia and the conflict in Eastern Anatolia as looking at previous reviewers if you say there was a genocide then you are anti/Muslim anti/Turk if you say there was not you are an "Irvin holocaust denier" Hopefully the time will come when wises up and actually publishes customer reviews and not customer rants on its website.7 of 9 people found the following review helpful. What the Propagandists don't want you to Know!By BrianAlbrightThis book was a very interesting read; I really enjoyed how Dr. Justin McCarthy can go into such detail and put all these tragedies and events into it's proper historical context. It's important to understand the history and context in order to draw conclusions from events. Propagandists give bad ratings to this book to keep you from reading the truth; check the sources; and I bet you won't find a single problem with this book. The information is verifiable and scholarly. You will not be able to put it down once you get into it!Do not be intimidated by others who want you to draw different conclusion from history; on either side of the political spectrum; this book is definitely objective and reading it cannot harm you.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. TIME TO READ HOW TURKISH MASSES THE WORLD HAS ACCUSED WERE THEMSELVES CLEANSED AS DOCUMENTED BY AN IMPARTIAL HISTORY PROFESSOR!By Mehmet SahinogluA fabulous documentary book telling the world in detail about the other-side’s reality through an authentic perspective of Turks (Turkish Muslims in general) being cleansed and decimated ruthlessly in heaps of 10s of thousands especially in Russia; Bulgaria; Greece; (at one incident; the hoops of the horses never stepped on anything but Turkish-Muslim flesh for a mile long; as it was documented in Mora peninsula); Bosnia and elsewhere. The Ottoman Empire in 1915; three years before its demise; was staging a life–and–death self–defense of its last glimpses of bare existence with 25% to 30% of its male active population (total population: 14 million) killed at some 7 fronts in the world; one of which was Gallipoli and others were Mesopotamia; Galicia; Libya and Egypt; Hejaz and Yemen; Caucasia; Balkans. Justin McCarthy’s Death and Exile: Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims; 1821-1922 is a must–read with its Table 30 documenting 5m Turkish Muslims wiped out exceeding the Holocaust figures (4m). The history professors of the West are mute on these facts except for a few select such as Dr. McCarthy. The entire civilized (!) world including the politicized Mr. Pope; the revengeful; in Vatican are blaming Turkey for the falsehood-laden genocide tall-tales when those poor folks only had to out-of self-defense protect their sanity. This is an eye-opening book along with "The Turk in America”; which is Prof. Justin McCarthy's other facts-based-historical manuscript. These two books are MUST read by all Turks and especially non-Turkic history enthusiasts elsewhere before they jump the gun and make accusations about a whole nation so as to learn about the documented history rather than au verbatim imitating incorrectly the inflated fabrications of lies and more lies. Congratulations to Professor Justin McCarthy for his courageous; fearless and scientific approach in his stellar accomplishment. The world needs more authors like him. Remember that some of the earlier U.S. historian late authors; such as the late Stanford J Shaw for his History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey were sadly threatened for their lives if they did not stop writing about the documented counter- truth. Maybe this is a fresh beginning for new-breed historians to voice their documented historical theses by not fearing what the fabricated lies-addicted folks falsely claimed all these many decades since a new Republic of Turkey was founded by one and only ATATURK in 1923.Opinions and comments by Dr. M. Sahinoglu; the author of RAINDROPS ON MY LIFE'S UMBRELLA ( self-published; 2016