Appendix 2

Forced Migrations in the 20th Century Balkans

Dates	Who	From	To	Numbers
Balkan Wars	‘Tens and hundreds of thousands ran in all directions’ (Sola)
Including
1912	Turks	Macedonia	Turkey	100,000
1912	Macedonians	Macedonia	Bulgaria	15,000
1912–1913	Greeks	Western Thrace	Greece	70,000
1912–1913	Turks	Bulgaria	Turkey	50,000
1913	Greeks and other groups	war areas	Greece	90,000?
1913	Turks	Western Thrace	Turkey	40,000–50,000
1913	Treaty of Adrianople between Bulgaria and Turkey – first interstate treaty to provide for transfer of peoples
1913–1914	Bulgarians	Greece, Serbia, Turkey	Bulgaria	250,000
1913–1914	Greeks	post-war forced movement by Greek-Turkish agreement from Turkey – interrupted by 1914 war	Greece	?
World War One	even larger movements similar to Balkan Wars
Including
1914–1918	Serbs	internal and external displacement of over one third population including:	All directions	750,000–1,000,000?
1914–1918	Serbs	Serbs as forced labour, about 10 percent of population	Bulgaria/Hungary	250,000–300,000?
1914–1918	Serbs	march to Adriatic – Serb army and civilians (huge death toll)	Adriatic	200,000–500,000?
1914–1918	Bulgarians	former ‘Bulgarian lands’	Bulgaria	300,000?
1916–1918	Romanians	Dobrudja (taken by Bulgaria)	Romania	?
post-war
1918–1924	Hungarians	Romania (Transylvania)	Hungary	200,000
1918–1924	Hungarians	Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia	Hungary	200,000
1918–1926	Bulgarians	Greece (Greek Macedonia and Thrace)	Bulgaria	120,000
1918–1928	Greeks	Bulgaria	Greece	50,000
1922–1923	Greeks	forced exchange from Turkey under Treaty of Lausanne	Greece	1,200,000
1921–1928	Turks	Greece	Turkey	400,000
1921–1939	Turks	Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia	Turkey	200,000
World War Two
1939–1940	Romanians Germans Hungarians	Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina taken by Russia	Romania Germany Hungary	40,000 plus
1939–1940	Jews	Romania	Russia	70,000?
1939–1941	Romanians	Suspect population Bessarabia	Russian camps	100,000?
1940–1941	Yugoslav (Serbs/Jews)	flee before invading German/Hungarian armies	Yugoslavia	300,000?
1940	Romanians	Transylvania (ceded to Hungary)	Romania	220,000
1940	Hungarians	Romania	Hungary	160,000
1940	Romanians	Dobrudia annexed by Bulgaria	Romania	100,000
1940	Bulgarians	resettled Bulgarian Dobrudja	Bulgaria	60,000
1941	Greeks	‘Greek’ Macedonia and Western Thrace occupied by Bulgaria	Greece	90,000–100,000
1940–1944	Ethnic Germans	Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia	German areas	300,000
1940–1945	Serbs	‘Yugoslav’ Macedonia occupied by Bulgaria	Serbia	500,000
1940–1945	Serbs	Banat taken by Hungary	Serbia	?
1940–1945	Slovenians	Slovenia taken by Italy/Germany	Southern Slovenia/Serbia	120,000
1940–1945	Serbs	Croatia	Serbia	120,000
1940–1945	Croatians Hungarians	Serbia	Croatia and Hungary	70,000
1941–1945	Forced labour	18,000 Bulgarians, 9,000 Romanians, 103,000 Yugoslavs	Nazi Germany	130,000
1941–1945	Jews	Romania 270,000–400,000, Greece 60,000, Bulgaria 10,000 Yugoslavia 55,000–60,000	Nazi camps/death	400,000–500,000
1943–1944	Italians	Albania and Dodecanese	Italy	40,000
1944–1945	Germans	Romania to west fleeing ahead of army	West	100,000
1944–1945	Germans	Yugoslavia to west fleeing ahead of Partisans/Red Army	West	35,000
1944–1945	Hungarians	ahead of Red Army and return of Transylvania to Romania	Hungary	?
1944–1945	Balkan captives	Balkans	Russian camps	?
1944–1945	ethnic Germans	deportation from Romania, Yugoslavia	Germany	170,000?
1944–1945	ethnic Germans	deportation of those left behind from Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania	Russia	200,000?
1945 on	Bulgarians	Greek and Yugoslav territories occupied in war	Bulgaria	120,000
1945 on	Hungarians	Romania, Yugoslavia (and Czech lands)	Hungary	185,000
1944–1947	Poles	Bosnia (community from 1890s)	Poland	17,000
1945–1946	Italians	New Yugoslavia	Italy	130,000
1946	Hungarians	New Yugoslavia	Hungary	40,000
1946	Serbs and Croats	Hungary	Yugoslavia	40,000
1945–1948	Jews	Bulgaria	Israel/West	50,000
1945–1948	Jews	Romania	Israel/West	40,000
Greek Civil War
1946–1949		(a) 600,000 plus displaced from Greek Macedonia to Athens/Salonica (b) 90,000 cross borders (c) Albanians of South Epirus	Yugoslavia and Balkan states Albania	700,000 plus 25,000
Communist Era
1949–1950	Turks	Bulgaria	Turkey	150,000–250,000
1970–1989	Turks	Bulgaria	Turkey	300,000
post-1989
Croatian War 1991
1991	Croats	Eastern Slavonia	Croatia	77,000
1991	Serbs	Croatia	Serbia and Montenegro	120,000
Bosnian War 1992–5
	all but especially Muslims	internal displacement	Bosnia	1,000,000
	All incl.	External displacement	25 countries	1,000,000
	Muslims/Croats	Republika Srpska	Croatia	45,000
	Bosnian Serbs	Bosnia	Serbia/Montenegro	250,000
1995	Croatian Serbs	Croatia/Krajina	Skpska/Serbia	180,000

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Last updated: 26 August 2021