The Transfer of Cumans and Alans from Balkans to Anatolia by Byzantine Empire against the Turkish Expansion in the Western Anatolia

Abstract

It is known that during the long history of the Byzantine Empire, some communities who were forced to migrate from a region of the empire to another area occasionally. Byzantine government, losted gradually the Central and Eastern Anatolia to the Turks from the second half of the eleventh century, had made a great effort to stop the Turkish expansion into the last regions of the Byzantine Empire in the Western Anatolia. The measures taken within the framework of this policy, Cumans and Alans from Balkans were brought to Anatolia and was placed to expansion area of the Turks. This article will focus on the two major population transfer in the middle of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century by Byzantine rule for military purposes and the results of this transfer poicy.