Ottoman Empire
Several historians such as British historian Edward Gibbon and the Greek historian Dimitri Kitzikis have argued that after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman state took over the machinery of the Roman state, and that in essence the Ottoman Empire was a continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire under a thin Turkish Islamic guise. Kitzikis called the Ottoman state "a Greek-Turkish condominium". The American historian Speros Vryonis wrote that the Ottoman state was centered on "a Byzantine-Balkan base with a veneer of the Turkish language and the Islamic religion". Other historians have followed the lead of the Austrian historian Paul Wittek who emphasized the Islamic character of the Ottoman state, seeing the Ottoman state as a "Jihad state" dedicated to expanding the world of Islam. Another group of historians led by the Turkish historian M. Fuat Koprulu championed the ""gazi" thesis" that saw the Ottoman state as a continuation of the way of life of the nomadic Turkic tribes who had come from East Asia to Anatolia via Central Asia and the Middle East on a much larger scale, and argued that the most important cultural influences on the Ottoman state came from Persia. More recently, the American historian Heath Lowry called the Ottoman state a "predatory confederacy" led in equal parts by Turks and Greeks converted to Islam.
Persecution of Muslims during Ottoman contraction
Persecution of Ottoman Muslims during the Ottoman contraction refers to the persecution, massacre, or ethnic cleansing of Muslims (Albanians, Bosniaks, Serbs, Greeks, Pomaks, Circassians, Ottoman Turks and others) by non-Muslim ethnic groups during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The 19th century saw the rise of nationalism in the Balkans coincident with the decline of Ottoman power, which resulted in the establishment of an independent Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. At the same time, the Russian Empire expanded into previously Ottoman ruled or Ottoman allied regions of the Caucasus and the Black Sea region. Many of the local Muslims in these countries suffered as many died during the conflicts and others fled. The persecution of Muslims was continued during World War I by the invading Russian troops in the east and the Caucasus and during the Turkish War of Independence in the west, east, and south of Anatolia. After the Greco-Turkish War, a population exchange took place and most Muslims in Greece left. During these centuries many Muslim refugees, called Muhacir, settled in Turkey.