The Muslim Stance

The reasons that led Muslims to flee the countryside and migrate beyond Crete were many and various. Some of them feared personal acts of vengeance from Christians, while the property of others had suffered such destruction that it was impossible for them to return. In some cases, Ottoman policy itself encouraged Muslims to leave the island. Yet inability to come to terms with the idea of Christian supremacy is often given as the main reason behind the mass exodus:

"One has to have lived among Muslims for twenty years, as I have done, in order to know how deeply rooted in their hearts the sense of supremacy is. Only then can one understand why they prefer to suffer the greatest of ordeals - loss of property, exile and even death - so as not to yield to a Christian overlord and recognize his authority."

(P. Drouin, French Consular Secretary, in: Manolis Peponakis, Turco-Cretan Migration in 1897/1899, The Final Phase of the Cretan Question, S.C.H.S. 2001, p. 133 - in Greek).