POPULATION EXCHANGE BASICS and COMPARISON

with the 1923 TURKEY GREECE EXCHANGE

overseen by THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
by Rick Heizman, November 29, 2019, San Francisco

THE BEST SOLUTION - That Is Guaranteed to Work

There is one solution that is guaranteed to work. It will be a huge undertaking, but the reality
IS that it will take a major undertaking to solve this long and complicated crisis.
The solution is: a population exchange. The roughly one million Buddhists in Bangladesh would
be resettled in Rakhine State, and approximately one million Bengali Muslims (some people use
the term ‘Rohingya’) who live in, or lived in Rakhine State are resettled in their Cultural and
Ancestral Homeland of Bangladesh. (And, for many, their Birth Homeland as well).

THIS IS NOT A PLAN FOR FORCED RELOCATION AT THE POINT OF A GUN -

IT WILL BE CONDUCTED WITH INCENTIVES, COMPASSION, WISDOM, and INTEGRITY
• 1)  The Buddhist population of Bangladesh has plummeted from being a majority for
many centuries to less than one percent now, and is under intensifying attack, and even
calls for the extermination of all non-Muslims. The situation of the Buddhists is greatly
deteriorating and will only get worse, perhaps catastrophically. 


• 2)  The Bengali Muslims (‘Rohingya’) have proven that they are not interested in
peaceful co-existence, but have tried, and will continue to try to take northern Arakan by
force and cleanse the land of all non-Muslims, as they have attempted numerous times.


• 3)  The Bangladesh Buddhists will be welcomed by the Rakhine Buddhists. (There is

already an ongoing flow of Bangladesh Buddhists to Rakhine State) They share the
same type of Buddhism, same language, and same history - in essence they are only
separated by a modern border. 


• 4)  The Bengalis in Rakhine State speak the same language, the same Chittagonian
dialect of the language, share the same Islam, and have the same traditions, customs,
and food of the Bengalis in Bangladesh. 


• 5)  There would be no more village attacks and village burnings, no more ambushes,
no more fear, and no more disorder. Buddhists, Hindus, and tribals minorities all live
peacefully and respectfully with each other - but all are victims of the Muslim violence.


• 6)  The Buddhists, Hindus, and tribal ethnic minority people of Rakhine State can make
progress to rebuild and advance their State - without fear, violence, and unpredictable
uprisings. 


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 • 7)  The Muslims in Bangladesh can also make progress and advance their lives, their
communities, and their future prospects - without worry or distraction because of non-
Muslims living among them. Their goal is a Muslim-only apartheid Islamic State.


• 8)  The violence against non-Muslims in Bangladesh could stop by resettling those

minorities in friendly countries (because Bangladesh cannot get rid of its deeply
embedded Islamic intolerance and supremacism.)
• 

9) Provisions can be made for some people who, for good reason, want to stay where
they are.

• 10) Ample money should be sought worldwide to provide good incentive for people to
take part. Adequate financial incentives are integral to the success of this endeavor.

HOW A POPULATION EXCHANGE WOULD WORK

The idea of a population exchange is a delicate subject to talk about. Some people will react
very quickly and yell, ‘that’s ethnic cleansing!’ They are wrong. Ethnic cleansing will happen if
we DON’T have a solution. We want to resolve the non-ending and ever-growing conflict with
a population exchange that is:
• Not forced upon them
• Will be chosen because of financial and other incentives
• and with the obvious reality that people can have a safe and more productive future
The exchange would be:
• about a million, or so, Bengali Muslims would go from Rakhine State to Bangladesh (or,
really, the Bengali Muslims in the refugee camps would be settled in Bangladesh proper)
• about 1 million Jumma, Chakma, and
other Buddhists, Hindus, or Christians
would come from Chittagong Hills
Tract in Bangladesh to Rakhine State,
where they would (and are) welcomed,
and they would be given the same
type of land to live in peace and
harmony. A mountain farmer would be
settled in similar mountains, a coastal
fisherman would be relocated to the
coast. Sadly, there is NO future for
non-Muslims in intolerant Bangladesh.
• It would not have to be every single
Muslim or Buddhist respectfully.
• And, very importantly it would not take 1914 document showing the official figures from

place at the point of a gun. the 1914 population census of the Ottoman Empire.
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It is a project that will take acceptance of reality, discussion, planning, money from other
countries, and participation by other non-biased countries and world bodies. It, however,
should not include the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) because of its overwhelming
bias and total affiliation with one side only. The Rakhine people will take the moral high-
ground, and conduct this with fairness, and humanity - as long as they are not targeted with
more violence.
COMPARISON WITH THE 1923 GREECE TURKEY POPULATION EXCHANGE
Let’s compare with a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. It was
authorized by the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) under the leadership
of Fridtjof Nansen, an experienced Norwegian diplomat, with expertise in settling Russian
refugees and others, after World War 1. The exchange involved about 2 million people - about
the same number that may be the case in Arakan and Bangladesh.
In Turkey (which was the Ottoman Empire, until its abolition in 1922, and then it became the
Republic of Turkey) there had already been some horrific massacres targeting non-Muslim
Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in 1915 - in what has become known as the Armenian
Genocide. These were the massacres that led to the new term of ‘Genocide’. It was an
absolute Jihad - a ‘holy’ war by the Muslim Turks against the infidels (derogatory term for non-
believers of Islam) which resulted in 2-3 million deaths.
Now, back to 1923, there were still well over a million Christian Greeks in parts of Turkey, who
did not have any reasonable, or safe future - similar to the Buddhists, Hindus and Christians
in Bangladesh. The intolerance of the Turks toward any non-Muslims, and the absolute
supremacy of the Muslims was simply going to kill or drive out all infidels, and that would
never change. Look at Turkey right now, and look at Bangladesh right now. (I do want to say, I
know Turks here in the US, and I know Bengalis here in the US, who are great, reasonable,
and tolerant people - they often left their countries to ESCAPE from their religion, and its
intolerance and supremacy).
As the country of Greece was receiving waves of refugees streaming in from Turkey, with
horrifying stories of death and destruction, the Greeks wanted to get rid of its own problematic
Turkish Muslim population, of about 354,000. What the Greeks did NOT do is massacre them
as the Turks had been doing again and again.

THE POPULATION EXCHANGE AGREEMENT PROVISIONS

The population exchange agreement had essential provisions:
• for people to register and assess a value to their home or property that they will leave (if
they could not sell it),
• the ability to register and protect the belongings that they would carry with them,
• and their belongings that they could not take would be listed and submitted to both
governments so that the people could be compensated with equivalent goods.

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This is a very very important part of a population
exchange. With guarantees and incentives, tax
breaks, and cash to start a business people can
realize that this is an opportunity to have a safer,
better, happier, life and future - not only for
themselves, but their families and their culture.
In 1923, everything did not go perfectly, of
course, but considering the genocides that could
have happened, and would have happened, the
exchange was the better course of action at that
time, and was considered immensely successful.
BANGLADESH MYANMAR REALITY
An exchange would result in no real population
gain by either Bangladesh or Myanmar, negating
Bangladesh’s argument that it cannot take in
more people.
There is no way for the Buddhists to live safely
with a Muslim majority (as those in Bangladesh
know) - or even a large minority (as Rakhine Declaration of Property during the
Greek-Turkish population exchange
people know). No matter what ‘peaceful living together’ from Yena (Kaynarca) to Thessaloniki

methods are tried or suggested the sad truth is that the

Muslims will kill all others again and again, as they have
again and again, and as their Qu’ran instructs them to do again and again.
The Burmese/Rakhine and the Bangladeshi/Bengali Muslim politicians and leaders can and
should start this dialog and action, and do it with fairness and humanity.
If the situation breaks down into all-out war, then we have to fight an all-out war that is not our
choosing. And if that is the choice of the Muslims, then we have to fight, and in war one must
fight to win, to defend and protect ourselves, our families and our culture, and to eliminate the
danger, so that peaceful life can resume again without the threat of violence again.

The BEST path to follow is a well-thought, well-planned, and well-carried out population
exchange - without violence - for the greater good and future of all people involved.

by Rick Heizman, 2017 / 2019

Photos and Videos of Arakan at: arakan-reality.smugmug.com - go to Conflict videos

Papers at scribd.com/rheizman
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