The muhacirs resented the status of their relatively well-off neighbors and, as historian Taner Akçam and others have noted, some of them came to play a pivotal role in the killings of the Armenians and the confiscation of their properties during the genocide.
Utečenci len s nevôľou prijímali status ich pomerne dobre zabezpečených susedov a, ako poznamenal historik Taner Akçam i ďalší, títo utečenci neskôr zohrali pri vraždení Arménov a zaberaní ich majetku počas genocídy kľúčovú úlohu.