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157-653: Greek people migrated into these areas well before the Christian/Byzantine era. Traders, Christian Orthodox scholars/clerics, refugees, mercenaries, and those who had backed the wrong side in the many civil wars and periods of political in-fighting in the Classical/Hellenistic and Late Roman/Byzantine periods, were especially represented among those who migrated. One notable example is the 7th-century Greek Bishop Cyrus of Alexandria , originally from Phasis in present-day Georgia . Greek settlers in

314-852: A Greek victory in 449 BCE, and the Ionian cities regained their independence. By the Peace of Antalcidas (387 BCE), which ended the Corinthian War , Persia regained control over Ionia. In 334 BCE, the Macedonian Greek king Alexander the Great conquered the Anatolian peninsula from the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Alexander's conquest opened up the interior of Asia Minor to Greek settlement and influence. Following

471-470: A bitter series of civil wars followed by a combined attack by Medes , Persians , Scythians and their own Babylonian relations. The last Assyrian city to fall was Harran in southeast Anatolia. This city was the birthplace of the last king of Babylon , the Assyrian Nabonidus and his son and regent Belshazzar . Much of the region then fell to the short-lived Iran-based Median Empire , with

628-777: A heathen and asking whether 100,000 Romans were a match for 12,000 barbarians. He recalled Cyrus and Theodore to Constantinople to discuss whether they should surrender to the Arabs or continue fighting. Heraclius died in February 641, two months before the fall of the Babylon Fortress , and was succeeded by his two sons Constantine III and Heraclonas as co-emperors. Heraclonas' mother, Martina , ruled through Heraclonas because of his young age and consistently opposed Constantine. Constantine, following his father's wishes, summoned Cyrus and Theodore to Constantinople to discuss

785-556: A piece of the True Cross which was earlier brought to Egypt by John, Duke of Barcaina, and stored by the monks of Tabenna , was carried with Cyrus and Theodore. The procession passed between Cleopatra's Needles and entered the Caesareum Church , where a liturgy was prayed. The Psalm reading of the day was Psalm 118:24 , but the deacon said another psalm hoping to praise Cyrus and congratulate him on his return. This

942-574: A predisposition towards Monophysitism from the beginning, while others argue that he was influenced by Sergius and Heraclius. Posthumously, Cyrus was condemned as a heretic at the Lateran Council of 649 ( Denzinger , Enchiridion, 217, 219) and again in 680 at the Third Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (Denzinger, 238; Mansi, XI, 554). Anatolia Anatolia ( Turkish : Anadolu ), also known as Asia Minor ,

1099-610: A significant role in the 1877 Russian conquest of Kars and Ardahan , where many of them settled with their families and other displaced Greeks from northeast Anatolia and Georgia (the latter themselves the descendants of pre-1877 Greek refugees and exiles from northeast Anatolia now re-settled in Kars by the Russian Imperial government). A large number of Caucasus Greeks who settled in Georgia became referred to as Urum (from

1256-673: A single will. In June 633, he presented the Pact of Union, also known as the plerophoría of "Satisfactio," during a synod held in Alexandria. This agreement consisted of nine articles, with the seventh one boldly asserting monothelitism. Although the Miaphysites, also referred to as Theodosians or Severians, welcomed the pact, they maintained that Chalcedon should come to them rather than vice versa. During this time, numerous clergy, soldiers, and common people converted to Cyrus's position, but

1413-676: A sizeable Armenian population before the Armenian genocide ) an "ahistorical imposition" and notes that a growing body of literature is uncomfortable with referring to the Ottoman East as "Eastern Anatolia". The highest mountain in the Eastern Anatolia Region (also the highest peak in the Armenian Highlands ) is Mount Ararat (5123 m). The Euphrates , Aras , Karasu and Murat rivers connect

1570-757: A small minority (10-15%) of the inhabitants, most of whom were Christian Armenians, Kurdish Muslims, or smaller numbers of Orthodox Georgians, while even many of the mainly ethnic Greek villages still included small numbers of Armenians (including Greek Orthodox Armenians), Georgians, and even Kurds, employed by the Greeks to look after the sheep, cattle, and horses. The Caucasus Greeks of the Kars Oblast were generally reasonably well educated, every village having its own school, although most were involved in farming, horse breeding, or mining for their livelihoods. A smaller but still significant number did, however, work outside

1727-577: A somewhat larger admixture of Turkish, Georgian, Russian, and Armenian vocabulary than the colloquial form of Greek used in Pontus proper. However, the Caucasus Greeks had had to become fluent Russian speakers, as a result of the schooling and education policies implemented by the Russian Imperial government, although at home and amongst themselves they continued to favour Greek. But Caucasus Greeks were still often conflated or confused with Russians in

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1884-604: A third language, thanks to their own roots in north-eastern Anatolia, where they had after all lived (usually very uneasily and in a state of intermittent warfare) alongside Turkish-speaking Muslims since the Seljuk-backed Turkish migrations into 'the lands of Rum' or Anatolia during the 11th and 12th centuries. Pontic Greeks in Georgia and the Russian Caucasus also maintained this command of Turkish so as to communicate with their Muslim neighbours living in

2041-647: A traditionally Turkish , Kurdish , Georgian -Muslim (here often called Chveneburi ) and Laz -Muslim or Christian but generally non-Orthodox Armenian area with a staunchly pro-Russian Christian Orthodox community. In general they were settled on grassy highland plateaux, such as the Gole/Kiolias plateau of present-day Ardahan province, since these resembled their original lands in the Pontic Alps and later ones they had settled on in Georgia. In towns like Kars, Ardahan, and Sarikamish ethnic Greeks constituted only

2198-413: A week-long illness, died on Holy Thursday , March 21, 642. He was replaced as Patriarch by Peter IV on 14 July. Theodore was appointed governor of Egypt after Cyrus' death, and arranged the withdrawal of Byzantine forces from Alexandria. On September 17, 642, Theodore left Egypt and set sail for Cyprus with the last Roman troops. Then on September 29, the 11 months of armistice ended, and 'Amr marched at

2355-731: Is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey . It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Turkish Straits to the northwest, and the Black Sea to the north. The eastern and southeastern limits have been expanded either to the entirety of Asiatic Turkey or to an imprecise line from

2512-581: Is not well understood how the Osmanlı, or Ottoman Turks , came to dominate their neighbours, as the history of medieval Anatolia is still little known. The Ottomans completed the conquest of the peninsula in 1517 with the taking of Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum ) from the Knights of Saint John . With the acceleration of the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, and as a result of

2669-681: Is probably a Medieval Latin innovation. The modern Turkish form Anadolu derives directly from the Greek name Aνατολή ( Anatolḗ ). The Russian male name Anatoly , the French Anatole and plain Anatol , all stemming from saints Anatolius of Laodicea (d. 283) and Anatolius of Constantinople (d. 458; the first Patriarch of Constantinople ), share the same linguistic origin. The oldest known name for any region within Anatolia

2826-418: Is related to its central area, known as the "Land of Hatti " – a designation that was initially used for the land of ancient Hattians , but later became the most common name for the entire territory under the rule of ancient Hittites . The first recorded name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula, though not particularly popular at the time, was Ἀσία ( Asía ), perhaps from an Akkadian expression for

2983-706: The Aeolian , Ionian and Dorian colonies situated along the eastern coasts of the Aegean Sea , but also encompassing eastern regions in general. Such use of Anatolian designations was employed during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian ( r.  284–305 ), who created the Diocese of the East , known in Greek as the Eastern Diocese, but completely unrelated to the regions of Asia Minor. In their widest territorial scope, Anatolian designations were employed during

3140-661: The Anatolian languages , the earliest attested branch of Indo-European, have been spoken in Anatolia since at least the 19th century BCE. The earliest historical data related to Anatolia appear during the Bronze Age and continue throughout the Iron Age . The most ancient period in the history of Anatolia spans from the emergence of ancient Hattians , up to the conquest of Anatolia by the Achaemenid Empire in

3297-973: The Arab invasion of the Levant (634–638). In the 10 years following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks from Central Asia migrated over large areas of Anatolia, with particular concentrations around the northwestern rim. The Turkish language and the Islamic religion were gradually introduced as a result of the Seljuk conquest, and this period marks the start of Anatolia's slow transition from predominantly Christian and Greek-speaking, to predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking (although ethnic groups such as Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians remained numerous and retained Christianity and their native languages). In

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3454-635: The Balkans . The Phrygian expansion into southeast Anatolia was eventually halted by the Assyrians, who controlled that region. Another Indo-European people, the Luwians , rose to prominence in central and western Anatolia c.  2000 BCE. Their language belonged to the same linguistic branch as Hittite . The general consensus amongst scholars is that Luwian was spoken across a large area of western Anatolia, including (possibly) Wilusa ( Troy ),

3611-868: The Black Sea to the Gulf of Alexandretta . Topographically, the Sea of Marmara connects the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles , and separates Anatolia from Thrace in Southeast Europe . During the Neolithic , Anatolia was an early centre for the development of farming after it originated in the adjacent Fertile Crescent . Beginning around 9,000 years ago, there

3768-523: The Black Sea , coterminous with the Anatolian Plateau . This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary . Under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands , and the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia . To the southeast, it is bounded by

3925-760: The Bolsheviks with the forces of the White movement , was Constantine Kromiadi . Caucasus Greeks have generally assimilated well into modern Greek society, being successful within a broad range of trades and professions. They are generally conflated by other Greeks with the Pontic Greeks of Pontus proper, whom many in Greece see as very socially conservative, clan-like, and inward-looking. Otherwise, Caucasus Greeks are often inaccurately described by other Greeks as 'Russo-Pontic [Greeks]' and sometimes even confused with

4082-611: The Coptic prisoners in Babylon . Theodore was angry with Domentianus for his cowardly flight from Nikiu and took Menas' side in their quarrel. Despite being brothers-in-law, Domentianus also disrespected Cyrus and showed him unreasonable hatred. He enlisted the Blues in Alexandria to his side, to which Menas responded by enlisting the Greens. There also came to Alexandria Philiades, prefect of

4239-467: The Eastern Anatolia Region , which largely corresponds to the historical region of Western Armenia (named as such after the division of Greater Armenia between the Roman / Byzantine Empire (Western Armenia) and Sassanid Persia ( Eastern Armenia ) in 387 AD). Vazken Davidian terms the expanded use of "Anatolia" to apply to territory in eastern Turkey that was formerly referred to as Armenia (which had

4396-600: The Eastern Bloc , particularly the USSR and Czechoslovakia , playing down or concealing their community's previous links with the Russian Empire was an essential tactic to ensure a safe, secure, and flourishing life in a communist state and society. One example of a high ranking Caucasus Greek from Kars Oblast who spent much of his life fighting and propagandizing against Soviet communism, after having fought against

4553-457: The Ecthesis and a portion of the True Cross from Patriarch Sergius to Cyrus, and was likely on a direct commission from Emperor Heraclius . Butler described Cyrus as having a "strange anxiety all through the war to hasten the submission of Egypt". He seems to have been present at the siege of Babylon Fortress , where on 22 December 640 he negotiated a treaty with the Arabs involving

4710-768: The Greek and Roman eras. During the 6th century BCE, all of Anatolia was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire , the Persians having usurped the Medes as the dominant dynasty of Persia . In 499 BCE, the Ionian city-states on the west coast of Anatolia rebelled against Persian rule. The Ionian Revolt , as it became known, though quelled, initiated the Greco-Persian Wars , which ended in

4867-650: The Gümüşhane (Greek Argyroupolis ) region of the Pontic Alps are known to have gone to Tsalka in 1763 on being invited by King Heraclius II of Georgia to develop silver and lead mining at Akhtala and Alaverdi (in present-day Armenia). Many of their descendants survive in Georgia’s Marneuli district, although most immigrated to Greece, and particularly Thessaloniki ( Salonika ) in Greek Macedonia in

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5024-665: The Hellenic world . He has been called the greatest ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus. Further annexations by Rome, in particular of the Kingdom of Pontus by Pompey , brought all of Anatolia under Roman control , except for the southeastern frontier with the Parthian Empire , which remained unstable for centuries, causing a series of military conflicts that culminated in the Roman–Parthian Wars (54 BCE – 217 CE). After

5181-481: The Later Roman Empire . Anatolia's wealth grew during the 4th and 5th centuries thanks, in part, to the Pilgrim's Road that ran through the peninsula. Literary evidence about the rural landscape stems from the Christian hagiographies of the 6th-century Nicholas of Sion and 7th-century Theodore of Sykeon . Large and prosperous urban centers of Byzantine Anatolia included Assos , Ephesus , Miletus , Nicaea , Pergamum , Priene , Sardis , and Aphrodisias . From

5338-403: The Paleolithic . Neolithic settlements include Çatalhöyük , Çayönü , Nevali Cori , Aşıklı Höyük , Boncuklu Höyük , Hacilar , Göbekli Tepe , Norşuntepe , Köşk Höyük , and Yumuktepe . Çatalhöyük (7.000 BCE) is considered the most advanced of these. Recent advances in archaeogenetics have confirmed that the spread of agriculture from the Middle East to Europe was strongly correlated with

5495-627: The Pontic Alps and north-eastern Anatolia some led local revolts against the Ottomans, while many others actually intermarried into the Ottoman ruling elite, thereby converting to Islam and joining the Turkish millet. Several Ottoman-era sources tell us, however, that even among Pontic Greeks belonging to local noble families - such as those of Gavras , Doukas and the Komnenoi - who had turned Turk , many remained Crypto-Christian (in north-eastern Anatolia often referred to as Stavriotes ), openly renouncing Islam and taking up arms against Ottoman troops based around Gümüşhane and Erzinjan during

5652-438: The Pontic Alps or Eastern Anatolia , or Georgia and the Lesser Caucasus , they preferred and were most used to living in mountainous areas and especially highland plateaux. In broad terms, it can be said that the Caucasus Greeks' link with the South Caucasus is a direct consequence of the highland plateaux of the latter being seen and used by the Pontic Greeks as a natural refuge and rallying point whenever North-eastern Anatolia

5809-540: The Roman Republic ; western and central Anatolia came under Roman control , but Hellenistic culture remained predominant. Mithridates VI Eupator , ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia, waged war against the Roman Republic in the year 88 BCE in order to halt the advance of Roman hegemony in the Aegean Sea region. Mithridates VI sought to dominate Asia Minor and the Black Sea region, waging several hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful wars (the Mithridatic Wars ) to break Roman dominion over Asia and

5966-455: The Treaty of San Stefano and Treaty of Berlin that brought it to a close led to the Russian Empire making permanent gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire in north-eastern Anatolia. These centred around the fortified city of Kars in historical northern Armenia, which Russia now administered as the Kars Oblast , i.e. the militarily administered province of Kars, which also included the towns and districts of Ardahan and Sarikamish . As in

6123-436: The Vallahades from Greek Macedonia ), were resettled in various parts of Anatolia, mostly in formerly Christian villages throughout Anatolia. A continuous reverse migration occurred since the early 19th century, when Greeks from Anatolia, Constantinople and Pontus area migrated toward the newly independent Kingdom of Greece , and also towards the United States , the southern part of the Russian Empire , Latin America, and

6280-437: The first division of the Roman Empire , Anatolia became part of the Eastern Roman Empire , otherwise known as the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium . In the 1st century CE, Anatolia became one of the first places where Christianity spread , so that by the 4th century CE, western and central Anatolia were overwhelmingly Christian and Greek-speaking. Byzantine Anatolia was one of the wealthiest and most densely populated places in

6437-430: The migration of early farmers from Anatolia about 9,000 years ago, and was not just a cultural exchange. Anatolian Neolithic farmers derived most of their ancestry from local Anatolian hunter-gatherers , suggesting that agriculture was adopted in site by these hunter-gatherers and not spread by demic diffusion into the region. Anatolian derived Neolithic Farmers would subsequently spread across Europe, as far west as

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6594-462: The "sunrise" or possibly echoing the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. The Romans used it as the name of their province , comprising the west of the peninsula plus the nearby Aegean Islands . As the name "Asia" broadened its scope to apply to the vaster region east of the Mediterranean, some Greeks in Late Antiquity came to use the name Asia Minor (Μικρὰ Ἀσία, Mikrà Asía ), meaning "Lesser Asia" to refer to present-day Anatolia, whereas

6751-411: The 1828-29 war, many Greeks of north-eastern Anatolia and Pontus fought in or collaborated with the Imperial Russian Army in the 1877-78 war against the Ottomans, often serving as soldiers and officers in an army that included large numbers of Georgians, Armenians, Ossetians and Cossack, as well as Russians proper - the Georgians and Armenians in particular being represented among the senior ranks. Although

6908-447: The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey . Of the remainder, most have left Turkey since then, leaving fewer than 5,000 Greeks in Anatolia today. According to Morris and Ze'evi, 4 million christians were ethnically cleansed from Asia minor by the Turks from 1894 to 1924. Anatolia's terrain is structurally complex. A central massif composed of uplifted blocks and downfolded troughs , covered by recent deposits and giving

7065-462: The 6th century BCE. The earliest historically attested populations of Anatolia were the Hattians in central Anatolia, and Hurrians further to the east. The Hattians were an indigenous people, whose main center was the city of Hattush . Affiliation of Hattian language remains unclear, while Hurrian language belongs to a distinctive family of Hurro-Urartian languages . All of those languages are extinct; relationships with indigenous languages of

7222-436: The Arabs, but also gave him reinforcements and a new general named Constantine to replace John. After Theodore and Cyrus' left for Egypt with reinforcements, Martina was deposed by Valentine , who sent envoys to Rhodes with a message to Cyrus' troops, telling them to return to Constantinople and not to side with Cyrus. He also sent a letter to Alexandria telling the defenders not to obey Martina, and to keep fighting. Theodore

7379-428: The Archbishop of Cyprus, Arcadius , who was far more innocent than Cyrus, charged with treason. Cyrus was terrified that he would be summoned to Constantinople for his loss of Egypt and his notorious friendship with Martina and Pyrrhus. Thus, wracked with guilt for losing Egypt, unable to reconcile with the Copts and undo his persecution of them, and with his ambitions shattered, Cyrus fell into depression and, after

7536-850: The Armenian Highlands to the South Caucasus and the Upper Euphrates Valley. Along with the Çoruh , these rivers are the longest in the Eastern Anatolia Region. The English-language name Anatolia derives from the Greek Ἀνατολή ( Anatolḗ ) meaning "the East" and designating (from a Greek point of view) eastern regions in general. The Greek word refers to the direction where the sun rises, coming from ἀνατέλλω anatello '(Ι) rise up', comparable to terms in other languages such as " levant " from Latin levo 'to rise', " orient " from Latin orior 'to arise, to originate', Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ 'east' from זָרַח zaraḥ 'to rise, to shine', Aramaic מִדְנָח midnaḥ from דְּנַח denaḥ 'to rise, to shine'. The use of Anatolian designations has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to

7693-544: The Assyrian colony of Kanesh , use an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. Unlike the Akkadians and Assyrians, whose Anatolian trading posts were peripheral to their core lands in Mesopotamia , the Hittites were centered at Hattusa (modern Boğazkale) in north-central Anatolia by the 17th century BCE. They were speakers of an Indo-European language, the Hittite language , or nesili (the language of Nesa) in Hittite. The Hittites originated from local ancient cultures that grew in Anatolia, in addition to

7850-411: The Babylonians and Scythians briefly appropriating some territory. From the late 8th century BCE, a new wave of Indo-European-speaking raiders entered northern and northeast Anatolia: the Cimmerians and Scythians . The Cimmerians overran Phrygia and the Scythians threatened to do the same to Urartu and Lydia , before both were finally checked by the Assyrians. The north-western coast of Anatolia

8007-401: The Black Sea Russian Riviera. Following the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461 large numbers of Pontic Greeks left the Pontic Alps region as refugees and resettled in parts of the South Caucasus , and particularly Georgia. Even the son of King David of Trebizond 's son George had fled there with his retinue and married a Georgian princess of the Gurieli dynasty. However,

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8164-400: The Bolsheviks. The communist affiliations of most Caucasus Greeks has also been cited to account for why they often play down or even conceal any previous involvement their ancestors may have had in the Tsarist army or administration during the Russian occupation of the Transcaucasus region. For those communist Caucasus Greeks who, following the 1946-49 Greek Civil War , settled as refugees in

8321-527: The Caucasus have been proposed, but are not generally accepted. The region became famous for exporting raw materials. Organized trade between Anatolia and Mesopotamia started to emerge during the period of the Akkadian Empire , and was continued and intensified during the period of the Old Assyrian Empire , between the 21st and the 18th centuries BCE. Assyrian traders were bringing tin and textiles in exchange for copper, silver or gold. Cuneiform records, dated c.  20th century BCE , found in Anatolia at

8478-403: The Caucasus Greeks of Kars Oblast who had not sided with the Bolsheviks subsequently left for Greece in 1919, before the province was officially re-incorporated into the territory of the new Turkish Republic and the large-scale Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1922-23. Most were resettled in Kilkis province and other parts of central and eastern Greek Macedonia , particularly in villages of

8635-429: The Caucasus Greeks who came shortly after 1919 that other Greeks often accuse of among other things being involved in organised crime in northern Greece and the wider Balkans and creating a kind of parallel, underground society. The Caucasus Greeks and Pontic Greeks in general who settled in northern Greece between 1919 and 1923 have, on the other hand, had a lot more time to assimilate into contemporary Greek society than

8792-887: The Caucasus generally became assimilated into the indigenous population, particularly in Georgia, where Byzantine Greeks shared a common Christian Orthodox faith and heritage with the natives. The vast majority of these Greek communities date from the late Ottoman era, and are usually defined in modern Greek academic circles as 'Eastern Pontic [Greeks]' (modern Greek - ανατολικοί Πόντιοι , modern Turkish ' doğu Pontos Rum '), as well as 'Caucasus Greeks', while outside academic discourse they are sometimes defined somewhat pejoratively and inaccurately as 'Russo-Pontic [Greeks]' (modern Greek - Ρωσο-Πόντιοι ). Nevertheless, in general terms Caucasus Greeks can be described as Russianized and pro-Russian empire Pontic Greeks in politics and culture and as Mountain Greeks in terms of lifestyle, since wherever they settled, whether in their original homelands in

8949-472: The Copts. He had apparently hoped that, by co-operating with the Muslims, they would allow him to run Egypt independently of Constantinople. Furthermore, he heard constant bad news from Constantinople: His allies Patriarch Pyrrhus , Martina and her sons had been deposed and banished. Valentine had attempted a second revolt, which failed, so to prove his loyalty to the Emperor Constans II he struck at anyone who could be in favour of Martina and Pyrrhus. He had

9106-399: The Egyptians, annexing much Hittite (and Hurrian) territory in these regions. After 1180 BCE, during the Late Bronze Age collapse , the Hittite Empire disintegrated into several independent Syro-Hittite states , subsequent to losing much territory to the Middle Assyrian Empire and being finally overrun by the Phrygians , another Indo-European people who are believed to have migrated from

9263-478: The German occupation. Many in Greece argue that the strong communist affiliations of Greek Macedonia's Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks, most of whom even today continue to support the Greek Communist Party KKE , has never had anything to do with ideology but was actually due to residual pro-Russian sentiment and traditional family expectations, despite the fact that many had grandparents who had not remained in Russian territory precisely because they had not sided with

9420-541: The Greek Orthodox Russian settlers of the Kars Oblast through worshiping in each other's churches as well as marrying partners of Russian Caucasus origin. These links were closer than those with either non-Orthodox Armenians or Orthodox Georgians, primarily because most of the former were not in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople while many of the latter were becoming increasingly attracted to Georgian nationalism. However, contacts and intermarriage between Caucasus Greeks and Armenians who were members of

9577-444: The Greek Orthodox church was fairly common, and to a lesser extent also existed between Caucasus Greeks and other Greek Orthodox communities of the South Caucasus, such as Georgians or Ossetians . Since many of the Turkish, Kurdish, and Indigenous Laz-speaking Muslims from the Kars region had fled westwards into Ottoman territory during and after the 1877-78 war, many other non-Orthodox Christian communities were also resettled there by

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9734-400: The Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles, as well as to the Maghreb . Most modern Europeans derive a significant part of their ancestry from these Neolithic Anatolian farmers. Neolithic Anatolia has been proposed as the homeland of the Indo-European language family , although linguists tend to favour a later origin in the steppes north of the Black Sea. However, it is clear that

9891-448: The Kars Oblast because of their use of Russian and worship alongside Russians in the same Orthodox churches as well as their generally Russianized and pro-Russian empire outlook. In fact, one quite popular but stereotyped way local 'Turks' might differentiate Caucasus Greeks from other Pontic Greeks was by stating that the former were "Greeks who had taken the Borshch [soup] from the Russians"! The Caucasus Greeks had close social links with

10048-399: The Kars Oblast, despite none of these communities having any significant historic or cultural links with the Transcaucasus and Eastern Anatolia , in contrast to the long-standing links Pontic Greeks had always had with the region. During World War I most able-bodied Caucasus Greek men again fought for Russia against the Ottoman Empire, usually serving in the Russian Caucasus Army , which

10205-575: The Lord, expressed his willingness to shed his blood for the name of Christ. When Cyrus saw him, he ordered the soldiers to beat him mercilessly until his blood flowed abundantly. Cyrus questioned Samuel, saying, "Samuel, you wicked ascetic, who appointed you as the abbot of the monastery and instructed you to teach the monks to curse me and my faith?" The holy Abba Samuel responded, "It is better to obey God and His holy Archbishop Benjamin than to obey you and your devilish doctrine, O son of Satan, Antichrist, Beguiler." Enraged by Samuel's words, Cyrus commanded

10362-404: The Muslim Laz of the eastern Pontic Alps. Cyrus of Alexandria Cyrus of Alexandria ( Arabic : المقوقس al-Muqawqis , Greek : Κῦρος Ἀλεξανδρείας ; 6th century - 21 March 642) was a prominent figure in the 7th century. He served as a Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and held the position of the second-last Byzantine prefect of Egypt . Notably, he played a significant role in

10519-453: The Muslim Turks on the back of the Russian Empire. Like Georgians, Armenians, and other peoples from the South Caucasus, many Caucasus Greek men fought and lost their lives through service in the Russian army not just in wars against the Ottomans, but also in other campaigns, such as the 1817-1864 Caucasian War , in which Russia sought to impose its rule over the Muslim mountain tribes of the north Caucasus . The 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War and

10676-408: The Muslims captured both Babylon and Nikiu . They had also begun their Siege of Alexandria . When Theodore returned to Alexandria, he dismissed Domentianus as the military commander of the garrison and exiled him from the city, replacing him with Menas, who was a non-Chalcedonian Copt and popular with the army. Menas held a grudge against Domentianus' brother Eudocianus for Eudocianus' torture of

10833-404: The Ottoman conquest of 1461, many, if not most Pontic Greeks retreated up into the highlands, where it was easier to maintain their culture and freedom from the encroachments of the Ottoman authorities. This movement was reinforced in the early 1600s by the growing power along the coastal valleys districts of the derebeys ('valley lords'), which further encouraged Pontic Greeks to retreat away from

10990-399: The Ottoman province or 'vilayet' of Kars already had several Greek villages dating back to 1830 or sometimes even earlier, most of these later pro-Russian Greeks of north-eastern Ottoman Anatolia settled in Kars province after it was incorporated into the Russian empire in 1878. It was precisely because most of the Greek settlers in the Kars Oblast had entered the region with the Russians from

11147-459: The Russian Caucasus well before the Russo-Turkish wars, most notably those belonging to noble and landowning families from the pre-Ottoman Empire of Trebizond . These included several members of the late Byzantine Komnenos or Comnenid dynasty and collateral branches, who often married into princely families from neighbouring Georgia, including those of the Bagrationi and especially the Gurieli and Andronikashvili . Among those who remained in

11304-546: The Russian Imperial government in Ukraine and other parts of southern Russia, but also especially Georgia and (after 1878) Kars Oblast. Like those Pontic Greeks who fought for Russia in the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish war, most male Greeks who settled in Russian territory following the 1828-29 war continued to serve in the Russian Imperial army, often bearing their own community's hopes to re-capture more Christian Greek territory from

11461-580: The Russian administration. These included Russian religious minorities considered "heretical" by the Russian Orthodox Church, such as Dukhobors and Molokans , who as pacifists did not perform Russian military service and so unlike the Caucasus Greeks, Georgians, and Armenians did not play a significant role in the wars against the Ottomans. Even smaller numbers of Caucasus Germans , Estonians , Poles , and Lithuanians , were settled in

11618-592: The Russo-Turkish wars, before following the Russian army back into Georgia and southern Russia. It was some of these Pontic Greek community leaders that claimed noble lineages extending back to the Empire of Trebizond who subsequently became officers in the Russian Imperial army, as many Armenian and Georgian princes such as Ivane Andronikashvili had previously done. These Caucasus Greek officers, whether of noble Byzantine or more humble Pontic Greek origin, played

11775-584: The Seha River Land (to be identified with the Hermos and/or Kaikos valley), and the kingdom of Mira-Kuwaliya with its core territory of the Maeander valley. From the 9th century BCE, Luwian regions coalesced into a number of states such as Lydia , Caria , and Lycia , all of which had Hellenic influence. Arameans encroached over the borders of south-central Anatolia in the century or so after

11932-586: The South Caucasus following Lala Mustafa Pasha's Caucasian campaign of the 1570s were actually Pontic Greeks from northeastern Anatolia who had adopted Islam and the Turkish language for official purposes but continued to use Pontic Greek in their daily lives, with one prominent example of an Ottoman Muslim Georgian of Pontic Greek origin being Resid Mehmed Pasha . These Greek Muslims who adhered to Islam in Georgia also either eventually assimilated with

12089-490: The South Caucasus region in the Hellenistic or Classical Greek period, although they generally did merge with those somewhat smaller Pontic Greek communities who had settled in Georgia, Armenia, and the South Caucasus in general in the late Byzantine and early Ottoman period. The main reason Caucasus Greeks preferred to identify themselves exclusively with the later, particularly 19th century waves of Pontic Greek refugees to

12246-530: The South Caucasus. However, the largest number of Pontic Greeks from north-eastern Anatolia who settled in Georgia, according to extant historical evidence, were those who fled Ottoman reprisals following the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish war, the Greek War of Independence , the 1828-29 Russo-Turkish War , and the war of 1853-56, which unlike earlier such movements are more widely attested in documentary evidence and traditionally cited by many Pontic Greeks themselves. In

12403-538: The South Caucssus rather than also with ancestors who had already settled in the region in the late Byzantine or early Ottoman period is probably because this helped in the presentation of their history as being linked for a longer period to the territories ruled by the Empire of Trebizond , that is Pontus proper, and also helped minimize the historically inconvenient evidence of both substantial non-Greek influences on their culture and extensive intermarriage with

12560-848: The Turkish Aegean and parts of Anatolia. Those Caucasus Greeks who had remained in north-eastern Anatolia, like the many other Pontic Greeks who had also converted to Islam and adopted the Turkish language, subsequently became assimilated into the wider Turkish-Muslim population of the provinces of Trabzon, Sivas, Erzurum, Erzinjan, Kars, and Ardahan. However, after 1917 many Caucasus Greeks from Kars Oblast, and in particular those who had close Russian family links through intermarriage, also resettled in parts of Southern Russia that already had pre-existing communities of Pontic Greeks descended from earlier waves of refugees from northeastern Anatolia. These Greeks were based mainly in Stavropol Krai , in

12717-421: The Turkish for '[Byzantine] Romans') and spoke a Turkish dialect with a large admixture of Pontic Greek, Georgian, and Armenian vocabulary. According to local Greek legend, after the suppression of their revolt against Ottoman rule, these Turkish-speaking but Christian Orthodox Caucasus Greeks had been given the choice by Sultan Selim I either to accept Islam but continue to use their Greek mother tongue, or to use

12874-714: The Turkish language but retain their Christian Orthodox faith. Selim I had been based in the Trebizond region before he became Sultan in 1512, since he was himself of partly Pontic Greek origin on the side of his mother Gülbahar Hatun . Nevertheless, most Caucasus Greeks had never had to face this predicament of having to choose between their Christian Orthodox faith and their Pontic Greek language and so were able to retain both, although when in Russian territory they eventually came to adopt Russian as their second language for public and educational purposes. Caucasus Greeks also often maintained some command of Turkish as more or less

13031-616: The Turkish-speaking Muslim population of southern Georgia usually defined as Meskhetian Turks , returned to parts of eastern Anatolia such as Kars following the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1801, or reverted to their Greek Orthodoxy following the annexation and reintegrated into the Greek Orthodox population of the country. Finally, according to available historical evidence we know that thousands of Pontic Greeks from Ottoman north-eastern Anatolia and especially

13188-653: The administration of the Empire preferred the description Ἀνατολή ( Anatolḗ ; lit.   ' the East ' ). The endonym Ῥωμανία ( Rōmanía "the land of the Romans, i.e. the Eastern Roman Empire") was understood as another name for the province by the invading Seljuq Turks , who founded a Sultanate of Rûm in 1077. Thus (land of the) Rûm became another name for Anatolia. By the 12th century Europeans had started referring to Anatolia as Turchia . During

13345-649: The agricultural and mining sectors. In particular, many pursued careers as regular soldiers and officers in the Russian Imperial Army, in the regional police force, as clergymen, or even within the provincial Russian administration. Unlike the Pontic Greeks of the Black Sea coastal cities like Trebizond , however, very few Caucasus Greeks were involved in trade. Caucasus Greeks were often multilingual, able to speak, read, and write Greek and Russian and speak Eastern Anatolian Turkish, and sometimes also basic Georgian and Armenian. Although their native language

13502-572: The appearance of a plateau with rough terrain, is wedged between two folded mountain ranges that converge in the east. True lowland is confined to a few narrow coastal strips along the Aegean, Mediterranean, and the Black Sea coasts. Flat or gently sloping land is rare and largely confined to the deltas of the Kızıl River , the coastal plains of Çukurova and the valley floors of the Gediz River and

13659-648: The arrival of Indo-European languages. Attested for the first time in the Assyrian tablets of Nesa around 2000 BCE, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BCE, imposing themselves over Hattian- and Hurrian-speaking populations. According to the widely accepted Kurgan theory on the Proto-Indo-European homeland , however, the Hittites (along with the other Indo-European ancient Anatolians ) were themselves relatively recent immigrants to Anatolia from

13816-465: The bulk of the area of modern-day Turkey. Nonetheless, a variety of non- Turkic languages continue to be spoken by ethnic minorities in Anatolia today, including Arabic , Kurdish , Neo-Aramaic , Armenian , the North Caucasian languages , Laz , Georgian , and Greek. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to an indefinite line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to

13973-538: The cession of the area back to the Ottoman Empire in 1917, but before the official population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1922-23. They mainly settled in villages in Greek Macedonia previously inhabited by Ottoman Muslims, and again generally preferred those situated on grassy plateaux or mountain districts, since these most closely resembled their former home in the South Caucasus. However, like many other Greeks of Pontus and north-eastern Anatolia, significant numbers of Caucasus Greeks who wanted to remain in what

14130-521: The change did not endure There was an expectation that Pope Honorius I would be persuaded to adopt the monothelete stance. In 636, Cyrus attended another synod in Cyprus under Arkadios II , where he served as a moderator. He allowed opponents of Monothelitism to present their case to the Emperor. After receiving the Emperor's Monothelite response, known as the Ecthesis , Cyrus signed it in 637. However,

14287-471: The coast deeper into the highlands and up onto the eastern Anatolian plateau, before some moved further east into the neighbouring Lesser Caucasus around Kars and southern Georgia. Modern historians also suggests that a major migratory movement of Pontic Greeks onto the eastern Anatolian plateau and the Lesser Caucasus occurred in the reign of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648–87), during which a common pattern

14444-462: The coasts of Anatolia. Greeks started Western philosophy on the western coast of Anatolia ( Pre-Socratic philosophy ). In Classical antiquity , Anatolia was described by the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus and later historians as divided into regions that were diverse in culture, language, and religious practices. The northern regions included Bithynia , Paphlagonia , and Pontus ; to

14601-525: The control of the Mongols, at least nominally, through declining Seljuk sultans. The Beyliks did not mint coins in the names of their own leaders while they remained under the suzerainty of the Mongol Ilkhanids . The Osmanli ruler Osman I was the first Turkish ruler who minted coins in his own name in 1320s; they bear the legend "Minted by Osman son of Ertugrul". Since the minting of coins

14758-617: The death of Alexander the Great and the subsequent breakup of the Macedonian Empire , Anatolia was ruled by a series of Hellenistic kingdoms, such as the Attalids of Pergamum and the Seleucids , the latter controlling most of Anatolia. A period of peaceful Hellenization followed, such that the local Anatolian languages had been supplanted by Greek by the 1st century BCE. In 133 BCE the last Attalid king bequeathed his kingdom to

14915-596: The decline of the Ilkhanate from 1335 to 1353, the Mongol Empire 's legacy in the region was the Uyghur Eretna Dynasty that was overthrown by Kadi Burhan al-Din in 1381. By the end of the 14th century, most of Anatolia was controlled by various Anatolian beyliks . Smyrna fell in 1330, and the last Byzantine stronghold in Anatolia, Philadelphia, fell in 1390. The Turkmen Beyliks were under

15072-601: The deep valleys and jagged mountain peaks of the High Caucasus range in northern Georgia. In terms of population, the areas in both Georgia and Kars province inhabited by the Caucasus Greeks tended to be those that also had large concentrations of Armenian populations - one well-known product of this Greek-Armenian mix being the famous mystic and theosophist George Gurdjieff . Another well known, although more recent Caucasus Greek with roots in these areas but born in Tbilisi

15229-609: The defeat of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia. The empire reached its height in the 13th century BCE, controlling much of Asia Minor, northwestern Syria , and northwest upper Mesopotamia. However, the Hittite advance toward the Black Sea coast was halted by the semi-nomadic pastoralist and tribal Kaskians , a non-Indo-European people who had earlier displaced the Palaic-speaking Indo-Europeans. Much of

15386-592: The development of monothelitism . Cyrus died in Alexandria on March 21, 642. Cyrus was born in the late 6th century . He had a sister, who married Domentianus the governor of Faiyum , and according to some legends a daughter named Armenousa. In 620, he assumed the position of Bishop of Phasis in Colchis . In 626, during the Persian campaign led by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius , he

15543-512: The direction of Georgia, that contemporaries - and academics later on - came to define them as Caucasus Greeks or Russianized Pontic Greeks , in contrast to those Greeks who had never left Ottoman-ruled North-eastern Anatolia. Even in Russian occupied Georgia, however, these Greeks had generally lived in the southern areas of the country which - like the Kars-Ardahan region - were part of the Lesser Caucasus highland plateau, rather than among

15700-631: The early 20th century (see the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire ). During World War I, the Armenian genocide , the Greek genocide (especially in Pontus ), and the Assyrian genocide almost entirely removed the ancient indigenous communities of Armenian , Greek , and Assyrian populations in Anatolia and surrounding regions. Following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 , most remaining ethnic Anatolian Greeks were forced out during

15857-526: The era of classical antiquity (see Classical Anatolia ), the Anatolian languages were largely replaced by the Greek language , which came to further dominate the region during the Hellenistic period and the Roman period . The Byzantine period saw the decline of Greek influence throughout the peninsula as the Byzantine–Seljuk wars enabled the incoming Seljuk Turks to establish a foothold in

16014-639: The era of the Ottoman Empire , many mapmakers referred to the mountainous plateau in eastern Anatolia as Armenia . Other contemporary sources called the same area Kurdistan . Geographers have used East Anatolian plateau , Armenian plateau and the Iranian plateau to refer to the region; the former two largely overlap. While a standard definition of Anatolia refers to the entire Asian side of Turkey, according to archaeologist Lori Khatchadourian, this difference in terminology "primarily result[s] from

16171-695: The expansionist policies of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus , many Muslim nations and groups in that region, mainly Circassians , Tatars , Azeris , Lezgis , Chechens and several Turkic groups left their homelands and settled in Anatolia. As the Ottoman Empire further shrank in the Balkan regions and then fragmented during the Balkan Wars , much of the non-Christian populations of its former possessions, mainly Balkan Muslims ( Bosniaks , Albanians , Turks , Muslim Bulgarians and Greek Muslims such as

16328-727: The fall of the Hittite empire, and some of the Syro-Hittite states in this region became an amalgam of Hittites and Arameans. These became known as Syro-Hittite states . From the 10th to late 7th centuries BCE, much of Anatolia (particularly the southeastern regions) fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire , including all of the Syro-Hittite states , Tabal , Commagene , the Cimmerians and Scythians , and swathes of Cappadocia . The Neo-Assyrian empire collapsed due to

16485-722: The following century, the Byzantines managed to reassert their control in western and northern Anatolia. Control of Anatolia was then split between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm , with the Byzantine holdings gradually being reduced. In 1255, the Mongols swept through eastern and central Anatolia, and would remain until 1335. The Ilkhanate garrison was stationed near Ankara . After

16642-629: The foothills of the North Caucasus , where they still make up a significant element of the population (often up to 10%) in both urban and rural areas. They became fully assimilated into modern Russian life and society, although following the dissolution of the Soviet Union they substantially increased their links with Greece - and particularly with northern Greece - through work, trade, or study in their "mother" country and through taking up Greek nationality alongside their Russian one. Most of

16799-673: The head of his Arab army into Alexandria, thus marking the end of Roman Egypt after 671 years. Cyrus communicated with Sergius through three letters, known as the "Satisfactio," which have been preserved in the acts of the Roman Synod of the Lateran and the Sixth Ecumenical Council ( Mansi , X, 1004; XI, 560, 562, 964). In the first letter, Cyrus expressed his acceptance of the Ecthesis . The second letter described his dilemma between Pope Leo and Sergius, while

16956-719: The history of the Hittite Empire concerned war with the rival empires of Egypt , Assyria and the Mitanni . The Ancient Egyptians eventually withdrew from the region after failing to gain the upper hand over the Hittites and becoming wary of the power of Assyria, which had destroyed the Mitanni Empire. The Assyrians and Hittites were then left to battle over control of eastern and southern Anatolia and colonial territories in Syria . The Assyrians had better success than

17113-467: The indigenous, non-Hellenic races of the South Caucasus region. According to conservative estimates these eastern Pontic Greeks who collaborated with and/or followed the Russian army into Georgia and southern Russia following the 1828 Russian occupation of Erzurum and Gümüşhane had made up around 20% of the entire Greek population of the eastern Black Sea coastline and the Pontic Alps that formed its mountain hinterland. They were subsequently resettled by

17270-505: The invasion. Cyrus was in favour of surrendering to the Muslims, whereas Theodore wanted to continue fighting them and hoped the Emperor would send reinforcements to Egypt. Constantine had been preparing a fleet to send to Egypt, but died on May 25 after a reign of just 100 days. With Heraclonas as sole emperor, Martina gained complete control over the government. She had Heraclonas give Cyrus express permission to make peace at any price with

17427-460: The latter to the northern part of the Mesopotamian plain. According to Richard Hovannisian , this changing of toponyms was "necessary to obscure all evidence" of the Armenian presence as part of the policy of Armenian genocide denial embarked upon by the newly established Turkish government and what Hovannisian calls its "foreign collaborators". Human habitation in Anatolia dates back to

17584-413: The many ethnic Greeks who came from Georgia and southern Russia in the mid-90s, particularly since they often live in the same parts of Thessaloniki, share a similar Pontic Greek dialect, and tend to have surnames ending in '-dis' (from the Ancient Greek for 'the sons of ... '). However, it is generally the ethnic Greeks who came to Greek Macedonia from Georgia and southern Russia in the mid-1990s rather than

17741-417: The mid-1990s. It is difficult to verify the numbers of all such waves of Pontic Greeks from the Pontic Alps region to Georgia and the South Caucasus between circa 1520 and 1800, which according to Anthony Bryer is the most obscure period in the history of Pontus and the Pontic Greeks, owing to the scarcity of contemporary Greek and Ottoman Turkish sources on the subject. Modern historians suggest that following

17898-586: The mid-5th century onwards, urbanism was affected negatively and began to decline, while the rural areas reached unprecedented levels of prosperity in the region. Historians and scholars continue to debate the cause of the urban decline in Byzantine Anatolia between the 6th and 7th centuries, variously attributing it to the Plague of Justinian (541), the Byzantine–Sasanian War (602–628), and

18055-518: The middle Ottoman period. Of course, while many Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks had also adopted Islam as early as the 1500s or before, these "new Turks" generally either adopted Turkish and then assimilated into the Turkish-speaking Muslim Ottoman population or they remained Crypto-Christian and then openly reverted to their Christian Orthodoxy on the occasion of the 1828 Russian occupation of northeastern Anatolia or after

18212-740: The monothelete compromise ultimately proved ineffective. It was condemned at the Lateran Council of 649 and soon lost credibility, earning the derogatory name "enôsis hydrobaphès" or "washy union" in Medieval Greek . For a period of ten years, Cyrus harshly persecuted the Egyptians, attempting to forcefully convert them to his faith. However, the majority of the Egyptian people did not recognize him as their patriarch. Instead, they acknowledged Pope Benjamin I , who went into hiding and

18369-419: The more recent arrivals from Georgia and southern Russia, and as a consequence have a far better command of standard Modern Greek and awareness of mainstream Greek culture. The Caucasus Greeks and Pontic Greeks of Greek Macedonia have still managed to preserve some of their unique traditions and have also established many cultural and civil society organisations. The aspect of Pontic Greek culture most apparent to

18526-453: The mountainous Drama prefecture that until 1922 had been inhabited largely by "Turks" (in this case Ottoman Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin). During the German occupation of Greece (1940–44) and Greek Civil War of 1943-49 most Caucasus Greek men fought for ELAS , the military wing of EAM , the leading Greek communist guerrilla organisation that fought against

18683-475: The north. However, they did not necessarily displace the population genetically; they assimilated into the former peoples' culture, preserving the Hittite language. The Hittites adopted the Mesopotamian cuneiform script . In the Late Bronze Age, Hittite New Kingdom ( c.  1650 BCE ) was founded, becoming an empire in the 14th century BCE after the conquest of Kizzuwatna in the south-east and

18840-693: The northwest, the Galatian variant of Gaulish in Galatia until the 6th century CE, Cappadocian in the homonymous region, Armenian in the east, and Kartvelian languages in the northeast. Anatolia is known as the birthplace of minted coinage (as opposed to unminted coinage, which first appears in Mesopotamia at a much earlier date) as a medium of exchange, some time in the 7th century BCE in Lydia. The use of minted coins continued to flourish during

18997-578: The numbers of these early Pontic Greek refugees to Georgia were in any case probably fairly small, and so although some of the refugees managed to retain their Pontic Greek language and identity, others assimilated through intermarriage into the other Christian communities of the South Caucasus region, particularly their fellow Christian Orthodox Georgians but also those Armenians or Ossetians who were Orthodox. To complicate matters further, many so-called "Ottoman Turks" who settled in Georgia and

19154-694: The only remaining part of the Byzantine East , and thus commonly referred to (in Greek) as the Eastern part of the Empire. At the same time, the Anatolic Theme ( Ἀνατολικὸν θέμα / "the Eastern theme") was created, as a province ( theme ) covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolia Region , centered around Iconium , but ruled from the city of Amorium . The Latinized form " Anatolia ", with its -ia ending,

19311-405: The outside observer is their traditional food, costume, music, and dance, with those of the Caucasus Greeks reflecting heavier Russian, Georgian, and Armenian influences. For example, the traditional costume of Caucasus Greek women resembles that of southern Russian women, while the men's costume is light grey, in contrast to the black attire worn by Greek men from Pontus proper, which they share with

19468-557: The passing of the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856 . It should be stressed, then, that the vast majority of these eastern Pontic Greeks who had settled in southern Russia, Georgia, and the Trans-Caucasus region but preserved their distinct Greek identity were mainly the descendants of the Greeks who left the Pontic Alps and the northeast Anatolian highland region after the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768-74 and 1828–29. Contrary to certain popular myths, these Pontic Greek settlers therefore had absolutely nothing to do with those Greeks who had settled in

19625-429: The plot was uncovered by Eudocianus, the brother of Domentianus, who was a general in the Muslim conquest of Egypt . The conspirators were summarily executed without trial. During the period when Umar 's general, 'Amr ibn al-'As , also known as Amru to the Romans , posed a threat to the Prefecture of Egypt , Cyrus was both the governor of Egypt and the government-appointed Patriarch of Alexandria , and Theodore

19782-425: The province of Faiyum and brother of Patriarch George I of Alexandria . Philiades was Menas' friend, but unlike Menas he was corrupt and unpopular, so much so that he was nearly lynched . Since Theodore and Cyrus' arrival in Egypt was on September 14, 641, the Feast of the Cross , a great procession was organised from their landing place to Alexandria. Their entire path was covered in carpets, hymns were sung, and

19939-437: The ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria and the Mesopotamian plain. Following the Armenian genocide , Western Armenia was renamed the Eastern Anatolia Region by the newly established Turkish government. In 1941, with the First Geography Congress which divided Turkey into seven geographical regions based on differences in climate and landscape, the eastern provinces of Turkey were placed into

20096-458: The region, most of whom used Turkish as a lingua franca or even adopted it as their first language irrespective of actual ethnic origin. This situation is in stark contrast to that of the Greek Muslims of western Greek Macedonia called Vallahades and the Cretan Muslims , both of whom generally remained ignorant of Turkish, continued to use Greek as their first language, and retained Greek culture and traditions long after converting to Islam in

20253-402: The region. Thus, the process of Anatolia's Turkification began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century and continued under the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century, when the Ottoman dynasty collapsed in the aftermath of World War I . Between 1894 and 1924, millions of non- Turkic peoples and Christians were suppressed and removed by the Ottoman Turkish authorities from

20410-405: The reign of Roman Emperor Constantine I (306–337), who created the Praetorian prefecture of the East , known in Greek as the Eastern Prefecture, encompassing all eastern regions of the Late Roman Empire and spanning from Thrace to Egypt . Only after the loss of other eastern regions during the 7th century and the reduction of Byzantine eastern domains to Asia Minor, that region became

20567-428: The rest of Europe. Following the Russo-Persian Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828) and the incorporation of Eastern Armenia into the Russian Empire, another migration involved the large Armenian population of Anatolia, which recorded significant migration rates from Western Armenia (Eastern Anatolia) toward the Russian Empire, especially toward its newly established Armenian provinces. Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until

20724-426: The revered text of Dionysius and introducing alterations. They also refuted his claim of support from the Church Fathers and explained that while the divine and human natures of Christ are referred to as one because they belong to the same person and work in harmony, they cannot be physically identified, as they have distinct origins. Historians hold differing opinions on how Cyrus adopted these views. Some believe he had

20881-402: The riot down. The first installment of tribute was paid on 10 December 641, sealing the surrender of Alexandria. After the siege was over, Cyrus negotiated with 'Amr to allow the Egyptians who had taken refuge in Alexandria during the war to return to their lands, but he apparently did not allow them to do so. Cyrus took the refusal deeply to heart, as it ruined his policy of gaining favour with

21038-399: The shifting political fortunes and cultural trajectories of the region since the nineteenth century". Turkey's First Geography Congress in 1941 created two geographical regions of Turkey to the east of the Gulf of Iskenderun-Black Sea line, the Eastern Anatolia Region and the Southeastern Anatolia Region , the former largely corresponding to the western part of the Armenian Highlands,

21195-583: The soldiers to strike him dead, but the ruler of Faiyum intervened and saved him from their hands. As a result, Cyrus ordered Samuel to be banished from the Nitrian Desert . Cyrus appointed Chalcedonian bishops to govern every Egyptian city up to Ansena , and Coptic priests were put to death whenever discovered. Despite the absence of priests, the Coptic people continued to hold secret gatherings. One priest, Agathon , risked his life each night to administer communion in Alexandria. Later, he succeeded Benjamin as Pope. Some Copts made an attempt on Cyrus's life, but

21352-416: The southeast, while Galatian , a Celtic language , was spoken throughout Galatia in the central peninsula. Among the other peoples who established a significant presence in ancient Anatolia were the Galatians , the Hurrians , the Assyrians , the Armenians , the Hattians , and the Cimmerians , as well as some of the ancient Greek tribes , including the Ionians , the Dorians , and the Aeolians . In

21509-449: The surrender of the Thebaid . This treaty would have had to be ratified by the Emperor Heraclius , but Cyrus stipulated that even if the emperor repudiated the treaty, he and the Egyptians, would honour its terms. He then sent a letter to Heraclius, asking him to ratify the treaty and telling him that the Arabs were invincible and it was necessary. Heraclius was furious and sent Cyrus a letter full of insults, calling him an abject coward and

21666-461: The teachings of the Church Fathers or the decisions made at the Council of Chalcedon. Cyrus was subsequently appointed by Heraclius as the Bishop of Alexandria in 630, in opposition to the Miaphysite Patriarch of Alexandria , with the intention of implementing this plan. Cyrus, once patriarch, made persistent efforts to reconcile the Miaphysites and Chalcedonians by promoting monenergism, which eventually developed into monothelitism —a belief in

21823-523: The third letter narrated the conversion of the Theodosians. One of the articles in the "Satisfactio," specifically the seventh article, states: "The one and same Christ, the Son, performs the works proper to God and to man by one theandric operation according to St. Dionysius." Cyrus faced opposition from St. Sophronius , who died in 638 (Epistola synodica, Mansi, XI, 480), and St. Maximus , who died in 662 ( Epistola ad Nicandrum; disputatio cum Pyrrho , P.G., XCI, 101, 345). They accused him of tempering with

21980-447: The war of 1828-29 many north-eastern Anatolia Greeks welcomed, collaborated with, or fought in the Russian Army that occupied Erzurum , Gümüşhane , Erzinjan , and Kars (all now in north-eastern Turkey). Most of their descendants settled in Georgia (in areas such as Tsalka and Samtskhe-Javakheti ), the Russian Trans-Caucasus, and other parts of southern Russia. A smaller number of such Pontic Greeks had of course settled in Georgia and

22137-417: The west were Mysia , Lydia , and Caria; and Lycia , Pamphylia , and Cilicia belonged to the southern shore. There were also several inland regions: Phrygia , Cappadocia , Pisidia , and Galatia . Languages spoken included the late surviving Anatolic languages , Isaurian , and Pisidian , Greek in western and coastal regions, Phrygian spoken until the 7th century CE, local variants of Thracian in

22294-456: Was Yanis Kanidis , a Russian PE instructor and hero of the Beslan school hostage crisis in North Ossetia . These same areas now in Georgia also had various pockets of Muslims of Turkish and non-Turkish (convert) ethnic origin - though the latter had generally become Turkish in speech and culture. The Caucasus Greeks of the Kars Oblast were mainly concentrated in around 77 towns and villages as part of official Russian government policy to people

22451-470: Was Greek, generally only the most highly educated - such as scholars, lawyers, members of the Orthodox clergy educated in Russian universities, and other community leaders claiming noble or royal lineage extending back to the Empire of Trebizond - had more than an intermediate-level knowledge of formal Demotic Greek and the more classicizing Katharevousa of the late Byzantine period. The majority were restricted to their own variant of Pontic Greek, which had

22608-634: Was a major migration of Anatolian Neolithic Farmers into Europe , with their descendants coming to dominate the continent as far west as the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles . The earliest recorded inhabitants of Anatolia , who were neither Indo-European nor Semitic , were gradually absorbed by the incoming Indo-European Anatolian peoples , who spoke the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The major Anatolian languages included Hittite , Luwian , and Lydian ; other local languages, albeit poorly attested, included Phrygian and Mysian . The Hurro-Urartian languages were spoken throughout Mitanni in

22765-403: Was a prerogative accorded in Islamic practice only to a sovereign , it can be considered that the Osmanli, or Ottoman Turks, had become formally independent from the Mongol Khans. Among the Turkish leaders, the Ottomans emerged as great power under Osman I and his son Orhan . The Anatolian beyliks were successively absorbed into the rising Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. It

22922-602: Was consulted regarding a plan proposed by Sergius , the Patriarch of Constantinople , aimed at reconciling the Miaphysites of Egypt with the Church and gaining their support for the empire. This plan, known as the monenergist plan, involved accepting the Chalcedonian principle of two natures of Christ while effectively nullifying it by asserting that he possessed only one energy, referred to as hèn thélema kaì mía enérgeia (ἓν θέλημα καὶ μία ἐνέργεια). Cyrus embraced this formula after Sergius assured him that Pope Honorius I in Rome had endorsed it and that it did not contradict

23079-435: Was inhabited by Greeks of the Achaean / Mycenaean culture from the 20th century BCE, related to the Greeks of southeastern Europe and the Aegean . Beginning with the Bronze Age collapse at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, the west coast of Anatolia was settled by Ionian Greeks , usurping the area of the related but earlier Mycenaean Greeks . Over several centuries, numerous Ancient Greek city-states were established on

23236-588: Was initiated in Ottoman history: the Ottomans and their clients the Crimean Tatars suffered a string of severe defeats at the hands of the expansionist Russian Empire and so followed this up with a wave of repression against the Greeks of both the southern Balkans and the Pontic Alps region, on the pretext that Greek statesmen and traders had colluded with the Tsar. As a result, many Pontic Greeks felt pressured into following their cousins who had left Pontus as refugees in previous generations, and so they too decided to migrate to southern Russia or neighbouring Georgia and

23393-419: Was led by a coterie of senior Russian, Georgian, and Armenian officers. In the final stages of the war, a Greek Caucasus Division was even established by bringing together Caucasus Greeks from different regiments of the Russian army in the South Caucasus, and whose primary purpose was to help defend ethnic Greek villages in the Kars, Erzerum, and Erzincan regions. Most Caucasus Greeks left Kars Oblast following

23550-521: Was necessary and telling them to report it to the Emperor Heraclonas , who ratified it in what may had been his last act as Emperor, as he was deposed in November. The local populace was not informed of it until an Arab army approached Alexandria to receive the tribute, and the Byzantine generals told the people not to resist. Realising what had happened, a furious mob attempted to stone Cyrus, but he said to them "I have made this treaty in order to save you and your children" and wept before them, which calmed

23707-514: Was now Turkish territory at any cost chose to convert to Islam and adopt the Turkish language for public purposes so as to be exempted from the population exchange. According to the terms of the population exchange protocol (which was essentially an appendage to the Treaty of Lausanne ) the categories 'Greek' and 'Turk' were defined by religious affiliation rather than ethnicity, resulting in large numbers of Greek Muslims from Macedonia and Crete being categorized as 'Turkish in soul' and so resettled in

23864-453: Was overrun by Muslim Turks in the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Although large numbers of Greeks live in parts of Ukraine and southern Russia, such as Mariupol and Stavropol Krai , the term Caucasus Greeks strictly speaking should be confined to those Greeks who had settled in the former Russian Transcaucasus provinces of Batum and Kars Oblast' , parts of Georgia such as the region around Tsalka , central Abkhazia and other localities of

24021-425: Was pleased to hear this, and without telling Cyrus or anyone but the captain, he secretly attempted to sail from Rhodes to Pentapolis . However, the captain of the ship claimed the wind was contrary to him, and Theodore was stuck with Cyrus. They returned to Alexandria on September 14, 641, the Feast of the Cross . Meanwhile in Egypt, Anastasius had been appointed temporary prefect of Egypt , and during his time

24178-405: Was relentlessly pursued by Cyrus, though without success. In one instance, Cyrus's troops captured Benjamin's brother, Mennas, subjecting him to a brutal torture. According to Severus ibn al-Muqaffa , Mennas was burned with torches until the fat dripped from his sides to the ground. Despite this torment, Mennas remained steadfast, refusing to renounce his faith even when his teeth were pulled out. He

24335-479: Was said to be a bad omen. Cyrus then gave a sermon about the discovery of the True Cross , perhaps encouraging them to resist the siege in the name of the Cross, despite having already decided in himself to forsake the Cross and surrender to the Muslims. Cyrus then went to Babylon to negotiate with 'Amr, and agreed the following treaty: He then returned to Alexandria and reported the terms of this humiliating treaty to Theodore and Constantine, convincing them that it

24492-463: Was the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army in the province. At this time, the governor of Faiyum was Domentianus (who was also married to Cyrus' sister), while Anastasius was the prefect of its province, Arcadia Aegypti , and Theodosius was the prefect of Alexandria . The defence of Arcadia Aegypti was entrusted to a certain John, who Hermann Zotenberg identifies with the John, Duke of Barca or Barcaina mentioned by Nicephorus . He had brought

24649-444: Was then placed in a sack filled with sand, taken by boat a considerable distance from the shore, and thrown into the sea where he drowned. The biographer of Benjamin noted, "Yet it was not they who were victorious over Mennas, that champion of the faith, but Mennas who by Christian patience overcame them." On another occasion, Cyrus summoned Samuel the Confessor , an Egyptian abbot, and had him brought in chains. Samuel, full of joy in

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