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105-448: The Pontic Greeks ( Pontic : Ρωμαίοι, Ρωμιοί ; Turkish : Pontus Rumları or Karadeniz Rumları ; Greek : Πόντιοι , Ελληνοπόντιοι ), also Pontian Greeks or simply Pontians , are an ethnically Greek group indigenous to the region of Pontus , in northeastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). They share a common Pontic Greek culture that is distinguished by its music , dances , cuisine , and clothing . Folk dances, such as

210-603: A Pontic Greek.'" Anton Popov studied Caucasus Greeks in former Soviet territories. Most of the Romeika speakers that Popov interviewed referred to themselves as "Romei." He also mentioned that many Caucasus Greeks only began referring to themselves as Pontians when they went to work in Greece. During Ottoman times, most Pontian Greeks did not see themselves as "Greeks" per se . Neal Acherson, in his book Black Sea , writes, "Who did they think they were, in this pre-nationalist age? In

315-772: A land subsequently called Achaea after him. Another son of Xuthus, Ion , conquered Thrace , after which the Athenians made him king of Athens. Attica was called Ionia after his death. Those Ionians colonized Aigialia changing its name to Ionia also. When the Heracleidae returned the Achaeans drove the Ionians back to Athens. Under the Codridae they set forth for Anatolia and founded 12 cities in Caria and Lydia following

420-628: A literary medium in the 1930s, including a school grammar (Topkharas 1998 [1932]). Though many were displaced as a result of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine , as of 2024 the majority of Mariupol's Greeks have opted to remain in the city and its adjacent villages. After the massacres of the 1910s , the majority of speakers remaining in Asia Minor were subject to the Treaty of Lausanne population exchange , and were resettled in Greece (mainly northern Greece). A second wave of migration occurred in

525-498: A number of Old Persian inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire as Yaunā ( 𐎹𐎢𐎴𐎠 ), a nominative plural masculine, singular Yauna; for example, an inscription of Darius on the south wall of the palace at Persepolis includes in the provinces of the empire "Ionians who are of the mainland and (those) who are by the sea, and countries which are across the sea; ...." At that time the empire probably extended around

630-777: A number of churches, monasteries, and other religious buildings. The Virgin Mary Monastery in Şebinkarahisar District , Giresun Province may be one of the oldest Greek Orthodox monasteries in the region; Turkish archaeologists suspect it may date to the 2nd century. The monastery is made of carved stone and built into a cave. As of the mid-2010s, it was open for tourism. Other religious buildings were constructed later. Three ruined monasteries lie in Maçka , Trabzon Province: Panagias Soumela Monastery , Saint George Peristereotas Monastery , and Vazelon Monastery . These were built during early Byzantine times. Vazelon Monastery, for example,

735-521: A prison. Many other less-notable churches remain throughout the Pontus region. Some of the old houses once belonging to Pontic Greeks still stand. For example, Konstantinos Theofylaktos , a wealthy Greek, had a mansion built for him in Trabzon. It now functions as Trabzon Museum . Pontic language Like nearly all of Greek varieties spoken today, the linguistic lineage of Pontic Greek stems from

840-585: A strong Greek identity. After the Greek-Turkish population exchange in 1923, even though the state never considered them a "national threat", many of these Pontians saw their language as a "cultural flaw" and desired to get rid of it. Historian and psychologist Stavros Iason Gavriilidis states that this was a result of the trauma they faced from the Greek genocide . In Greek mythology the Black Sea region

945-565: Is Nakip Mosque in Trabzon, originally built as a Greek Orthodox church during the 900s or 1000s. Ancient Greeks reached and settled the Black Sea by the 700s BC; Sinope was perhaps the earliest colony. According to the Pontic Greek historian Strabo , Greeks from the existing colony of Miletus settled the Pontus region. Some walls from an early fortification stand in the modern Turkish city of Sinop (renamed from Sinope). These fortifications may date back to early Greek colonization in

1050-470: Is Pontus proper. Those from Georgia, northeastern Anatolia, and the former Russian Caucasus are in contemporary Greek academic circles often referred to as "Eastern Pontic [Greeks]" or Caucasian Greeks . The Turkic-speaking Greek Orthodox Urums are included in this latter groups as well. Aside from their predominantly Greek origin, they also likely owe a degree of their ancestry to several sources. Pontic Greeks are an ethnic Greek subgroup, indigenous to

1155-557: Is also called Ποντιακή διάλεκτος Pontiakḗ diálektos ( ' Pontic dialect ' ) in standard modern Greek. In Turkish , there is no special name for Pontic Greek; it is called Rumca ( [ˈɾumd͡ʒa] ), derived from the Turkish word Rum , denoting Byzantine Greeks. Nowadays, Pontic speakers living in Turkey call their language Romeyka , Urumce , Rumca or Rumcika . Similar to most modern Greek dialects, Pontic Greek

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1260-468: Is also important. The Pontic label is relatively new. Anton Popov writes, "Anthony Bryer states that 'at the beginning of the nineteenth century a Pontic Christian might describe himself in the old way as a Douberites, Phytanos or Tsitenos first, and then as a "Roman" (Rum) Orthodox subject of the sultan; by the end of the century he was calling himself a Greek, and after he had finally left the Pontos in 1923,

1365-653: Is also some limited production of modern literature in Pontic, including poetry collections (among the most renowned writers is Kostas Diamantidis ), novels, and translated Asterix comic albums . The youth often speak standard Greek as their first language. The use of Pontic has been maintained more by speakers in North America than it has in Greece. Pontic, in Greece, is written in the Greek alphabet , with diacritics: σ̌ ζ̌ ξ̌ ψ̌ for /ʃ ʒ kʃ pʃ/ , α̈ ο̈ for [æ ø] (phonological /ia io/ ). Pontic, in Turkey,

1470-649: Is also spoken in Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Kazakhstan, as well as by the Pontic diaspora. It remains spoken in pockets of the Pontus region, mostly by Pontic Greek Muslims in the eastern districts of Trabzon Province . Pontic is primarily written in the Greek script ; the Latin script is sporadically used in Turkey, while the Cyrillic alphabet is rarely used in Russia and former Soviet countries. Pontic Greek

1575-663: Is an important part of belonging to an ethnic group . Pontians have a lot in common with other Greeks; for example, they speak Romeika , a Greek language variety. Pontians also traditionally follow the Greek Orthodox faith, although a minority in Turkey are Sunni Muslims . Pontian Greeks also share traits with other ethnic groups. Like Turks, they cook havítz ( kuymak ), boortsog , and İmam bayıldı . They share other aspects of their culture with Lazes, Persians, and Armenians. They may owe some aspects of their culture to ancient Anatolian peoples . Pontian self-identification

1680-756: Is classified as an Indo-European , Greek language of the Attic - Ionic branch. Historically, the speakers of Pontic Greek referred to their language as Romeika , also spelled in Latin as Romeyka ( Pontic : Ρωμαίικα ); a historical and colloquial term also used for the Modern Greek language as a whole. Originating in Byzantine times, the term reflects the identification of the Greek–speaking Byzantine subjects as Rhomaioi ( Ῥωμαῖοι ) and

1785-506: Is correct, at least some of the Ionian marauders came from Cyprus : Sargon's Annals for 709, claiming that tribute was sent to him by 'seven kings of Ya (ya-a'), a district of Yadnana whose distant abodes are situated a seven-days' journey in the sea of the setting sun', is confirmed by a stele set up at Citium in Cyprus 'at the base of a mountain ravine ... of Yadnana.' Ionians appear in

1890-597: Is mainly derived from Koine Greek, which was spoken in the Hellenistic and Roman times between the 4th century BC and the 4th century AD. Following the Seljuk invasion of Asia Minor during the 11th century AD, Pontus became isolated from many of the regions of the Byzantine Empire. The Pontians remained somewhat isolated from the mainland Greeks, causing Pontic Greek to develop separately and distinctly from

1995-725: Is the region where Jason and the Argonauts sailed to find the Golden Fleece . The Amazons , female warriors in Greek Mythology lived in Pontus , and a minority lived in Taurica , also known as Crimea , which is also the minor unique settlement of Pontic Greeks. The warlike characteristics of Pontic Greeks were once said to have been derived from the Amazons of Pontus. The first recorded Greek colony , established on

2100-495: Is written in the Latin alphabet following Turkish conventions. In Russia, it is written in the Cyrillic alphabet . In early Soviet times, Pontic was written in the Greek alphabet phonetically, as shown below, using digraphs instead of diacritics; [æ ø] were written out as ια , ιο . The Pontic Misplaced Pages uses Greek script: it has adopted εα, εο for these vowels, to avoid clashes with Modern Greek ια, ιο, and uses digraphs from

2205-555: The Amasya trials ; others were subject to massacres; many Pontic men were forced to work in labor camps until they died; still others were deported to the interior on death marches . Rape, primarily of Pontic women and girls, was prominent. In 1923 those still remaining in Turkey were exiled to Greece as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey defined by the Treaty of Lausanne . In his book Black Sea , author Neal Ascherson writes: The Turkish guide-books on sale in

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2310-512: The Archaic and Classical periods, both in poetry and prose. The works of Homer ( The Iliad , The Odyssey , Homeric Hymns ) and of Hesiod were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect called Homeric Greek or Epic Greek . Ionic was eventually supplanted by the Attic dialect which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world by the 5th century BC. The literary evidence of

2415-688: The Greeks considered themselves to be divided into during the ancient period ; the other three being the Dorians , Aeolians , and Achaeans . The Ionian dialect was one of the three major linguistic divisions of the Hellenic world , together with the Dorian and Aeolian dialects. When referring to populations, " Ionian " defines several groups in Classical Greece . In its narrowest sense,

2520-665: The Hellenistic Koine , itself based on Attic – Ionic Greek , which later developed into the Byzantine Greek of the Middle Ages. Following its geographic isolation from the rest of the Greek–speaking world, Pontic continued to develop separately along with other Anatolian Greek dialects, like Cappadocian , from the 11th century onwards. As a result, Pontic Greek is not completely mutually intelligible with

2625-479: The Medieval Greek language as Rhomaikḗ ( Ῥωμαική ). The term "Pontic" originated in scholarly usage, but it has been adopted as a mark of identity by Pontic Greeks living in Greece, where the language is commonly called Pontiaká ( Greek : Ποντιακά ). Pontians also refer to their language as Ποντιακόν λαλίαν Pontiakón lalían ( ' Pontic speech ' ) and at times as Λαζικά Laziká . The variety

2730-661: The Mithridatic Wars , three bitter wars against the Roman Republic , before eventually being defeated. Mithridates VI the Great, as he was left in memory, claiming to be the protector of the Greek world against the barbarian Romans, expanded his kingdom to Bithynia , Crimea and Propontis (in present-day Ukraine and Turkey) before his downfall after the Third Mithridatic War . Nevertheless,

2835-591: The Of valley who had converted to Islam in the 17th century remained in Turkey and have partly retained the Pontic language until today. Their dialect, which forms part of the Trapezountiac subgroup, is called "Ophitic" by linguists, but speakers generally call it Romeika . As few as 5,000 people are reported to speak it. There are however estimates that show the real number of the speakers as considerably higher. Speakers of Ophitic/Romeyka are concentrated in

2940-678: The Peloponnesus , dwelt in what is now called Achaea , and before Danaus and Xuthus came to the Peloponnesus, as the Greeks say, they were called Aegialian Pelasgians . They were named Ionians after Ion the son of Xuthus . Achaea was divided into 12 communities originally Ionian: Pellene , Aegira , Aegae , Bura , Helice , Aegion , Rhype, Patrae , Phareae, Olenus , Dyme and Tritaeae. The most aboriginal Ionians were of Cynuria: The Cynurians are aboriginal and seem to be

3045-605: The Phrontisterion of Trapezous , a Greek school operating in Trabzon from the late 1600s to the early 1900s. It was an important center for Greek-language education across the whole Pontus region. Some students came from outside of Trabzon to learn there (one example being Nikos Kapetanidis , who was born in Rize). After the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856 guaranteed more religious freedom and civic equality for

3150-508: The Serra (also known as Pyrrhichios ), and traditional musical instruments, like the Pontic lyra , remain important to Pontian diaspora communities. Pontians traditionally speak Pontic Greek , a modern Greek variety , that has developed remotely in the region of Pontus. Commonly known as Pontiaka , it is traditionally called Romeika by its native speakers. The earliest Greek colonies in

3255-657: The Taksim Meydane offer this account of the 1923 Katastrofĕ : 'After the proclamation of the Republic, the Greeks who lived in the region returned to their own country   ...' Their own country? Returned? They had lived in the Pontos for nearly three thousand years. Their Pontian dialect was not understandable to twentieth-century Athenians. According to the 1928 census of Greece, there were in total 240,695 Pontic Greek refugees in Greece: 11,435 from Russia, 47,091 from

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3360-608: The dative or nominative plural case of *Iāwones, an ethnic name. The Knossos tablets are dated to 1400 or 1200 B.C. and thus pre-date the Dorian dominance in Crete , if the name refers to Cretans . The name first appears in Greek literature in Homer as Ἰάονες , iāones , used on a single occasion of some long-robed Greeks attacked by Hector and apparently identified with Athenians, and this Homeric form appears to be identical with

3465-776: The early modern period up until the 20th century, when, following the Pontic Greek genocide and the 1923 population exchange with Turkey, Pontic Greeks migrated primarily to Greece and around the Caucasus , including in the country of Georgia . Today, most Pontic Greeks live in Northern Greece , especially in and around Thessaloniki in Macedonia . Those from southern Russia , Ukraine , and Crimea are often referred to as "Northern Pontic [Greeks]", in contrast to those from "South Pontus", which strictly speaking

3570-532: The infinitive , which is present in Ancient Greek but has been lost in other variants of Modern Greek (except Italiot Greek ); it has therefore been characterized as "archaic" or conservative (even in relation to other Pontic dialects) and as the living language that is closest to Ancient Greek. Because a majority of the population of these districts converted to Islam during the 17th to 19th centuries, some Arabic and Turkish loanwords have been adopted in

3675-746: The "Yonas". Dayuan' (or Tayuan; Chinese : 大宛 ; pinyin : Dàyuān ; lit. 'Great Ionians'; Middle Chinese dâi -jwɐn < LHC : dɑh-ʔyɑn ) is the Chinese exonym for a country that existed in Ferghana valley in Central Asia , described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han . It is mentioned in the accounts of

3780-599: The 'nation' of Greece." He goes on to explain how the Greek government encouraged nationalist thinking: "A speaker in the Greek parliament in 1844 expounded this newly designed identity: 'The Kingdom of Greece is not Greece. It constitutes only one part, the smallest and the poorest. A Greek is not only a man who lives within the Kingdom, but also one who lives in Yoannina, Serrai, Adrianople, Constantinople, Smyrna, Trebizond, Crete and in any land associated with Greek history and

3885-756: The 1990s, preserving their own customs and dialect of Greek . Between 1913 and 1923, the Ottoman leadership attempted to expel or kill its native Christian population of Anatolia , including the Pontic Greeks. The genocide was first perpetrated by the Three Pashas and later by the rebel government under Mustafa Kemal . Different scholars have made different estimates for the death toll; most estimates range from 300,000 to 360,000 Pontic Greeks killed. Some notable victims include Matthaios Kofidis and Nikos Kapetanidis . Many were executed, for example during

3990-524: The 5th century BC. During this time, they must also have used Giresun Island . The poet Apollonius of Rhodes mentioned this island in his best-known epic, the Argonautica . Altars on the island date to the Classical or Hellenistic period. Its use as a religious center continued after the rise of Christianity in the region. During Byzantine times, likely in the 400s or 500s AD, a monastic complex

4095-572: The 600s BC. During late Ottoman and recent Turkish times, the fortress housed a state prison . Between 281 BC and 62 AD, the Mithridatic kings ruled the Pontos region and called it the Kingdom of Pontus . While the ruling dynasty was Persian in origin, many kings had Greek ancestry, as Pontic rulers often married Seleucid nobility. Some of these Persian/Greek rulers were interred in the Tombs of

4200-415: The 730s BC discovered at Nimrud . The Assyrian word, which is preceded by the country determinative, has been reconstructed as *Iaunaia. More common is ia-a-ma-nu, ia-ma-nu and ia-am-na-a-a with the country determinative, reconstructed as Iamānu. Sargon II related that he took the latter from the sea like fish and that they were from "the sea of the setting sun." If the identification of Assyrian names

4305-782: The Aegean to northern Greece. Inspired by Achaemenid Iranians, Ionians appear in Indic literature and documents as Yavana and Yona. In documents, these names refer to the Indo-Greek Kingdoms : the states formed by the Macedonian Alexander the Great and his successors on the Indian subcontinent . The earliest such documentation is the Edicts of Ashoka . The Thirteenth Edict is dated to 260–258 BC and directly refers to

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4410-457: The Black Sea coast of the Pontus Euxinus , he founded the Attalid dynasty and the Anatolian city of Pergamon in the second century BC. This region was organized circa 281 BC as a kingdom by Mithridates I of Pontus , whose ancestry line dated back to Ariobarzanes I , a Persian ruler of the Greek town of Cius . The most prominent descendant of Mithridates I was Mithridates VI Eupator , who between 90 and 65 BC fought

4515-460: The Black Sea coast. According to Anthony Bryer , a British Byzantinist , it was built in the 1200s or 1300s on the order of Trapezuntine rulers. Zilkale Castle is another fortress in Rize Province. According to the same historian, it may have been built by the Empire of Trebizond for local Hemshin rulers. Yet another fortress, the Kov Castle in Gümüşhane Province , may have been built by Trapezuntine Emperor Alexios III . Alexios III , one of

4620-441: The Byzantine Empire as 'Rom' or 'Rum' people, or as 'Romanians' [Romans] — citizens of the Roman Empire, in other words, who were also distinguished by their Orthodox Christian faith. Struggling with these categories, a Pontic Turk whose village had once been Greek told Anthony Bryer: 'This is Roman (Rum) country; they spoke Christian here   ...'" This identification mirrored the identification of other non-intellectual Greeks at

4725-420: The Byzantine Empire from 1082 to 1185, a time in which the empire resurged to recover much of Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks . In the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Empire of Trebizond was established by Alexios I of Trebizond , a descendant of Alexios I Komnenos , the patriarch of the Komnenos dynasty . The Empire was ruled by this new branch of

4830-452: The Caucasus, and 182,169 from the Pontus region of Anatolia. In Turkey, however, together with Crypto-Armenians surfacing it has also given the Pontic community in Turkey more attention, estimates are up to 345,000 During their millennia-long presence on the Black Sea's southern coast, Pontic Greeks constructed a number of buildings, some of which still stand today. Many structures sit in ruins. Others, however, enjoy active use; one example

4935-415: The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley , controlled by the Hellenistic polis Alexandria Eschate (modern Khujand , Tajikistan ), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language. Most modern Western Asian languages use

5040-416: The Greek Ion , and to serve as a name for the Greeks and Macedonians . The term is also found in other ancient literature; the Yevana (Ionians) aligned with the Hittites against Egypt, while the Yauna of the Persian records corresponds to the Ionians of Asia Minor. Additionally, though less surely, Japheth may be related linguistically to the Greek mythological figure Iapetus . The locations of

5145-446: The Greek race." The newly established Kingdom of Greece set up consulates in the Ottoman Empire to spread the Megali Idea . While the Anatolians recognized a shared cultural heritage, most weren't involved in an irredentist movement. Few Pontic Greeks supported the Megali Idea except for some Greek nationalists such as Nikos Kapetanidis . Very few wanted an independent Pontic state, and few had ambition to join with Greece, even in

5250-442: The Greek resistance in Pontus. During this long period of resistance many Pontic Greeks nobles and aristocrats married foreign emperors and dynasties, most notably of Medieval Russia , Medieval Georgia , or the Safavid Persian dynasty, and to a lesser extent the Kara Koyunlu rulers, in order to gain their protection and aid against the Ottoman threat. Many of the landowning and lower-class families of Pontus "turned-Turk", adopting

5355-429: The Greek–speaking world, following the Seljuk conquest of Anatolia. After the 1203 siege of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade , the Empire of Trebizond was established on the Black Sea coast by a branch of the Komnenos dynasty, later known as 'Grand Komnenos'. Anatolia, including Trebizond, was eventually conquered by the Ottomans entirely by the 15th century AD. Greek presence in Pontus remained vibrant during

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5460-477: The Ionians leads back to mainland Greece in Mycenaean times before there was an Ionia . The classical sources seem determined that they were to be called Ionians along with other names even then. This cannot be documented with inscriptional evidence, and yet the literary evidence, which is manifestly at least partially legendary, seems to reflect a general verbal tradition. Herodotus of Halicarnassus asserts: all are Ionians who are of Athenian descent and keep

5565-435: The Komenos dynasty which bore the name Megas Komnenos Axouch (or Axouchos or Afouxechos) as early rulers intermarried with the family of Axouch, a Byzantine noble house of Turkic origin which included famed politicians such as John Axouch This empire lasted for more than 250 years until it eventually fell at the hands of Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461. However it took the Ottomans 18 more years to finally defeat

5670-416: The Middle Ages; in 1204, the Matzouka ( Maçka ) region alone contained Greeks, Italians, Lazes and a few Armenians. In the 21st century, most Pontians strongly identify as Greeks. However, this has not always been the case. Before the creation of the diaspora, many Pontians did not consider themselves Greek. An ethnicity is made up of people with ancestry or cultural background in common. Self-identification

5775-403: The Mycenaean form but without the *-w- . This name also appears in a fragment of the other early poet, Hesiod , in the singular Ἰάων , iāōn . In the Book of Genesis of the English Bible , Javan , known in Hebrew as Yāwān and in plural Yəwānīm , is a son of Japheth . Javan, meaning 'Greek', is believed nearly universally by Bible scholars to represent the Ionians, corresponding to

5880-422: The Ottoman Empire's Jews and Christians, new churches were constructed. One of these was the church at Cape Jason in Perşembe , Ordu Province. Local Georgians and Greeks built this church in the 1800s; it remains today. Another was the small stone church in Çakrak , Giresun Province. Still another was Taşbaşı Church in Ordu, built in the 1800s; after the Greek Orthodox were expelled from Turkey, it saw some use as

5985-409: The Ottoman period a number of Pontian Greeks converted to Islam and adopted the Turkish language. This could be willingly, for example so to avoid paying the higher rate of taxation imposed on Orthodox Christians or in order to make themselves more eligible for higher level government and regular military employment opportunities within the empire (at least in the later period following the abolition of

6090-399: The Soviet system instead of diacritics, but otherwise follows historical orthography. The following are features of Pontic Greek which have been retained from early forms of Greek, in contrast to the developments of Modern Greek. Ionians The Ionians ( / aɪ ˈ oʊ n i ə n z / ; Greek : Ἴωνες , Íōnes , singular Ἴων , Íōn ) were one of the four major tribes that

6195-480: The Turkish language and Turkish Islam but often remaining crypto-Christian before reverting to their Greek Orthodoxy in the early 19th century. The long period of Ottoman rule up until the population exchange was called the Tourkokratia . In the 1600s and 1700s, as Turkish lords called derebeys gained more control of land along the Black Sea coast, many coastal Pontians moved to the Pontic Mountains . There, they established villages such as Santa . Between 1461 and

6300-411: The biblical tribal countries have been the subjects of centuries of scholarship and yet remain open questions to various degrees. The final chapter of the Book of Isaiah , who lived in the 8th century BC, contains what may be a hint by listing "the nations ... that have not heard my fame" including Javan immediately after "the isles afar off". These isles may be considered as an apposition to Javan or

6405-457: The centuries, potentially being a public bath and gymnasium before its use as a church. Pottery found at the site dates to the Roman and Hellenistic eras. There is also speculation that a piece of the True Cross was found at Balatlar Church; however, it's more likely that the materials found were actually the relics of a saint or other holy person. Trabzon has at least three more late Byzantine churches that stand today. St. Anne Church , as

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6510-419: The early 1900s. The reason for this is unclear. Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi give three theories on why most Pontic Greeks distanced themselves from nationalism and separatism: poorly developed political consciousness, tradition of submissiveness to Islamic hegemony, or fears of massacres and economic harm. More generally, Greek nationalism in Asia Minor mostly appealed to "the most enlightened and liberal", to

6615-511: The early 1990s, this time from countries of the former Soviet Union . In urban areas in Greece the language is no longer spoken in daily life but in villages and towns with more homogeneous Pontic population, located mostly in the northern part of country, the language is still in active daily usage. Many radio stations broadcast in the Pontic language, and many associations exist for its safeguard. In Greece, Pontic has no official status, like all other Greek dialects. Historically, Pontic Greek

6720-453: The eastern districts of Trabzon province: Çaykara (Katohor), Dernekpazarı (Kondu), Sürmene (Sourmena) and Köprübaşı (Göneşera). Although less widespread, it is still spoken in some remote villages of the Of district itself. It is also spoken in the western İkizdere (Dipotamos) district of Rize province. Historically the dialect was spoken in a wider area, stretching further east to the port town of Pazar (Athina). Ophitic has retained

6825-402: The failure of the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger whom they fought for, against his older brother Artaxerxes II of Persia . Xenophon mentions that when at the sight of sea they shouted " Thalatta! Thalatta! " – "The sea! The sea!", the local people understood them. They were Greeks too and, according to Xenophon, they had been there for over 300 years. A whole range of trade flourished among

6930-411: The feast Apaturia . He further explains: The whole Hellenic stock was then small, and the last of all its branches and the least regarded was the Ionian; for it had no considerable city except Athens . The Ionians spread from Athens to other places in the Aegean Sea : Sifnos and Serifos , Naxos , Kea and Samos . But they were not just from Athens: These Ionians, as long as they were in

7035-400: The first place, they did not think of themselves as 'Greek' or as a people in some way rooted in the peninsula and islands we now call 'Greece.' Sophisticates in Trebizond might address one another in the fifteenth century as ' Hellenes ,' but this was a cultural fancy rather than an ethnic description. Outsiders, whether Turks or northern Europeans, referred to them and to all the inhabitants of

7140-458: The frescoes may have been covered for Muslim worship. Hagia Sophia underwent restoration work in the mid-20th century. After European invaders sacked Constantinople in 1204, the Byzantine Empire fractured. The Pontus region went into the hands of the Komnenos family , who ruled the new Empire of Trebizond . During the Empire of Trebizond, many new structures were built. One is Kiz Castle in Rize Province . The castle sits on an islet just off

7245-500: The infamous Greek and Balkan Christian child levy or ' devshirme ', on which the elite Janissary corps had in the early Ottoman period depended for its recruits). But conversion could also occur in response to pressures from central government and local Muslim militia (e.g.) following any one of the Russo-Turkish wars in which ethnic Greeks from the Ottoman Empire's northern border regions were known to have collaborated, fought alongside, and sometimes even led invading Russian forces, such as

7350-425: The issue of Rumaiic versus Demotic. A new attempt to preserve a sense of ethnic Rumaiic identity started in the mid-1980s. The Ukrainian scholar Andriy Biletsky created a new Slavonic alphabet, but though a number of writers and poets make use of this alphabet, the population of the region rarely uses it. The language has a rich oral tradition and folklore and Pontic songs are particularly popular in Greece. There

7455-401: The kingdom survived as a Roman vassal state, now named Bosporan Kingdom and based in Crimea, until the 4th century AD, when it succumbed to the Huns . The rest of the Pontus became part of the Roman Empire, while the mountainous interior ( Chaldia ) was fully incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire during the 6th century. Pontus was the birthplace of the Komnenos dynasty , which ruled

7560-472: The kings of Pontus . Their necropolis is still visible in Amasya. One Pontic king, Pharnaces I of Pontus , may have built Giresun Castle in the 100s BC. There's also a chance it was built during medieval times. From the castle, the Black Sea and much of Giresun are visible. Many other structures date back to Greek occupation in ancient times. Ancient Greeks inhabited Giresun , then called Kerasous, from

7665-566: The language. According to Vahit Tursun, writer of the Romeika-Turkish dictionary, loanwords from the neighboring Laz speakers of Rize province are strikingly absent in the Romeika vocabulary of Trabzon natives. A very similar dialect is spoken by descendants of Christians from the Of valley (especially from Kondu ) now living in Greece in the village of Nea Trapezounta, Pieria , Central Macedonia , with about 400 speakers. Though Pontic

7770-625: The languages of different civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean and as far east as Han China . They are not the earliest Greeks to appear in the records; that distinction belongs to the Danaans and the Achaeans . The trail of the Ionians begins in the Mycenaean Greek records of Crete . A fragmentary Linear B tablet from Knossos (tablet Xd 146) bears the name i-ja-wo-ne , interpreted by Ventris and Chadwick as possibly

7875-814: The last emperors under whom the Empire of Trebizond flourished, built Panagia Theoskepastos Monastery in the 1300s. It was an all-female monastery in Trabzon. The monastery may undergo restoration work to boost tourism. After Mehmed the Conqueror lay siege to Trabzon in 1461, the Empire of Trebizond fell. Many church buildings became mosques around this time, while others remained in the Greek Orthodox community. Pontic Greeks continued to live and build under Ottoman rule. For example, Pontians in Gümüşhane established

7980-589: The last item in the series. If the former, the expression is typically used of the population of the islands in the Aegean Sea . Some letters of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BC record attacks by what appear to be Ionians on the cities of Phoenicia : For example, a raid by the Ionians ( ia-u-na-a-a ) on the Phoenician coast is reported to Tiglath-Pileser III in a letter from

8085-576: The latter had high incidence of haplogroup L , which is also prevalent among Laz people . Haplogroup G2 and haplogroup J2 were also prevalent among the Pontians studied. Pontians in Georgia and Lazes are genetically similar. Armenians in Georgia and Pontians in Georgia are also genetically similar. In addition, the Pontians studied were genetically diverse, indicating genetic mixture with other groups. The region of Pontus has been diverse since at least

8190-457: The local population of Attica, and many years later emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor founding the historical region of Ionia . Unlike the austere and militaristic Dorians, the Ionians are renowned for their love of philosophy , art , democracy , and pleasure – Ionian traits that were most famously expressed by the Athenians . The Ionian school of philosophy , centered on Miletus ,

8295-553: The medical, legal and literary professionals and to the rising middle class. It was opposed, however, by the "ancient [Greek] nobility, the superior clergy, the lay dignitaries of the church and the wealthy merchants". There are also some Turkish-speaking Pontic Greeks, living in the Greek region of Western Macedonia , specifically in Metamorfosi, Kozani . These Pontians follow the Greek Orthodox Church and profess

8400-742: The model of the 12 cities of Achaea, formerly Ionian. During the 6th century BC, Ionian coastal towns, such as Miletus and Ephesus , became the focus of a revolution in traditional thinking about Nature. Instead of explaining natural phenomena by recourse to traditional religion/myth, the cultural climate was such that men began to form hypotheses about the natural world based on ideas gained from both personal experience and deep reflection. These men— Thales and his successors —were called physiologoi , those who discoursed on Nature . They were skeptical of religious explanations for natural phenomena and instead sought purely mechanical and physical explanations. They are credited as being of critical importance to

8505-574: The name suggests, was dedicated to Saint Anne , the mother of Mary . While the actual date of construction is uncertain, it was restored by the Byzantine emperors in 884 and 885. It had three apses and a tympanum over the door. Unlike many churches in Trabzon, there is no evidence of it being converted into a mosque following Ottoman conquest in 1461. Two other structures in Trabzon, built as churches in Byzantine or Trapezuntine times, are now functional mosques. The New Friday Mosque , for example,

8610-464: The northern shores of ancient Anatolia, was Sinope on the Black Sea, circa 800 BC. The settlers of Sinope were merchants from the Ionian Greek city state of Miletus . After the colonization of the shores of the Black Sea, known until then to the Greek world as Pontos Axeinos (Inhospitable Sea), the name changed to Pontos Euxeinos (Hospitable Sea). In time, as the numbers of Greeks settling in

8715-536: The only Ionians, but they have been Dorianized by time and by Argive rule. In Strabo 's account of the origin of the Ionians, Hellen , son of Deucalion , ancestor of the Hellenes , king of Phthia , arranged a marriage between his son Xuthus and the daughter of king Erechtheus of Athens . Xuthus then founded the Tetrapolis ("Four Cities") of Attica , a rural district. His son, Achaeus , went into exile in

8820-463: The region grew significantly, more colonies were established along the whole Black Sea coastline of what is now Turkey , Bulgaria , Georgia , Russia , Ukraine , and Romania . The region of Trapezus (later called Trebizond, now Trabzon ) was mentioned by Xenophon in his famous work Anabasis , describing how he and other 10,000 Greek mercenaries fought their way to the Euxine Sea after

8925-602: The region of Pontus , in northeastern Anatolia . Greeks have lived in Pontus since "the time of the Argonauts , Herodotus and Xenophon and the Ten Thousand ". Pontic Greeks claim descent from ancient Greeks who in the 8th century BC had moved from the Ionian cities located in the islands and shores of the Aegean Sea , to the area of the Black Sea called Pontus . However, as many different ethnic groups have lived in

9030-409: The region of Pontus begin in 700 BC, including Sinope , Trapezus , and Amisos . Greek colonies continued to expand on the coast of the Black Sea ( Euxeinos Pontos ) between the Archaic and Classical periods. The Hellenistic Kingdom of Pontus was annexed by Rome in 63 BC becoming Roman and later Byzantine territory. During the 11th century AD, Pontus was largely isolated from the rest of

9135-458: The region since ancient times and have intermarried, today's Pontic Greeks also likely owe their ancestry to ancient Anatolians , other Greeks, other migrants to Pontus, and Caucasian peoples (such as Hellenized Lazs and Armenians). Pontic Greeks are genetically similar to other groups living in the Caucasus. A genetic study of male Georgians, including Pontic Greeks in Georgia, revealed that

9240-470: The rest of the mainland Greek. However, the language has also been influenced by the nearby Persian, Caucasian , and Turkish languages. Greek linguist Manolis Triantafyllidis has divided the Pontic of Turkey into two groups: Speakers of Chaldiot were the most numerous. In phonology, some varieties of Pontic are reported to demonstrate vowel harmony , a well-known feature of Turkish (Mirambel 1965). Outside Turkey one can distinguish: The inhabitants of

9345-527: The second Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, Pontic Greeks from northeastern Anatolia migrated as refugees or economic migrants (especially miners and livestock breeders) into nearby Armenia or Georgia, where they came to form a nucleus of Pontic Greeks which increased in size with the addition of each wave of refugees and migrants until these eastern Pontic Greek communities of the South Caucasus region came to define themselves as Caucasian Greeks . During

9450-417: The standard Demotic Greek spoken in mainland Greece today. Pontic also contains influences from Russian , Turkish , Kartvelian (namely Laz and Georgian ) and Armenian . Today, Pontians live predominantly in Northern Greece , following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey . Out of their total population, around 200,000–300,000 are considered active Pontic speakers. Pontic Greek

9555-634: The term referred to the region of Ionia in Asia Minor . In a broader sense, it could be used to describe all speakers of the Ionic dialect, which in addition to those in Ionia proper also included the Greek populations of Euboea , the Cyclades , and many cities founded by Ionian colonists . Finally, in the broadest sense it could be used to describe all those who spoke languages of the East Greek group, which included Attic . The foundation myth which

9660-690: The terms "Ionia" and "Ionian" to refer to Greece and Greeks. That is true of Hebrew (Yavan 'Greece' / Yevani fem. Yevania 'a Greek'), Armenian (Hunastan 'Greece' / Huyn 'a Greek' ), and the Classical Arabic words (al-Yūnān 'Greece' / Yūnānī fem. Yūnāniyya pl. Yūnān 'a Greek', probably from Aramaic Yawnānā ) are used in most modern Arabic dialects including Egyptian and Palestinian as well as being used in modern Persian (Yūnānestān 'Greece' / Yūnānī pl. Yūnānīhā/Yūnānīyān 'Greeks') and Turkish too via Persian (Yunanistan 'Greece' / Yunan 'a Greek person' pl. Yunanlar 'Greek people'). Ionic Greek

9765-541: The time. Greek nationalism only began to spread to the Pontos in the 1800s after the Greek nation gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. This nationalism came during a time of commercial prosperity in the Pontos. Again, Acherson writes, "The teachers and the school curricula came from Athens, bringing with them a new concept of Greekness which linked the Greek-Orthodox communities of the Black Sea and

9870-696: The valley town of Santa (today called Dumanlı ) in the 1600s. Even today, many of the stone schools, houses, and churches built by Santa's Greek Orthodox residents still stand. They weren't divorced from Ottoman society, however; Pontic Greeks also contributed their labor to Ottoman construction projects. In 1610, Pontians built the Hacı Abdullah Wall in Giresun Province. The wall is 6.5 km (4.0 mi) long. Trabzon remained an important center of Pontic Greek society and culture throughout Ottoman times. A scholar named Sevastos Kyminitis founded

9975-473: The various Greek colonies, but also with the indigenous tribes who inhabited the Pontus inland. Soon Trebizond established a leading stature among the other colonies and the region nearby become the heart of the Pontian Greek culture and civilization. A notable inhabitant of the region was Philetaerus (c. 343 BC–263 BC) who was born to a Greek father in the small town of Tieion which was situated on

10080-582: Was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek . The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken in Euboea (West Ionic), the northern Cyclades (Central Ionic), and from c.  1000 BC onward in Asiatic Ionia (East Ionic), where Ionian colonists from Athens founded their cities. Ionic was the base of several literary language forms of

10185-476: Was built around 270 AD, and it retained great political and societal importance until its abandonment in 1922/3. While St. George Monastery (also called Kuştul Monastery) and Vazelon are abandoned, Sumela is a prominent tourist attraction. Pontic Greeks also constructed a number of non-religious buildings during Byzantine times. In the 500s, for example, a castle was built in Rize on the order of Justinian I . It

10290-465: Was built on the island, dedicated to either St Phocas of Sinope or Mary . It functioned both as a religious center and as a fortress. Many old Pontic Greek city-states remain in ruins. One is Athenae , an archaeological site near modern Pazar . It sat on the Black Sea coast and housed a temple to Athena. After Christianity spread to the Pontus region in Roman times, Pontic Greeks began constructing

10395-514: Was characterized by a focus on non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and a search for rational explanations of the universe, thereby laying the foundation for scientific inquiry and rational thought in Western philosophy. The etymology of the word Ἴωνες or Ἰᾱ́ϝoνες is uncertain. Frisk isolates an unknown root, *Ia- , pronounced *ya- . There are, however, some theories: Unlike "Aeolians" and "Dorians", "Ionians" appears in

10500-558: Was current in the Classical period suggested that the Ionians were named after Ion , son of Xuthus , who lived in the north Peloponnesian region of Aigialeia . When the Dorians invaded the Peloponnese they expelled the Achaeans from the Argolid and Lacedaemonia . The displaced Achaeans moved into Aigialeia (thereafter known as Achaea ), in turn expelling the Ionians from Aigialeia. The Ionians moved to Attica and mingled with

10605-441: Was later expanded. The old fortress still stands today, serving tourists. Later, the Pontians built further churches and castles. Balatlar Church is a Byzantine church dating back to 660. It lies on the Black Sea coast. Despite vandalism and natural deterioration, the church still has old frescoes, which have been of interest to modern historians. The actual structure itself may date to Roman times. It likely had different uses over

10710-715: Was originally spoken on the southern shores of the Black Sea , from the 18th and 19th century and on substantial numbers migrated into the northern and eastern shores, into the Russian Empire . Pontic is still spoken by large numbers of people in Ukraine , mainly in Mariupol , but also in other parts of Ukraine such as the Odesa and Donetsk region, in Russia (around Stavropol ) and Georgia . The language enjoyed some use as

10815-559: Was originally the Hagios Eugenios Church dedicated to Saint Eugenios of Trebizond . Another is Fatih Mosque . It was originally the Panagia Chrysokephalos church, a cathedral in Trabzon. The name is fitting; fatih means "conqueror" in both Ottoman and modern Turkish. Another church, Trabzon's Hagia Sophia , was perhaps built by Manuel I Komnenos . It was used as a mosque after Turkish conquest;

10920-569: Was the de facto language of the Greek minority in the USSR , although in the Πανσυνδεσμιακή Σύσκεψη ( Pansyndesmiakí Sýskepsi , All-Union Conference) of 1926, organised by the Greek–Soviet intelligentsia , it was decided that Demotic should be the official language of the community. Later revival of Greek identity in the Soviet Union and post-Communist Russia saw a renewed division on

11025-566: Was the case in the Greek governed, semi-autonomous Romanian Principalities, Trebizond, and the area that was briefly to become part of the Russian Caucasus in the far northeast. Large communities (around 25% of the population) of Christian Pontic Greeks remained throughout the Pontus area (including Trabzon and Kars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until

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