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191-695: The Pontic Greeks had a continuous presence in the Pontus region from at least 700 BC, over 2,500 years ago. Following the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461, the area came under the control of the Ottoman Empire . The rise of Turkish nationalism at the beginning of 20th century dramatically increased anti-Greek sentiment within the Ottoman Empire. The genocide began in 1914 by

382-537: A harbor at the port. When the Russians occupied Trabzon, a mole was built. They built a breakwater and were responsible for creating an extended pier, making loading and unloading easier. In 1920, Trabzon produced linen cloth, silver filagree , tanning and small amounts of cotton , silk and wool . Tobacco and hazelnuts were exported. The tobacco produced in Trabzon was called Trebizond-Platana . It

573-406: A Christian minority. Many Christian Greeks had better education and higher economic positions in the empire, much to the dismay of Ottoman officials. Religion was viewed a sign of loyalty in the Ottoman Empire, but most Pontics refused to convert to Islam in spite of Ottoman pressure. Subsequently, they were consistently viewed as a threat to the nation. The Young Turk Revolution greatly affected

764-524: A Greek in a labor gang is generally about two months", a British intelligence officer held hostage by the Turks in the eastern vilayets estimated. In this way, the Young Turk regime solved two problems at once; they could move military material and do so by killing Pontic men by indirect means (working them to death). The extermination of fighting-age males was central to the genocidal plans, as it eliminated

955-604: 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

1146-541: A common Pontic Greek culture that is distinguished by its music , dances , cuisine , and clothing . Folk dances, such as 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

1337-439: A cruel and inhumane manner is an   ... unpardonable sin against civilization". Pontic Greeks 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

1528-479: A deep contradiction between Greek and Turkish historiography regarding his personality begins. May 19 was subsequently established by the Pontic organizations as the date of the final solution of the Pontic issue and is considered as the day of remembrance of the victims of the Pontic genocide. On the other hand, this date is considered by official Turkish historiography as the beginning of the war for independence , and

1719-494: A group of rare coins he believes was minted by Gabras and his successors. Although he was killed by the Turks in 1098, other members of his family continued his de facto independent rule into the next century. The Empire of Trebizond was formed after Georgian expedition in Chaldia , commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Located at the far northeastern corner of Anatolia , it

1910-780: 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,

2101-553: A pawn used by these forces. In fact, Ottoman Empire had joined the First World War with expansionist goals. The CUP government intended to expand the Empire into Central Asia. When they were defeated, however, Kemalists, their successors, depicted themselves as the victims, even though the war brought catastrophic consequences for non-Muslim minorities, against which it was actually conducted. The Nationalists were worried about

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2292-423: A procession of 4,000 Bafran women and children near Sivas . Their faces were exhausted, they were scantily clothed, many had no shoes, and it appeared they had no food. Approximately seventy elderly men were present as well. In early August, the mutassarif of Bafra informed an American naval officer that the "deportation of all remaining Greeks, including women and children, had been ordered by Angora". That order

2483-417: A result of the general development of the country, Trabzon has developed its economic and commercial life. The coastal highway and a new harbour have increased commercial relations with central Anatolia, which has led to some growth. However, progress has been slow in comparison to the western and the southwestern parts of Turkey. Trabzon is famous throughout Turkey for its anchovies called hamsi , which are

2674-408: A result, a violent campaign of genocide began in an attempt to remove non-Turkish minorities from the country, including Pontic Greeks. In the time between 1914 and 1923, about 353,000 Pontic Greeks were killed and 1.5 million were expelled . Various methods of genocide were used and there were two main phases: Young Turk and Kemalist. The first repressions of Greeks in 1913–1914 barely reached

2865-399: A significant portion of the population capable of resistance. Beginning in the countryside and later in urban areas, the Turks raided Pontic Greek homesteads and initiated the deportation process. Victims were marched in caravans, where they usually experienced death rates of 80–90 percent. These caravans were subjected to brutal treatment, well documented by a number of penetrating studies of

3056-670: A streamlined, homogeneous nation-state on the European model. Once the CUP had started the process, the Kemalists, freed from any direct European pressure by the 1918 defeat and capitulation of Germany, went on to complete it, achieving what nobody believed possible: the reassertion of independence and sovereignty via an exterminatory war of national liberation. He also described the Turkish National Movement as such: It

3247-586: 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

3438-623: A strong culture with many important Greek philosophers and authors. In the 11th century, the Turks started moving to central Anatolia , which is now Turkey, and to the Pontus region. Under the Byzantine Empire (395 CE-1453), the two groups coexisted peacefully with each other. However, after the creation of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), the Pontic Greeks were treated unequally relative to other ethnic groups because they were

3629-456: A transition process many of the CUP's most diligent social engineers ended up working for Mustafa Kemal's Republican People's Party (RPP). The resurrection of Young Turk elites gave rise to the establishment of a modern dictatorship of repressive rule, driven by devotion to the tenets of a Gökalpist ideology   ... The continuity of discourse and practice of the Kemalist regime in relation to

3820-464: A war of salvation and independence, thus in line with what had begun in 1913 – accomplished Talaat's demographic Turkification on the beginning of World War I. Resuming Talaat's Pontus policy of 1916–17, this again involved collective physical annihilation, this time of the Rûm of Pontus at the Black Sea. British historian Mark Levene argued: The CUP committed genocide to transform the residual empire into

4011-476: A wealthy Greek, had a mansion built for him in Trabzon. It now functions as Trabzon Museum . Trabzon Trabzon , historically known as Trebizond , is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province . Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road , became a melting pot of religions , languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Persia in

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4202-529: A whole, and Pontic Greeks were aware of this, regardless of what their representatives occasionally claimed. During 1919, the Nationalists already massacred about 12,000 Pontic Greeks throughout at least two dozen towns and villages. By early 1920, the Kemalist anti-Greek propaganda was in full swing. It had two main goals: intimidate Greeks and convince Turks that they are enemies. Nationalist army officers toured villages near Samsun, blaming Christians for

4393-570: 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

4584-472: 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

4775-468: 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,

4966-573: Is also recorded that some Bosniaks were appointed by the Sublime Porte as the regional beylerbeys in Trabzon. The Eyalet of Trabzon had always sent troops for the Ottoman campaigns in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Trebizond had a wealthy merchant class during the late Ottoman period, and the local Christian minority had a substantial influence in terms of culture, economy and politics. A number of European consulates were opened in

5157-718: 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

5348-563: Is spoken mostly by the older generations. Trabzon Province has a total area of 4,685 square kilometres (1,809 sq mi) and is bordered by the provinces of Rize , Giresun , and Gümüşhane . The total area is 22.4% plateau and 77.6% hills. The Pontic Mountains pass through the Trabzon Province. Trabzon used to be an important reference point for navigators in the Black Sea during harsh weather conditions. The popular expression "perdere la Trebisonda" (losing Trebizond)

5539-453: Is still commonly used in the Italian language to describe situations in which the sense of direction is lost. The Italian maritime republics such as Venice and in particular Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries. Trabzon has four lakes: Uzungöl , Çakırgöl, Sera, and Haldizen Lakes. There are several streams, but no rivers in Trabzon. Trabzon has a climate typical of

5730-534: Is the most   ... vital issue". A few days after the war started, on May 19, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was ordered to go to Samsun , which is a city in the Pontus region, to create order there. Instead, he brought more Turkish nationalists together and strengthened his tactics against the Pontic Greeks: even more Greeks would be kidnapped, killed, and tortured. Immediately after Kemal's landing in Samsun,

5921-726: 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

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6112-492: Is traditionally called Romeika by its native speakers. The earliest Greek colonies in 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

6303-553: Is written as طربزون . During Ottoman times, Tara Bozan was also used. In Laz it is known as ტამტრა ( T'amt'ra ) or T'rap'uzani , in Georgian it is ტრაპიზონი ( T'rap'izoni ) and in Armenian it is Տրապիզոն ( Trapizon ). The 19th-century Armenian travelling priest Byjiskian called the city by other, native names, including Hurşidabat and Ozinis . Western geographers and writers used many spelling variations of

6494-612: 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

6685-662: The Aq Qoyunlu , raided Trebizond. In 1348, he besieged Trebizond, however he failed and lifted the siege. Later on, Alexios III of Trebizond gave his sister to Kutlu Beg son of Tur Ali Beg, and established a kinship with them. Constantinople remained the Byzantine capital until it was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, who also conquered Trebizond eight years later, in 1461. Its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after

6876-754: The British Museum , London. Cyrus the Great added the city to the Achaemenid Empire , and was possibly the first ruler to consolidate the eastern Black Sea region into a single political entity (a satrapy ). Trebizond's trade partners included the Mossynoeci . When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand mercenaries were fighting their way out of Persia , the first Greek city they reached was Trebizond (Xenophon, Anabasis , 5.5.10). The city and

7067-599: The Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Trebizond came under Seljuk rule. This rule proved transient when an expert soldier and local aristocrat, Theodore Gabras took control of the city from the Turkish invaders, and regarded Trebizond, in the words of Anna Comnena , "as a prize which had fallen to his own lot" and ruled it as his own kingdom. Supporting Comnena's assertion, Simon Bendall has identified

7258-473: The Dardanelles , and nearby Kerasous . Like most Greek colonies, the city was a small enclave of Greek life, and not an empire unto its own, in the later European sense of the word. As a colony, Trapezous initially paid tribute to Sinope, but early banking (money-changing) activity is suggested to have occurred in the city already in the 4th century BC, according to a silver drachma coin from Trapezus in

7449-661: 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,

7640-676: The Russian Revolution of 1917 Russian soldiers in the city turned to rioting and looting, with officers commandeering Trebizonian ships to flee the scene. Governor Chrysantos was able to calm the Russian soldiers down, and the Russian Army ultimately retreated from the city and the rest of eastern and northeastern Anatolia . In March and April of 1918 the city hosted the Trebizond Peace Conference , where

7831-545: The Second Greco-Turkish War and resulted in almost complete disappearance of Greeks in area. American historian Ryan Gyngeras noted: While the number of victims in Ankara's deportations remains elusive, evidence from other locations suggest that the Nationalists were as equally disposed to collective punishment and population politics as their Young Turk antecedents   ... As in the First World War,

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8022-556: The Silk Road caravans carrying goods from Asia stopped at the port of Trebizond, where the European merchants purchased these goods and carried them to the port cities of Europe with ships. This trade provided a source of revenue to the state in the form of custom duties, or kommerkiaroi , levied on the goods sold in Trebizond. The Greeks protected the coastal and inland trade routes with a vast network of garrison forts. Following

8213-711: 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

8404-543: The Tombs of 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

8595-652: The Young Turk regime, which was led by the Three Pashas , and, after a short interwar pause in 1918–1919, continued until 1923 by the Kemalist regime which was led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk . Both nationalist movements massacred the Pontians and deported them to the interior regions of Anatolia . This resulted in approximately 350,000 deaths–about half of Pontic pre-genocide population. The genocide ended with

8786-599: 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

8977-707: The 11th century AD, Pontus was largely isolated from the rest of 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

9168-847: The 15th century AD. Greek presence in Pontus remained vibrant during 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

9359-541: 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 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 ,

9550-583: 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

9741-430: The 19th century. The city got a post office in 1845. New churches and mosques were built in the second half of the 19th century, as well as the first theater, public and private printing houses, multiple photo studios and banks. The oldest known photographs of the city center date from the 1860s and depict one of the last camel trains from Persia. Between one and two thousand Armenians are believed to have been killed in

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9932-410: 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

10123-399: 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

10314-449: The Allied occupation of Constantinople and advocating for their extermination. In Unye and Fatsa, Turks posted placards, blaming Christians "for all their troubles". Kemalists arrested and deported Polycacpos, the Greek bishop of the mixed town of Ordu, to Ankara. Turks patrolled the town fully armed, except when Allied ships were in port, leading Christians to fear leaving their homes. In Samsun Nationalists, emphasizing "the religious side of

10505-540: The Armenian community, while the vast majority of Christians were Greeks. However, a significant portion of the local Christians were Islamized by the end of the 17th century - especially those outside the city - according to a research by Prof. Halil İnalcık on the Ottoman tax books ( tahrir defterleri ). Between 1461 and 1598 Trabzon remained the administrative center of the wider region; first as 'sanjac center' of Rum Eyalet , later of Erzincan-Bayburt eyalet , Anadolu Eyalet , and Erzurum Eyalet . In 1598 it became

10696-582: The Armenians, so the Committee of Union and Progress did not want to provoke Athens (which were neutral until 1916) into siding with the Entente . Greece also had a Muslim minority and could start a similar campaign toward it. Additionally, if it was possible to portray Armenians as "rebels", Greeks clearly did not rise up. With this in mind, Young Turks followed the tactic of "white massacres": deportations and forced labor. Pontic Greek men (aged 18–48) were forcibly conscripted into labor battalions and died in large numbers, sometimes over 90 percent. "The life of

10887-481: The Bafra hinterland were sent "to wander from one village to another". An American naval officer noted that these deportees had been placed in hot baths for "cleaning" and then were marched with very little clothing and food, so they were dying from frost, hunger and exhaustion. In Samsun, after the deportation of notables, mass expulsions were conducted on January 10–13, 1917. Houses of deportees were subsequently plundered and torched or occupied by muhacirs . Survivors of

11078-458: 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

11269-467: 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

11460-413: The Black Sea trade, the Genoese bought the coastal fortification "Leonkastron", just west of the winter harbour, in the year 1306. The Venetians likewise built a trading outpost in the city, a few hundred meters to the west of the Genoese. In between these two Italian colonies settled many other European traders, and it thus became known as the "European Quarter". Small groups of Italians continued to live in

11651-442: 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

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11842-420: 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

12033-403: The CUP regime did not take long to manifest itself. Well before Kemalist population politics became well articulated and programmatic, ad hoc and pre-emptive deportations were used to serve the purpose of preventing trouble. American historian Benjamin Lieberman described the Nationalist attitude towards Pontic Greeks and compared it with CUP's towards Armenians: The rise of the Nationalists gave

12224-531: The Caucasus arrived in the city, especially after 1864, in what is known as the Circassian genocide . Next to Constantinople, Smyrna (now İzmir ) and Salonika (now Thessaloniki ), Trebizond was one of the cities where western cultural and technological innovations were first introduced to the Ottoman Empire. In 1835, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions opened the Trebizond Mission station that it occupied from 1835 to 1859 and from 1882 to at least 1892. Hundreds of schools were constructed in

12415-455: 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

12606-807: The Committee of Union and Progress during the Great War: Pontic Greeks were now labeled a traitor people, much as the Armenians had been in 1915. Yet at this point full-scale ethnic cleansing was not far off. The Pontic Greeks, Turkish Nationalists concluded, had stabbed them in the back, and there was no place for them in the new Turkey. To sum up, despite some differences between these two movements, in terms of policy towards minorities they were very similar. Hence, Kemalists continued Young Turk ethnic cleansing policy towards Pontic Greeks and other Christian minorities in order to create Turkish national homogeneous country. Probably for this reason Riza Nur, one of Turkish delegates at Lausanne, wrote that "disposing of people of different races, languages and religions in our country

12797-484: The Empire of Trebizond consisted of little more than a narrow strip along the southern coast of the Black Sea , and not much further inland than the Pontic Mountains . However, the city gained great wealth from the taxes it levied on the goods traded between Persia and Europe via the Black Sea. The Mongol siege of Baghdad in 1258 diverted more trade caravans towards the city. Genoese and to a lesser extent Venetian traders regularly came to Trebizond. To secure their part of

12988-408: The Greco-Turkish and Armeno-Turkish wars (1919–1923) were in essence processes of state formation that represented a continuation of ethnic unmixing and exclusion of Ottoman Christians from Anatolia. The subsequent proclamation of a Turkish nation state on 29 October 1923 was more of an intermezzo than a start or an end". Attila Tuygan in his work Genocide for the motherland writes: "The statement that

13179-477: The Greek Orthodox community. Pontic Greeks continued to live and build under Ottoman rule. For example, Pontians in Gümüşhane established 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

13370-447: 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

13561-442: 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

13752-599: 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 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

13943-880: The Karadere river valley in modern-day Araklı , 25 kilometers east of the city - the local Muslim population tried to protect the Christian Armenians. The coastal region between the city and the Russian frontier became the site of key battles between the Ottoman and Russian armies during the Trebizond Campaign , as part of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I. The Russian army landed at Atina , east of Rize on March 4, 1916. Lazistan Sanjak fell within two days. However, due to heavy guerrilla resistance around Of and Çaykara some 50 km to

14134-456: The Kavak gorge on August 15 or 16. Ankara's government argued that those men at Kavak had been killed in battle, following an alleged attack by "Greek bands" on Turks. On August 31, about 6,000 Greek women and children from Bafra were deported, with an additional 2,500 on September 19. The only Greeks permitted to remain were the ailing individuals who paid bribes. An American group encountered

14325-546: 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

14516-538: 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

14707-422: The Ottoman conquest in 1461, as a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants, usually referred to as Pontic Greeks , continued to live in the area during Ottoman rule, up until 1923, when they were deported to Greece. A few thousand Greek Muslims still live in the area, mostly in the Çaykara - Of dialectical region to the southeast of Trabzon. Most are Sunni Muslim, while there are some recent converts in

14898-409: 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

15089-628: The Ottomans agreed to give up their military gains in the Caucasus in return for recognition of the eastern borders of the empire in Anatolia by the Transcaucasian Seim (a short-lived transcaucasian government). In December 1918 Trabzon deputy governor Hafız Mehmet gave a speech at the Ottoman parliament in which he blamed the former governor of Trebizond province Cemal Azmi – a non-native appointee who had fled to Germany after

15280-721: The Pontians. What the Young Turks were afraid to do systematically to the Greeks, the Turkish National Movement accomplished as soon as they got such opportunity. Although persecutions had already begun around 1919–1920, the full-scale operation in Pontus started in March 1921. It was mainly led by Central Army under general Nureddin Pasha , and irregulars ( Çetes ) under Topal Osman . Kemalists argued there

15471-521: The Pontic Alps. Furthermore, during the time the Köppen climate classification was created, the city center had a borderline oceanic-humid subtropical climate, falling just under the 22 °C (72 °F) threshold for the hottest month of the year, yet climate change and the city's urban heat island contributed to its reclassification as humid subtropical in recent decades. This and the fact that

15662-410: The Pontic Greeks living in Anatolia. One of the political goals of the Young Turk movement was to "Turkify" the Ottoman Empire. Their goal was to unite the Turkish people through language, history and culture; this came to the expense of the non-Turkish minorities in the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman officials feared that Christian minorities, like the Pontic Greeks, would cause instability in the empire. As

15853-726: The Pontic Mountains south of the city, where they established Vazelon Monastery in 270 AD and Sumela Monastery in 386 AD. As early as the First Council of Nicea , Trebizond had its own bishop. Subsequently, the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the Metropolitan Bishop of Poti . Then during the 9th century, Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Lazica . By

16044-413: The Pontus and elsewhere in Anatolia, were not swayed by ethnic-nationalist appeals. An American diplomat who visited major Pontic cities in the summer of 1919 noted that "many of the most influential and rational Greeks   ... in Trebizond viewed this policy [of separatism] with disfavor". Even the local Greek Archbishop, Chrysantonos, opposed it. The reasons for the reluctance of Ottoman Greeks to accept

16235-478: The Pontus region, as they were mostly directed towards Western Anatolia. Mass deportations in the region began in 1915 in Western Pontus and part of Eastern, which Russian army had not captured yet. The Ottoman government brutally persecuted the Pontic Greek community, but did not plan a full-scale extermination similar to the Armenian genocide due to multiple factors. The Greeks had a nation-state, unlike

16426-553: The Russian invasion – for orchestrating the Armenian Genocide in the city in 1915, by means of drowning. Subsequently, a series of war crimes trials were held in Trebizond in early 1919 (see Trebizond during the Armenian Genocide ). Among others, Cemal Azmi was sentenced to death in absentia. During the Turkish War of Independence several Christian Pontic Greek communities in the Trebizond province rebelled against

16617-578: The Trebizond vilayet during the Hamidian massacres of 1895. While this number was low in comparison to other Ottoman provinces, its impact on the Armenian community in the city was large. Many prominent Armenian residents, among them scholars, musicians, photographers and painters, decided to migrate towards the Russian Empire or France. The large Greek population of the city was not affected by

16808-608: 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

16999-420: The Turkish national liberation war was waged against imperialism is based on nothing. On the contrary, as noted by Professor Taner Akcham, the liberation war "was fought not against aggressors, but against minorities"." Preference of this term has also been criticized by Corry Guttstadt as it causes Turkey to be portrayed as "a victim of imperialist forces". In this version of events, minority groups are depicted as

17190-530: The Turkish parliament. Ali Şükrü Bey, who had studied in Deniz Harp Okulu (Turkish Naval Academy) and worked as a journalist in the United Kingdom, is seen as a hero by the people of Trabzon, while in neighboring Giresun there is a statue of his murderer Topal Osman. Three years later Trabzon deputy Hafız Mehmet - who had testified to his knowledge of, and opposition to, the Armenian Genocide -

17381-498: The Turkish state established a holiday on May 19, Atatürk Memorial Day, Youth and Sports Day ( Turkish: Atatürk'ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı ). Considering the nature of that war (for example, incomparability of foreign military losses and civilian deaths among Christian minorities), the term "Turkish Liberation War" ( Turkish: Turk Kurtuluş Savaşı ) is disputed not only by Greek historians, but also by some modern Turkish and Western historians. Uğur Ümit Üngör states that "As such,

17572-509: The Turks hope, but placed Turkey's Greeks in peril. Ottoman Greeks had suffered persecution during World War 1 even before Greece entered the war. Now with Greece directly involved in war in Anatolia, they feared worse: a radical Turkish Nationalist campaign to purify Turkey   ... The most telling evidence of the deportation of the Pontic Greeks came from Turkish Nationalists as they responded to queries about treatment of Greeks from Allied commissioners at Constantinople. Their explanation echoed

17763-550: The War to go back to their homes in Anatolia. However, most of their homes were destroyed and it was not safe for them to stay there. The armistice also allowed Greece to invade in Turkey if they felt like they needed to protect the Greeks in Anatolia. This is why Greece came to the city of Smyrna on May 15, 1919, and started the Second Greco-Turkish War. The second phase of the Pontic Greek genocide took place during

17954-420: The area, but the old ethnic Greek , Laz and Armenian communities remained. According to the Ottoman tax books ( tahrir defterleri ), the total population of taxable adult males (only those with a household) in the city was 1,473 in the year 1523. The total population of the city was much higher. Approximately 85% of the population was Christian, and 15% Muslim. Thirteen percent of the adult males belonged to

18145-467: The basis of several states in its long history and was the capital city of the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 and 1461 . During the early modern period , Trabzon, because of the importance of its port, again became a focal point of trade to Persia and the Caucasus . The Turkish name of the city is Trabzon. The first recorded name of the city is the Greek Tραπεζοῦς ( Trapezous ), referencing

18336-640: The capital of its own province - the Eyalet of Trebizond - which in 1867 became the Vilayet of Trebizond . During the reign of Sultan Bayezid II , his son Prince Selim (later Sultan Selim I ) was the Sanjak-bey of Trabzon, and Selim I's son Suleiman the Magnificent was born in Trabzon in 1494. The Ottoman government often appointed local Chepni Turks and Laz beys as the regional beylerbey . It

18527-569: 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

18718-478: The city and possibly a few Crypto-Christians in the Tonya / Gümüşhane area to the southwest of the city. Compared to most previously Greek cities in Turkey, a large amount of its Greek Byzantine architectural heritage survives as well. The last Emperor of Trebizond, David , surrendered the city to Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461. Following this takeover, Mehmed II sent many Turkish settlers into

18909-643: The city by armed Turkish port-workers. Governor Chrysantos travelled to the Paris Peace Conference , where he proposed the establishment of the Republic of Pontus , which would protect its different ethnic groups. For this he was condemned to death by the Turkish Nationalist forces, and he could not return to his post in Trebizond. Instead, the city was to be handed to ' Wilsonian Armenia ', which likewise never materialized. Following

19100-473: The city due to its importance in regional trade and commerce. In the first half of the 19th century, Trebizond even became the main port for Persian exports. The opening of the Suez Canal greatly diminished the international trading position of the city, but did not halt the economic development of the region. In the last decades of the 19th century, the city saw some demographic changes. As the population of

19291-550: The city to Western Europe. Trebizond played a mythical role in European literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Miguel de Cervantes and François Rabelais gave their protagonists the desire to possess the city. Next to literature, the legendary history of the city – and that of the Pontus in general – also influenced the creation of paintings , theatre plays and operas in Western Europe throughout

19482-482: The city until the early decades of the 20th century. One of the most famous persons to have visited the city in this period was Marco Polo , who ended his overland return journey at the port of Trebizond, and sailed to his hometown Venice with a ship; passing by Constantinople ( Istanbul ) on the way, which was retaken by the Byzantines in 1261. Together with Persian goods, Italian traders brought stories about

19673-538: The city was first handed to the Galatians , but it was soon returned to the grandson of Mithradates, and subsequently became part of the new client Kingdom of Pontus. When the kingdom was finally annexed to the Roman province of Galatia two centuries later, the fleet passed to new commanders, becoming the Classis Pontica . The city received the status of civitas libera , extending its judicial autonomy and

19864-418: The city was reestablished with a quadrivium curriculum. The university drew students not just from the Byzantine Empire , but from Armenia as well. The city regained importance when it became the seat of the theme of Chaldia . Trebizond also benefited when the trade route regained importance in the 8th to 10th centuries; 10th-century Muslim authors note that Trebizond was frequented by Muslim merchants, as

20055-536: The city was taken without a fight by the Russian Caucasus Army under command of Grand Duke Nicholas and Nikolai Yudenich . There was also a massacre of Armenians and Greeks in Trabzon just before the Russian takeover of the city. Many adult Turkish males left the city out of fear for reprisals, even though governor Chrysantos included them in his administration. According to some sources the Russians banned Muslim mosques , and forced Turks , who were

20246-586: The city; the holy springs of Mt. Minthrion to the east of the old town were devoted to the Persian-Anatolian Greek god Mithra . In the 2nd century BC, the city with its natural harbours was added to the Kingdom of Pontus by Pharnaces I . Mithridates VI Eupator made it the home port of the Pontic fleet, in his quest to remove the Romans from Anatolia. After the defeat of Mithridates in 66 BC,

20437-533: The coastal region of the district of Kastanomu has been exiled (...) In Turkish the terms deportation and extermination have the same meaning, because in most cases those who are not killed fall victim to disease or starvation." In a special cable the New York Times of August 21, 1916 reported that Turkish authorities in the Black Sea regions "are rounding up civilians in a considerable number of villages and sending them off in batches to concentration camps in

20628-497: The continuation of the Pontic genocide with the "Greek intervention". Early 1921 saw renewed mass conscription of able-bodied Greeks. They were destined for labor battalions, which, "in reality", a missionary wrote, meant they would "starve or freeze to death". Also Turkish authorities made false birth certificates declaring Greek orphans to be older than they actually were. In this way, teenage boys were also conscripted into labour battalions. The campaign of extermination began during

20819-414: The deportation of the survivors to Greece during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. The Pontic genocide is part of the wider Greek genocide , but it is often covered separately because of the geographic isolation of Pontus and several political and historical features. From 700 BC, Pontic Greeks lived close to the southern coast of the Black Sea in the Pontus region. They had

21010-675: The deportations were undertaken for "military reasons" and complaining about interference in its "internal affairs". However, in many regions that were very far from the frontline, Greeks were persecuted as well. For example, residents of the Ünye area were expelled in December 1915. The Greek population of Inebolu and its surrounding villages – Cide, Patheri, Atsidono, Karaca, Askordassi – was deported in June 1916. German Consul M. Kuckhoff telegraphed on July 16, 1916 from Samsun : "The entire Greek population of Sinope and

21201-599: The districts of Amissos, Paffra, and Arba had "completely disappeared". Fourteen villages surrounding Trabzon were burned. The Turks burned down all the villages, whose inhabitants were either killed or driven away, to die on the roads for the most part. Largescale campaign began in March 1920 in Izmit and in September 1920 in Cappadocia, but not in Pontus yet. However, Nationalist policy eliminated illusions about future of

21392-538: The dominant Caucasian groups to the east were the Laz , who were part of the monarchy of the Colchis , together with other related Georgian peoples. The city was founded in classical antiquity in 756 BC as Tραπεζούς ( Trapezous ), by Milesian traders from Sinope . It was one of a number (about ten) of Milesian emporia or trading colonies along the shores of the Black Sea. Others included Abydos and Cyzicus in

21583-481: 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

21774-471: The east of Trabzon, it took a further 40 days for the Russian army to advance west. The Ottoman administration of Trabzon foresaw the fall of the city and called for a meeting with community leaders, where they handed control of the city to Greek metropolitan bishop Chrysantos Philippidis . Chrysantos promised to protect the Muslim population of the city. Ottoman forces retreated from Trabzon, and on April 15

21965-411: The eastern Black Sea region, a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen : Cfa, Trewartha : Cf ) near the coast. A very small percentage of the province can be classified as subtropical, however, as slightly elevated rural areas near the coast are oceanic ( Cfb/Do ), the mountainous offshores are humid continental ( Dfb/Dc ) and subarctic ( Dfc/Eo ); and tundra ( ET/Ft ) can be found in the peaks of

22156-542: The election of Mustafa Kemal as the leader of the Turkish revolution at the Erzurum Congress . The governor and mayor of Trebizond were appalled by the violence against Ottoman Greek subjects, and the government of Trabzon thus refused arms to Mustafa Kemal's henchman Topal Osman , who was responsible for mass murders in the western Pontus which were part of the Greek Genocide . Osman was forced out of

22347-458: 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

22538-512: The fate of the other men was not better. The first convoy went to the nearby village of Blezli, where all imprisoned where killed. One, Nicholas Jordanoglon, paid 300 Turkish lira to be shot rather than butchered with an axe or bayonet. 500 men, from the second convoy, were burned alive in the church in Selamelik. Another 680, from the third, were murdered in the church at Kavdje-son. Approximately 1,300 Greeks (the last two convoys) were killed in

22729-530: The final stage of the genocide. In late May 1919, Kemal, having recently arrived in Samsun, informed Constantinople that since the Armistice there were "forty guerrilla bands", engaged in an "organized program", and were killing Turks to "establish a Pontus state". However, the reality was completely different. All this separatist hubbub resulted in no organized acts of rebellion and very few instances of anti-Turkish actions. The majority of Ottoman Greeks, both in

22920-400: 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

23111-400: The following centuries. The city also played a role in the early Renaissance ; the western takeover of Constantinople, which formalized Trebizond's political independence, also led Byzantine intellectuals to seek refuge in the city. Especially Alexios II of Trebizond and his grandson Alexios III were patrons of the arts and sciences. After the great city fire of 1310, the ruined university

23302-522: 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

23493-446: The genocide. When the escorts desired, they abused victims, sometimes committing massacres through direct killings. Deportations involved chiefly women and children as, by early 1915, most adult men had been mobilized in labor battalions. In January 1916, the Russians launched a major offensive. As the result, they broke through the Ottoman defences and by April captured a huge area of Eastern Pontus, including Rize and Trabzon . During

23684-502: The grandfather of Ahmet Ertegün . These migrants were active in a wide range of trades including baking, confection, tailoring, carpentry, education, advocacy, politics and administration. The influence of this diaspora has since continued, and can still be seen in the many restaurants and shops in cities around the Black Sea in the 21st century such as in Istanbul, Odesa and Mariupol . At the same time, thousands of Muslim refugees from

23875-563: 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

24066-518: The interior. This means practically a sentence to death, for in large numbers they are forced to go afoot, absolutely without food. En route these pitiful caravans are attacked by Turks, who rob them of whatever they have in their possession, unhappy mothers being deprived of their children. The deportations are on a considerable scale". During December 1916, the Turks deported notables from Samsun, Bafra , Ordu, Tirebolu, Amasya and Çarşamba, and reportedly hanged 200 Greeks for "desertion". The villagers of

24257-636: 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

24448-417: The largest ethnic group living in the city, to leave Trabzon. However, already during the Russian occupation many Turks who had fled to surrounding villages started to return to the city, and governor Chrysantos helped them to re-establish their facilities such as schools, to the dismay of the Russians. In early 1917 Chrysantos tried to broker a peace between the Russians and the Ottomans, to no avail. During

24639-456: 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

24830-523: 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

25021-634: The local Mossynoeci had become estranged from the Mossynoecian capital, to the point of civil war. Xenophon's force resolved this in the rebels' favor, and so in Trebizond's interest. Up until the conquests of Alexander the Great the city remained under the dominion of the Achaemenids. While the Pontus was not directly affected by the war, its cities gained independence as a result of it. Local ruling families continued to claim partial Persian heritage, and Persian culture had some lasting influence on

25212-483: The lowest average minimum temperature is almost 5 °C (41 °F) in February. Precipitation is heaviest in autumn and winter, with a marked reduction in the summer months, a microclimatic condition of the city center compared to the rest of the region. Snowfall is somewhat common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows. The water temperature, like in

25403-405: The main meal in many restaurants in the city. Major exports from Trabzon include hazelnuts and tea . The city still has a sizable community of Greek-speaking Muslims , most of whom are originally from the vicinities of Tonya , Sürmene and Çaykara . However, the variety of the Pontic Greek language - known as " Romeika " in the local vernacular, Pontiaka in Greek, and Rumca in Turkish -

25594-437: The main source transshipping Byzantine silks into eastern Muslim countries. According to the 10th century Arab geographer Abul Feda it was regarded as being largely a Lazian port. The Italian maritime republics such as the Republic of Venice and in particular the Republic of Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries, using Trebizond as an important seaport for trading goods between Europe and Asia. Some of

25785-522: The march were dispersed in Turkish villages. A post-war investigation by an American consul estimates that about 5,000 Greeks were eliminated from the city by massacre, expulsion, and flight to the hills. There were also deportations from the Fatsa, Nikassar, and Çarşamba areas. After World War I, the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain signed the Armistice of Mudros . This agreement allowed Greek survivors of

25976-428: The mass deportation of civilians was symptomatic of how precarious the Nationalists felt their prospects were. Swiss historian Hans-Lukas Kieser wrote: Thus, from spring 1919, Kemal Pasha resumed, with ex-CUP forces, domestic war against Greek and Armenian rivals. These were partly backed by victors of World War I who had, however, abstained from occupying Asia Minor. The war for Asia Minor – in national diction, again

26167-467: The massacre. Ivan Aivazovsky made the painting Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895 based on the events. Due to the high number of Western Europeans in the city, news from the region was being reported on in many European newspapers. These western newspapers were in turn also very popular among the residents of the city. Ottoman era paintings and drawings of Trebizond In 1901 the harbour

26358-612: The meaning "hullabaloo, imbroglio". Before the city was founded as a Greek colony the area was dominated by Colchians (west Georgian) and Chaldian (Anatolian) tribes. The Hayasa , who had been in conflict with the Central-Anatolian Hittites in the 14th century BC, are believed to have lived in the area south of Trabzon. Later Greek authors mentioned the Macrones and the Chalybes as native peoples. One of

26549-555: 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

26740-522: 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,

26931-547: The name throughout the Middle Ages. These versions of the name, which have incidentally been used in English literature as well, include: Trebizonde ( Fr. ), Trapezunt ( German ), Trebisonda ( Sp. ), Trapesunta ( It. ), Trapisonda , Tribisonde , Terabesoun , Trabesun , Trabuzan , Trabizond and Tarabossan . In Spanish the name was known from chivalric romances and Don Quixote . Because of its similarity to trápala and trapaza , trapisonda acquired

27122-471: The new army of Mustafa Kemal (notably in Bafra and Santa ), but when nationalist Greeks came to Trabzon to proclaim revolution, they were not received with open arms by the local Pontic Greek population of the city. At the same time the Muslim population of the city, remembering their protection under Greek governor Chrysantos, protested the arrest of prominent Christians. Liberal delegates of Trebizond opposed

27313-464: 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

27504-446: The operation had extended to towns. In Bafra , the local Greek elite were invited to a dinner, where they were all slaughtered. Turks then rounded up and massacred young Greek men. On June 5, Bafra was besieged by Turkish troops and paramilitary formations, which demanded surrender from men. Some hid. Turks then searched and pillaged houses, violating women. Men were taken away, escorted by convoys. Seven Bafra priests were hacked to death,

27695-418: The pan-Hellenic national message, let alone act upon it, remain unclear. It could be attributed to a lack of well-developed political consciousness or centuries of submission to Islamic dominance. Additionally, the fear of massacres, similar to what had happened to Armenians, likely played a significant role. Demographic factors were also important, as Turks were the majority in Pontus, as they were in Anatolia as

27886-549: The permanent occupation and Hellenization of certain Anatolian regions, particularly with the prospect of Ionia coming under direct Athenian rule, because it might cause the separatism of other Ottoman Greeks. The fear of rebellion by Greeks, leading to the establishment of a Pontic state along the Black Sea, intensified significantly after the Greek landing in Smyrna on May 15. This became one of main reasons (and justifications) for

28077-425: The population exchange. Şükrü argued that recognition of ethnic diversity was not a threat to the Turkish nation. Topal Osman's men would eventually murder parliamentarian Şükrü for his criticism of the nationalist government of Mustafa Kemal in March 1923. Topal Osman was later sentenced to death and killed while resisting arrest. After pressure from the opposition, his headless body was hanged by his foot in front of

28268-407: The province during the first half of the 19th century, giving the region one of the highest literacy rates of the empire. First, the Greek community set up their schools, but soon the Muslim and Armenian communities followed. International schools were also established in the city; An American school, five French schools, a Persian school and a number of Italian schools were opened in the second half of

28459-562: The province greatly expanded due to increased living standards, many families and young men - mostly Christians , but also some Jews and Greek or Turkish speaking Muslims - chose to migrate to the Crimea and southern Ukraine, in search for farmland or employment in one of the cities which had been newly established there. Among these migrants were the grandparents of Bob Dylan and Greek politicians and artists. Many Christian and Muslim families from Trabzon also moved to Constantinople, where they established businesses or sought employment - such as

28650-407: The question", incited the Turkish population by "preaching a Holy War". They accused the Greeks of violating Turkish women and desecrating the Holy Tombs of Sheikhs in captured towns like Bursa. Some members of GNAT proposed a law calling for the deportation of all Greeks from the Black Sea region. However, it was not adopted officially, because Kemal preferred less publicized methods at this time. In

28841-405: 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

29032-443: 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

29223-406: 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

29414-489: The rest of Anatolia continued to exist throughout the 20th century, and still influences Turkish politics today. Even in the 21st century, politicians who hail from Trabzon are often faced with xenophobic attacks from both nationalist and conservative circles. During World War II shipping activity was limited because the Black Sea had again become a war zone. Hence, the most important export products, tobacco and hazelnuts , could not be sold and living standards degraded. As

29605-405: The rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, is generally mild, and fluctuates between 8 °C (46 °F) and 20 °C (68 °F) throughout the year. As of 1920, the port at Trabzon was considered "the most important of the Turkish Black Sea ports" by the British . It traded as far as Tabriz and Mosul . As of 1911, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey signed an agreement to develop

29796-519: The retreat, Kamil Pasha ordered the deportation of Greek villagers. It was conducted in winter, when temperature was close to zero, so many froze on the road. During spring and summer, the authorities continued deportations, which affected dozens of villages in Trabzon vilayet . Some Greeks fled to surrounding forests and mountains. Many women were rounded up and taken to Vazelon Monastery, where Turks "first violated them, and then put them to death". The government countered Western protests by claiming that

29987-407: The right to mint its own coin. Trebizond gained importance for its access to roads leading over the Zigana Pass to the Armenian frontier or the upper Euphrates valley. New roads were constructed from Persia and Mesopotamia under the rule of Vespasian . In the next century, the emperor Hadrian commissioned improvements to give the city a more structured harbor. The emperor visited the city in

30178-463: 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

30369-414: The southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast. The Venetian and Genoese merchants paid visits to Trabzon during the medieval period and sold silk , linen and woolen fabric. Both republics had merchant colonies within the city – Leonkastron and the former "Venetian castle" – that played a role to Trabzon similar to the one Galata played to Constantinople (modern Istanbul ). Trabzon formed

30560-415: The spring, affecting rural Greek communities. In the villages of Black Sea's Duzce (Kurtsuyu) kaza, many elderly people were burned alive. Villages around Alacam , Bafra , and Çarşamba were also attacked, as well as inland areas like Havza and Visirkopru. Turks were meticulous to avoid American witnesses. So missionaries were confined to Samsun , the regional missionary center. However, survivors reached

30751-440: The subtropical microclimate zone along the shore occupies a very narrow band due to the continuous parallel mountain range starting right at the coast is why local authorities still classify the city as oceanic, as this climate subtype is better representative of the entire coastal region of the province. Summers are warm, the average maximum temperature is around 28 °C (82 °F) in August, while winters are generally cool,

30942-498: The summer of 1920 Osman Aga, the brigand leader who was now also mayor of Giresun, pillaged coastal villages. In Giresun itself, on the night of August 13, Osman imprisoned all the Christian men. Thereafter every evening five or six Christians were taken out and shot, until the Christian community paid a ransom of 300,000 Turkish lira. While their husbands were in jail, "the women were violated". Some Greek men were subsequently deported inland from both Giresun and Samsun. The Greek towns in

31133-424: The table-like central hill between the Zağnos (İskeleboz) and Kuzgun streams on which it was founded ( τράπεζα meant "table" in Ancient Greek ; note the table on the coin in the figure). In Latin , Trabzon is called Trapezus , which is a latinization of its ancient Greek name. Both in Pontic Greek and Modern Greek , it is called Τραπεζούντα ( Trapezounta ). In Ottoman Turkish and Persian , it

31324-407: The time of Justinian , the city served as an important base in his Persian Wars, and Miller notes that a portrait of the general Belisarius "long adorned the church of St. Basil." An inscription above the eastern gate of the city, commemorated the reconstruction of the civic walls at Justinian's expense following an earthquake. At some point before the 7th century the university (Pandidakterion) of

31515-413: 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

31706-444: The topic of national identity and global citizenship . They were so influential that Bessarion was considered for the position of Pope , and George could survive as an academic even after being defamed for his heavy criticism of Plato. The Black Death arrived at the city in September 1347, probably via Kaffa . At that time the local aristocracy was engaged in the Trapezuntine Civil War . In 1340, Tur Ali Beg, an early ancestor of

31897-410: The town and told their stories. American naval officers reported that the campaign was "under strict control of the military", "directed by high authority – probably Angora [Ankara]", and conducted, at least partially, by soldiers. An eyewitness detailed that villages near Bafra faced "incendiarism, shooting, slaying, hanging, and outranging". The villages were left "turned to heaps of ruins". By summer,

32088-411: 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

32279-429: The vicinity, who moved to Greece (founding the new towns of Nea Trapezounta, Pieria and Nea Trapezounta, Grevena amongst others). During the war Trebizond parliamentarian Ali Şükrü Bey had been one of the leading figures of the first Turkish opposition party . In his newspaper Tan , Şükrü and colleagues publicized critiques of the Kemalist government, such as towards the violence perpetrated against Greeks during

32470-454: The war, the Treaty of Sèvres was annulled and replaced with the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). As part of this new treaty, Trebizond became part of the new Turkish Republic . The efforts of the pro- Ottoman , anti-nationalist population of Trebizond only postponed the inevitable, because the national governments of Turkey and Greece agreed to a mutual forced population exchange . This exchange included well over 100,000 Greeks from Trebizond and

32661-444: 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 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

32852-528: The winter of 1914–15, while during those same months the Russian navy bombarded the city a total of five times, taking 1300 lives. Especially the port quarter Çömlekçi and surrounding neighborhoods were targeted. In July 1915 most of the adult male Armenians of the city were marched off south in five convoys, towards the mines of Gümüşhane, never to be seen again. Other victims of the Armenian genocide were reportedly taken out to sea in boats which were then capsized. In some areas of Trebizond province - such as

33043-400: The year 129 as part of his inspection of the eastern border ( limes ). A mithraeum now serves as a crypt for the church and monastery of Panagia Theoskepastos ( Kızlar Manastırı ) in nearby Kizlara, east of the citadel and south of the modern harbor. Septimius Severus punished Trebizond for having supported his rival Pescennius Niger during the Year of the Five Emperors . In 257 the city

33234-411: Was "not an obscure town." Christianity had reached Trebizond by the third century, for during the reign of Diocletian occurred the martyrdom of Eugenius and his associates Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila. Eugenius had destroyed the statue of Mithras which overlooked the city from Mount Minthrion (Boztepe), and became the patron saint of the city after his death. Early Christians sought refuge in

33425-474: Was Pontic rebellion, Greeks were killing Turks, and Pontic Greeks had joined the Greek army . Western observers unequivocally refuted the existence of an ongoing or planned Pontic "rebellion". The arrival of a Greek naval squadron in the Black Sea in the summer of 1921 was also cited by the Nationalists and their supporters as an excuse, as it stopped Turkish ships, captured passengers and lightly shelled Inebolu . This might have accelerated deportations, but it

33616-417: Was also executed, for his alleged involvement in the İzmir plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal. The literal decapitation of the Turkish political opposition - which was in large part based in the Trabzon region - decreased the city's national influence, and led to a long-standing animosity between the Kemalists and the population of Trabzon. A political and cultural divide between the Eastern Black Sea Region and

33807-429: 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

33998-415: 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

34189-418: Was certainly not the campaign's cause, which had started months before. As Count Schmeccia of Lloyd Triestino in Samsun , who was formerly an Italian High Commission representative, noted, the Inebolu bombardment, which had brought no casualties, served only as a "Turkish excuse for the massacres". In the midst of the Greek offensive in Asia Minor , and immediately after the Battle of Kütahya–Eskişehir which

34380-449: Was described as having "large leaves and a bright colour." Trabzon was known for producing poor quality cereals , mostly for local use. Trabzon produced a white green bean , which was sold in Europe. It was, as of 1920, the only vegetable exported out of the province. Poultry farming was also popular in Trabzon. Sericulture was seen in the area before 1914. The area produced copper , silver , zinc , iron and manganese . Copper

34571-425: Was equipped with cranes by Stothert & Pitt of Bath in England. In 1912 the Sümer Opera House was opened on the central Meydan square, being one of the first in the empire. The start of the First World War brought an abrupt end to the relatively peaceful and prosperous period the city had seen during the previous century. First Trebizond would lose many of its young male citizens at the Battle of Sarikamish in

34762-426: Was followed by another, from Nureddin Pasha , who instructed a local governor "to proceed with all dispatch to carry out the orders he had been given, or he would soon cease to be mutassarif". An American officer who regularly visited the Pontus ports wrote that he could understand the deportation of adult males "as an inevitable consequence of the war", but "to treat poor women and helpless children   ... in such

34953-442: 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

35144-416: 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;

35335-420: Was pillaged by the Goths , despite reportedly being defended by "10,000 above its usual garrison" and two bands of walls. Trebizond was subsequently rebuilt, pillaged again, by the Persians , in 258, and then rebuilt once more. It did not soon recover. Only in the reign of Diocletian does an inscription allude to the restoration of the city; Ammianus Marcellinus had nothing to say of Trebizond except that it

35526-434: Was probably used mostly for astrological purposes for the emperor and/or the church. Scientists and philosophers of Trebizond were among the first western thinkers to compare contemporaneous theories with classical Greek texts. Basilios Bessarion and George of Trebizond travelled to Italy and taught and published works on Plato and Aristotle , starting a fierce debate and literary tradition that continues to this day on

35717-499: Was reestablished. As part of the university Gregory Choniades opened a new academy of astronomy, which housed the best observatory outside Persia. Choniades brought with him the works of Shams al-Din al-Bukhari, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini from Tabriz, which he translated into Greek. These works later found their way to western Europe, together with the astrolabe . The observatory Choniades built would become known for its accurate solar eclipse predictions, but

35908-433: 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

36099-437: Was the hard men, self-styled saviours of the Ottoman-Turkish state, and – culminating in Kemal – unapologetic génocidaires, who were able to wrest its absolute control. According to Dutch-Turkish historian and sociologist Uğur Ümit Üngör : When the CUP dissolved itself in 1918, it continued functioning under other names and succeeded in launching Mustafa Kemal to organize the Anatolian resistance it had planned since 1914. After

36290-433: Was the longest surviving of the Byzantine successor states. Byzantine authors, such as Pachymeres , and to some extent Trapezuntines such as Lazaropoulos and Bessarion , regarded the Trebizond Empire as being no more than a Lazian border state. Thus from the point of view of the Byzantine writers connected with the Lascaris and later with the Palaiologos , the rulers of Trebizond were not emperors. Geographically,

36481-423: Was victorious for the Greek army, Metropolitan Germanos arrived in Kütahya , where he proposed to send one regiment by sea to Pontus , which, together with detachments of local partisans, would move to the rear of Kemal . General Victor Dusmanis answered, "not a single soldier, especially since in a month I will be in Ankara". Dusmanis' response deprived Turkish historiographers of the opportunity to directly link

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