Genocide on Pontians

Pontos is a region in the northeast of Asia Minor (today's Turkey) bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the main), by the Greeks, after the colonisation of the Anatolian shores by the Ionian Greeks.
The exact signification of this purely territorial name varied greatly at different times. The Greeks used it loosely to denote various parts of the shores of the Euxine, and the term did not get a definite connotation of being a separate state until after the establishment of the kingdom of Pontus.
The presence of Greeks at the Euxeinus Pontos, the Black Sea, dates thousands years ago (about 1200 BC). Greek mythology refers to Jason and the Argonauts who passed Ellispontos and arrived to Kolchis (Georgia) to retake the golden hide that Frixos brother of Elli's had left there, the punishment of Prometheus by Zeus because he gave the fire to the man and the arresting of his body to the mountains of Caucasus. Xenofon and his men after their adventures in Persia, found refuge in greek cities of Pontus, (Thalatta-thalatta).
In the 8th century BC, many greek cities were created and the main occupation was sea trade. Sinope with its harbor which was founded by greek colonists from Miletos was a strong trade center with important cultural influence. The first cities preserved the same social and political organization as their colonial mother-towns.
In the period of Alexander the Great and his successors, the economic power of the Greek cities reached its zenith. Following the Anatolian conquests of Alexander the Great, local powers disintegrates, allowing the local ruler Mithridates I Ctistes (a Persian satrap) to establish an independent kingdom called Pontus.
Under the reign of king Mithridates VI Eupator (120-63 BC), the Greek language became official language of Asia Minor. From 110-100 BC, King Mithridates more than quadrupled its territory, expanding eastward, southward (temporarily conquering the Roman protectorates in central Anatolia), and northward (conquering the Bosporan Kingdom on the northern shore of the Black Sea).
In 86 BC southern Greece defected to Mithridates, and received a Pontic army which now threatened Rome in Greece. But the Pontic “Empire” had neither economic nor political stability, and Mithradates prospered only because Rome was preoccupied elsewhere. Pompey defeated him (65 BC), and when Pharnaces II tried to take advantage of the Roman civil war, Julius Caesar removed (47 BC) the threat at Zela. The Romans joined Pontus to the province of Galatia-Cappadocia. And later in the 4th century all of Pontus becomes a separate province. The principal Pontic cities where Amasia, Neocaesarea and Zela.
Even in Roman times, the Greek culture in the eastern part of the Black Sea retained its leading role in the economic and cultural life of that region. St. Andrew and St. Peter profited from the fact that the spoken language was Greek and spread Christianity to Pontos. Greek culture and Orthodoxy were united and formed a homogenous culture.
With the division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Pontus became part of the Eastern Roman Empire, later to become known as the Byzantine Empire. Pontus continued to be an autonomous state under the Imperial rule of Constantinople through much of the history of the Byzantine Empire.
During the rise of the Arabs, the empire eventually lost much of the old Roman territories and Asia Minor became the heartland of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire. During the Macedonian Emperors under the late 9th century to the 11th century the empire begun to expand and the control of Italy, the balkans, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean Sea strengthen. The Byzantine Empire was now the most powerful force in the Middle East and Europe.
After the disastrous battle of Manzikert 1071 however, where the Byzantine armies where defeated by the Seljuk Turks, much of asia minor was permanently lost.
At the accession of Alexios I Komnenos (1081 AD), whole of Pontos & Cappadocia, including the rest of Asia minor was lost to the turks, with exception of a few coastal cities like Trebizond. Inflation was spiralling out of control, the coinage was heavily debased, the fiscal system was confused (there were six different nomismata in circulation), and the imperial treasury was empty.
Alexios and his successors suceeded, however, in reconquering great parts of Asia minor, stabilizing the economy and restore the empire to the position as the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. But after the death of the last Komnenian emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos 1185, the Angeloi dynasti took control of the empire and succeeded, in less than 20 years, to destroy the empire that at that time was a great power, economically prosperous and secure on its frontiers.
They consummated the financial ruin of the state, permitted the empire to be administered by unworthy favourites, and leaved the Empire practically defenceless. They had also a great part in the single biggest catastrophe of the Empire: the sack and capture of Constantinople 1204.
According to a prearranged treaty,what remained of the Byzantine empire was dissolved and its territories divided between Venice and the Latin Empire of Constantinople. The Greek Orthodox clergy were displaced by Latin Catholic clergy, while the nobility were displaced by Latin feudal barons. Byzantine exiles fled Constantinople, taking refuge in Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus.
Alexios, grandson of Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos founded in Pontos the Empire of Trebizond which had at that time great development.
The fall of Constantinople (1453) and, eight years later of Trebizond (1461) mark one of the greatest disasters in Greek history. Mehmet later murdered the emperor David and 5 of his children and forbade their bodies to be burried. But David's wife alone buried her husband and her children with her bare hands. She was imprisoned for that action.
Immediately after the seize of Trebizond by the Ottomans, many inhabitants of the rich coastal towns fled. Most of them escaped into the remote mountain regions of Pontos.
In keeping with Ottoman practice, twothirds of the Greek population of Trabzon were removed to other parts of the Empire at the time of the conquest. A majority were settled in Istanbul where they formed the core of the capital's "Phanariote" families of Christian Greeks, exercising immense influence in the 17th and 18th centuries. They included the Ypsilantis, whose descendants would eventually lead the Greek independence movement.
Other Pontians escaped into the remote mountain regions of Pontos. Here, out of the sight of the new rulers, they founded new villages and cities, a new and free Greek civilization, which lasted for 150 years. However, part of the refugees settled in central Russia, at the coasts of southern Russia, in the region of Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan, where they founded new Greek cities, cultural centers, to which persecuted Greeks were gracefully received also in later years.
This in turn resulted in the simultaneous existence of a second Pontian-Greek civilization, particularly in Russia, which through the whole period of Ottoman reign, grew by migration of refugees. Later, only in Russia, half a million Pontians existed. By the year 1918 the total population grew up to 650,000 people.
But for those who stayed, on Turkish territory, other things awaited. In the Ottoman Empire, Christians had to pay much higher taxes than the Muslims and where not allowed to be in the army, along with other things like they where not allowed to ride horses. Their sons where taken by the Turks who raised them to Islam and to enemies against their people (“Jannischaries”).
The Turks used forced Islamization (using a range of measures including wholesale massacres and as mentioned mass kidnappings of male children), and others converted, by "free will". Some converted to get rid of the high taxes, but only official, in secret, they practiced the Christian religion, but if they where caught, death awaited.
The situation worsened in the late 1800’s for all Christians in the Ottoman Empire, due to the rising influence of the Young Turks, and after killing millions of Armenians, the turn had came to the Pontians. Using forced labour camps and death marches, the Turks eliminated over 350 000 Pontians, in what is called the Pontian Genocide.
When the Turks was defeated in the first world war, it looked for a moment like the Pontians finally would become free. The soul of the rebellion in the Pontus had been was provided by the great national leader Germanos Caravangelis, Bishop of Castoria, leader in the Macedonian struggle and Chrissantos, Bishop of Trebizonda.
The bishoprics of the Pontus became centers of guidance and recruitement of rebels, whereas the mountains became centers of resistance against the Ottomans. In 1917, Greece and the allied powers began to work out a plan for the creation of an autonomous Hellenic state in the Pontus region, purely Hellenic or Hellenic and Armenian. After the unfortunate outcome of the campaign in Asia Minor, and the reversal of the allies interest and foreign policy against Hellenic interest and expectations, the plan for the creation of the autonomous state of Pontus collapsed.
After the Greco-turkish war, and the treaty of Lausanne, Greece and turkey made a population exchange and the remaining Pontians and other Greeks (1 500000) where expelled from their homeland, where their ancestors had lived for thousands of years, and Greek speaking muslims (500 000) where expelled from Greece to Turkey. So ended the History of Greek Pontians after 3000 years.
Only In Eastern Thrace and Constantinople, the Islands Imvros and Tenedos, the Greeks where allowed to stay. A treaty Turkey has broken several times.
300 000 Pontians of muslim faith (that had turned to Islam in the 17th century) where allowed to stay, but later even these where persecuted by the turks and forced to speak Turkish, almost destroying their national identity.
The Christian Pontians all over the world are counted to as many as 2 000 000, but and should have been much more if the genocide never happened. These Pontians are shattered over an enourmous territory and are going to loose their culture, identity and origin. For this reason, our case is urgent, and we must act now. The Pontians must get back their country!
When the Ottoman Empire dissolved, countries like Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and more got independence, at least eventually. Pontos did, as Armenia, not. We believe that all peoples need a homeland, especially when they have lived somewhere for 3000 years.
It is time to demand the recognization of the Genocide on Pontians, among with other Christians, by Turkey, and by the International Community, it is time to let the Pontians resettle to their homeland, to get Independence from turkey and to re-Hellenize Pontos with their special Pontian-Hellenic culture and allow them to speak their own Greek dialect.
And if the Pontian people decide that they want, to let them join the New East Roman (“Byzantine”) union/Empire of Christian Orthodox states, in order to strengthen the Byzantine fellowship between the brother peoples of the Christian east.
In the coming months we will actively be expanding our strategic alliances with content providers and Pontian Associations and organizations.
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