PONTOS

pontos is a region in northen turkey (not sure about the turkish name). there used to be there a number of christians and muslims during the ottoman empire. the cristians despite assimilating a number of turkish words, they spoke a kind of greek dialect, which for us if not seen written its way difficult to understand. i dont know how close that was with the muslim dialect of the region, if there is one (that is if they just speak turkish like all the rest). i also dont know if there were for long period problem with the muslims in the region. they have for sure same music, dances and costumes...i mean they lived in the same region!! anyway, in the early 1900 with rise of nationalism everywhere, those people were either killed or forced to live..some came to greece and got asimilated, some escaped in russia, but didnot know that going there the would be found with a new soviet state. the system as far as i know was not kind to them or their culture either. afer the system broke down, a number of them came either to greece or to cyprus. the greeks as far as i know used the for political reasons, and did not really welcomed them as their brothers. the greekpontians like the armenians claim also that a genocide was undertaken against them. in a sense, there are none of them left there, of the couple of millions or more that used to be in northern turkey in the beggining of the last century. now, whether u want to call it a genoside or not, is not important as far as i am concerned. i also dont know the history that well since such discussions usually end up on who started first, or if the numbers are right... all i have to say is :its a pity. and it is sad