"

 Pontic Greeks 

I removed the parapgraph which stated that Trabzon still has  asizable Pontic Greek population ""As Muslims were not deported afterthe treaty of Lausanne"".  This just isn't true.  There are no Pontic Greeks left in Trabzon.  Also Pontic Greeks are not Muslim they are Orthodox Christian.  I suspect that whoever wrote this paragraph must have been thinking about the Laz, who are Muslim, and who speak Lazca and who certainly should be mentioned in this article.  There are people who believe that the Laz are related ethnically to the Pontic Greeks, but my understanding is that this has been disproven. 

FYI, the Laz are a very sizable minority group along the Black Sea Coast, and their language is very widely spoken, though as a rule younger generations are bilingual.  Ethnically they are not Turkic, but one has to understand that ""Turk"" in modern day Turkey is less about ethnicity than it is about national identity.  You can be of Laz, Circassian, Greek or whatever ethnic background but still be Turkish. (One of my Turkish friends made the point that if ethnic purity were the criteria for being a Turk, very few Turks would be Turks this is what comes from living on the crossroads of civilization.) So yes, Gilgamesh, above, is right:  the Laz do not claim a non-Turkish national identity. Cheers.  "