page_title: Pontic Greeks
section_title: Genocide and population exchange
hierarchical_section_title: Pontic Greeks / Genocide and population exchange
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Büyük İzmir Yangını sırasında askerleri tarafından katledilen, 1922. Français&#160;: Victimes de l'Incendie de Smyrne (Izmir), Septembre de 1922. English: Victims of the Great Fire of Smyrna (Izmir), September 1922.
context_page_description: The Pontic Greeks are an ethnically Greek group who traditionally lived in the region of Pontus, on the shores of the Black Sea and in the Pontic Mountains of northeastern Anatolia. Many later migrated to other parts of Eastern Anatolia, to the former Russian province of Kars Oblast in the Transcaucasus, and to Georgia in various waves between the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461 and the second Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29. 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 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 as Caucasian Greeks, but also include the Turkic-speaking Urums.
  Pontic Greeks have Greek ancestry and speak the Pontic Greek dialect, a distinct form of the standard Greek language which, due to the remoteness of Pontus, has undergone linguistic evolution distinct from that of the rest of the Greek world.
context_section_description: Like Armenians, Assyrians, and other Ottoman subjects, the Greeks of Trebizond and the short-lived Russian Caucasus province of Kars (which, in 1918, fell back under Ottoman control) suffered widespread massacres and what is now usually termed ethnic cleansing at the beginning of the 20th century, first by the Young Turks, and later by Kemalist forces.  In both cases, the pretext was again that the Pontic Greeks and Armenians had collaborated or fought with the forces of their Russian co-religionists and "protectors" before the termination of hostilities between the two empires that followed the October Revolution.  Death marches through Turkey's mountainous terrain, forced labour in the infamous "Amele Taburu" in Anatolia, and slaughter by the irregular bands of Topal Osman resulted in tens of thousands of Pontic Greeks perishing during the period from 1915 to 1922.  In 1923, after hundreds of years, those remaining were expelled from Turkey 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 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.
  The suffering of the Pontian Greeks did not end upon their violent and forceful departure from the lands of their ancestors.  Many Pontian Greek refugees perished during the voyage from Asia Minor to Greece.  Notable accounts of these voyages have been included in Steve Papadopoulos' work on Pontian culture and history.  Pontian Greek immigrants to the United States from that era were quoted as saying:
  Many children and elderly died during the voyage to Greece. When the crew realized they were dead, they were thrown overboard. Soon the mothers of dead children started pretending that they were still alive. After witnessing what was done to the deceased, they would hold on to them and comfort them as if they were still alive. They did this to give them a proper burial in Greece.
  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 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 Pontic Greeks (Turkish:Pontus Rumları), presumably more, since ethnic minorities in Turkey have been through persecution.
caption: Photo of Greek victims taken after the Great Fire of Smyrna
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