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