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 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. Under the reign of king Mithridates VI Eupator, the Greek language became official language of Asia Minor.

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.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204, Alexios Comnenos founded in Pontos the Empire of the Great Komnenes 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.

Up to the year 1910 the Greeks of Pontos had the leading economical role in the region. They lived peacefully and prospered. They were bankers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, tradesmen etc. But Turks, under their German advisors decided a slow extermination of the annoying Greeks. It had to be quietly, not like the Armenians. So they gathered the men and forced them to march in the interior of Turkey, without food and clothes. Many of them died. The rest were concentrated in camps and were forced to work 18 hours the day (amele tampourou=work camps). This was a slow death. 500000 Pontians died this way.

Pontian cities like Trebizous, Sampsous, Kerasous, Sinopi, Amaseia, Argyroupolis, Rizoupolis, Amissos, Athena, Neokesarea had now only turkish populations. Many Pontians managed to escape and find refuge in Russia. They settled in central Russia, Crimea, in the region of Georgia, Armenia, where they founded new Greek cities, cultural centers. The rest survivors were transfered to Greece, after the signing of the treaty of Lozanne in 1923. So ended the History of Greek Pontians after 3000 years. This time of year is called «the Catastrophe of Asia Minor» in Greek history.

The criteria for the exchange in the treaty of Lausanne was the religious dependency, which had the effect that Greeks which had turned themselves to Islam in 17th century, did not become part of the exchange. This explains why inhabitants in regions around the Pontian towns Tonya, Ophis, Sourmena and Matsouka still today, 75 years after the Catastrophe of Asia Minor live in Turkey, speak their Pontian-Greek dialect, dance their cyclic dances, and play lira, the music organ of Pontians. They remember their origin and preserve their traditions.

The New York Times

July 31, 1919

TURKS PARBOILED 250,000

Charges that Turkish officials decimated the Greek population along the Black Sea Coast by 250,000 men, women and children living between Sinop and Ordu without the shedding of blood, but by “parboiling” the victims in Turkish baths and turning them out half-glad to die in pneumonia or other ills in the snow of an Anatolian Winter, are made in a letter from Dr. GEORGE E. WHITE, representative of the American Committee for relief in the Near East, made public yesterday.

Dr. White said that the Province of Bafra, also where there were more than 29,000 village Greeks, now less that 13,000 survive, and every Greek settlement has been burned. The number of orphans, including some Armenian and Turkish children, in the entire district, it was said, aggregated 60,000. Since the armistice, the doctor wrote, many of the deportees have been returning to their ruined homes.

NOTE: TORTURE! MURDER! PLUNDER! Was the order of the day. This is another piece of evidence, from reliable sources, of the horrendous Turkish crimes against the Greek population of Pontos. Yet the Turks for too long now have the insolence to deny so shamelessnessly.

J. D. Australia