Pontic Greeks

Pontic Greeks are an ethnic Greek subgroup, indigenous to the region of Pontus, in northeastern Anatolia.{{cite thesis |last=Michailidis |first=Nikos |date=2016 |title=Soundscapes of Trabzon: Music, Memory, and Power in Turkey |type=PhD |publisher=Princeton University |page=62}}{{cite book |author1=Zografou, Magda |author2=Pipyrou, Stavroula |editor1-last=Meglin |editor1-first=Joellen A. |editor2-last=Matluck Brooks |editor2-first=Lynn |title=Preserving Dance Across Time and Space |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781134906383 |page=267 |chapter=Dance and Difference: Toward an Individualization of the Pontian Self |quote=The Pontians are a population that originate from the historical area of Pontus in Anatolia, originally located around the southern and eastern coasts of the Black Sea.}}{{cite journal |last1=Mackridge |first1=Peter |title=The Pontic dialect: a corrupt version of Ancient Greek? |journal=Journal of Refugee Studies |date=October 10, 1991 |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=335–339 |doi=10.1093/jrs/4.4.335 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2070232 |location=Academia |quote=These people originate from the eastern half of the southern shores of the Black Sea.}}{{cite journal |last1=Travis |first1=Hannibal |title=The Cultural and Intellectual Property Interests of the Indigenous Peoples of Turkey and Iraq |journal=Texas Wesleyan Law Review |date=2009 |volume=15 |page=601 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1549804 |s2cid=153304089 |url=https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/txwes-lr/vol15/iss2/7 |quote=The U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires states to provide an effective remedy to indigenous peoples deprived of their cultural, religious, or intellectual property (IP) without their free, prior and informed consent. The Declaration could prove to be an important safeguard for the indigenous peoples of Iraq and Turkey, the victims for centuries of massacres, assaults on their religious and cultural sites, theft and deterioration of their lands and cultural objects, and forced assimilation. These peoples, among them the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Yezidis of Turkey and Turkish-occupied Cyprus, and the Armenians, Assyrians, Yezidis, and Mandaeans of Iraq, have lost more than two-thirds of their peak populations, most of their cultural and religious sites, and thousands of priceless artifacts and specimens of visual art.|url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=Travis |first1=Hannibal |title=The Cultural and Intellectual Property Interests of the Indigenous Peoples of Turkey and Iraq |journal=Texas Wesleyan Law Review |date=2009 |volume=15 |page=637 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.1549804 |s2cid=153304089 |url=https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/txwes-lr/vol15/iss2/7 |quote=Prior to their conquests by Turkic peoples, the ancient Greeks were one of several indigenous peoples living in Anatolia, modern Asian Turkey.|url-access=subscription }} Greeks have lived in Pontus since "the time of the Argonauts, Herodotus and Xenophon and the Ten Thousand". Pontic Greeks claim descent from ancient Greeks who in the 8th century BC had moved from the Ionian cities located in the islands and shores of the Aegean Sea, to the area of the Black Sea called Pontus.{{Cite book |last=Thomopoulos |first=Elaine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jlKheq6g3r8C&pg=PA107 |title=The History of Greece |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-37511-8 |pages=107 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Thomopoulos |first=Elaine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jlKheq6g3r8C&pg=PA107 |title=The History of Greece |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-37511-8 |pages=107 |language=en |quote=The Pontians are believed to be descendants of Greeks who in the eighth century BC had moved from the Ionian cities located in the islands and shores of the Aegean Sea, in what is now Turkey, to the area of the Black Sea called Pontos (pontos is an ancient Greek word for "sea".)}}{{cite journal |last1=Fann |first1=Patricia |title=Pontic Performance: Minority Theater vs. Greek Ideology |journal=Journal of Modern Greek Studies |date=1991 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=108 |doi=10.1353/mgs.2010.0098 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |quote=Pontic scholars stress their unbroken line of ancestry from classical Ionian colonists of the region{{snd}}though, as Bryer points out, it is impossible to determine how close their descent truly is.}} However, as many different ethnic groups have lived in the region since ancient times and have intermarried, present day Pontic Greeks mostly owe their ancestry to ancient Anatolians,{{cite web |last1=Connor |first1=Steve |date=2011 |title=Jason and the Argot: Land Where Greeks' Ancient Language Survives |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/jason-and-the-argot-land-where-greek-s-ancient-language-survives-2174669.html |website=Independent |quote=One possibility is that Romeyka speakers today are the direct descendants of ancient Greeks who lived along the Black Sea coast millennia ago – perhaps going back to the 6th or 7th centuries BC when the area was first colonised. But it is also possible that they may be the descendants of indigenous people or an immigrant tribe who were encouraged or forced to speak the language of the ancient Greek colonisers.}} other Greeks, other migrants to Pontus,{{cite journal |last1=Topalidis |first1=Sam |date=March 2019 |title=An Introduction to Pontic Greek History |url=https://www.academia.edu/38564580 |journal=Australian Pontian Association 2019 Synapantema |pages=1 |quote=Today, Pontic Greeks are most probably descendants of these Greek colonists, indigenous Anatolians, Greeks who had moved relatively recently to Pontos, or other people who migrated to Pontos and converted to Christianity.}} and Caucasian peoples (such as Hellenized Lazs and Armenians).{{cite journal |last1=Andriadze |first1=Giorgi |last2=Bitadze |first2=Liana |last3=Chikovani |first3=Nino |last4=Chitanava |first4=David |last5=Kekelidze |first5=Mirab |last6=Khmaladze |first6=Eka |last7=Laliashvili |first7=Shorena |last8=Shengelia |first8=Ramaz |date=2017 |title=Comparative Y-Chromosome Research in East Georgia Population |url=http://science.org.ge/newsite/bnas/t11-n4/18_Shengelia.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=121–124}}{{cite web|title=Tongue Tied III - Pondering Pontic Greek|author=Kieran McGreevy|url=https://www.thecambridgelanguagecollective.com/columns/tongue-tied-iii-pontic-greek|website=Cambridge Language Collective|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417015944/https://www.thecambridgelanguagecollective.com/columns/tongue-tied-iii-pontic-greek|archive-date=April 17, 2022}}

Pontic Greeks are genetically similar to other groups living in the Caucasus. A genetic study of male Georgians, including Pontic Greeks in Georgia, revealed that the latter had high incidence of haplogroup L, which is also prevalent among Laz people. Haplogroup G2 and haplogroup J2 were also prevalent among the Pontians studied.{{cite journal |last1=Andriadze |first1=Giorgi |last2=Bitadze |first2=Liana |last3=Chikovani |first3=Nino |last4=Chitanava |first4=David |last5=Kekelidze |first5=Mirab |last6=Khmaladze |first6=Eka |last7=Laliashvili |first7=Shorena |last8=Shengelia |first8=Ramaz |date=2017 |title=Comparative Y-Chromosome Research in East Georgia Population |url=http://science.org.ge/newsite/bnas/t11-n4/18_Shengelia.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences |volume=11 |issue=4 |page=121}} Pontians in Georgia and Lazes are genetically similar. Armenians in Georgia and Pontians in Georgia are also genetically similar.{{cite journal |last1=Andriadze |first1=Giorgi |last2=Bitadze |first2=Liana |last3=Chikovani |first3=Nino |last4=Chitanava |first4=David |last5=Kekelidze |first5=Mirab |last6=Khmaladze |first6=Eka |last7=Laliashvili |first7=Shorena |last8=Shengelia |first8=Ramaz |date=2017 |title=Comparative Y-Chromosome Research in East Georgia Population |url=http://science.org.ge/newsite/bnas/t11-n4/18_Shengelia.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences |volume=11 |issue=4 |page=124 |quote=High incidence of L haplogroup in Pontic Greeks strengthened the theory about close genetic affinity between the Lazs residing along the Black Sea shore and the Greeks who migrated to Georgia.}} In addition, the Pontians studied were genetically diverse, indicating genetic mixture with other groups.{{cite journal |last1=Andriadze |first1=Giorgi |last2=Bitadze |first2=Liana |last3=Chikovani |first3=Nino |last4=Chitanava |first4=David |last5=Kekelidze |first5=Mirab |last6=Khmaladze |first6=Eka |last7=Laliashvili |first7=Shorena |last8=Shengelia |first8=Ramaz |date=2017 |title=Comparative Y-Chromosome Research in East Georgia Population |url=http://science.org.ge/newsite/bnas/t11-n4/18_Shengelia.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences |volume=11 |issue=4 |page=124 |quote=Armenian, Azerbaijani and Greek populations are more diverse genetically. This fact confirms the above thesis about multiple genetic mixtures occurring in those populations.}} The region of Pontus has been diverse since at least the Middle Ages; in 1204, the Matzouka (Maçka) region alone contained Greeks, Italians, Lazes and a few Armenians.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tNQYDQAAQBAJ |title=Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean After 1204 |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317119135 |editor1-last=Saint-Guillain |editor1-first=Guilaume |pages=177 |quote=It is rather surprising that the Armenians in Matzouka were least numerous in comparison with Greeks, Lazs, Italians and Asians. |editor2-last=Herrin |editor2-first=Judith}}

In the 21st century, most Pontians strongly identify as Greeks.{{sfn|Tsekouras|2016|pp=19-20}} However, this has not always been the case. Before the creation of the diaspora, many Pontians did not consider themselves Greek.{{cite book |last1=Sjöberg |first1=Erik |title=The Making of the Greek Genocide: Contested Memories of the Ottoman Greek Catastrophe |date=2016 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=9781785333262 |page=25 |chapter=Ottoman Twilight |quote=It should be stressed that the term "Greeks" with reference to these Ottoman Christians is misleading, and often invites anachronism and essentialist notions of national belonging. To most of them, terms like "Hellenes," or "Greeks" (in Modern Greek, Ellines), denoted a very distant, pagan past, which few would relate to before the coming of Western Romanticism's idealized perceptions of their putative ancestors. Well into the twentieth century, Romioi, "Christian Romans," was the term preferred by Orthodox Christians, especially those of the Ottoman lands, to denote themselves, which reflected the Byzantine Emperors' claim to be legitimate heirs in unbroken succession to the Caesars of Rome.}}

An ethnicity is made up of people with ancestry or cultural background in common.{{cite web |title=ethnicity: definition of ethnicity |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ethnicity?q=ethnicity |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130505015249/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/ethnicity?q=ethnicity |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 May 2013 |work=Oxford Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=28 December 2013}} Self-identification is an important part of belonging to an ethnic group.{{cite book |title=Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology |last1=People |first1=James |first2=Garrick |last2=Bailey |year=2010 |edition=9th |page=389 |publisher=Wadsworth Cengage learning |quote=In essence, an ethnic group is a named social category of people based on perceptions of shared social experience or one's ancestors' experiences. Members of the ethnic group see themselves as sharing cultural traditions and history that distinguish them from other groups. Ethnic group identity has a strong psychological or emotional component that divides the people of the world into opposing categories of "us" and "them".}} Pontians have a lot in common with other Greeks; for example, they speak Romeika, a Greek language variety. Pontians also traditionally follow the Greek Orthodox faith, although a minority in Turkey are Sunni Muslims. Pontian Greeks also share traits with other ethnic groups. Like Turks, they cook {{lang|pnt|havítz}} (kuymak), boortsog, and İmam bayıldı. They share other aspects of their culture with Lazes, Persians, and Armenians. They may owe some aspects of their culture to ancient Anatolian peoples.

The Pontic label is relatively new. Anton Popov writes, "Anthony Bryer states that 'at the beginning of the nineteenth century a Pontic Christian might describe himself in the old way as a Douberites, Phytanos or Tsitenos first, and then as a "Roman" (Rum) Orthodox subject of the sultan; by the end of the century he was calling himself a Greek, and after he had finally left the Pontos in 1923, a Pontic Greek.'" Anton Popov studied Caucasus Greeks in former Soviet territories. Most of the Romeika speakers that Popov interviewed referred to themselves as "Romei." He also mentioned that many Caucasus Greeks only began referring to themselves as Pontians when they went to work in Greece.

During Ottoman times, most Pontian Greeks did not see themselves as "Greeks" per se. Neal Acherson, in his book Black Sea, writes, "Who did they think they were, in this pre-nationalist age? In the first place, they did not think of themselves as 'Greek' or as a people in some way rooted in the peninsula and islands we now call 'Greece.' Sophisticates in Trebizond might address one another in the fifteenth century as 'Hellenes,' but this was a cultural fancy rather than an ethnic description. Outsiders, whether Turks or northern Europeans, referred to them and to all the inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire as 'Rom' or 'Rum' people, or as 'Romanians' [Romans] — citizens of the Roman Empire, in other words, who were also distinguished by their Orthodox Christian faith. Struggling with these categories, a Pontic Turk whose village had once been Greek told Anthony Bryer: 'This is Roman (Rum) country; they spoke Christian here{{nbsp}}...'" This identification mirrored the identification of other non-intellectual Greeks at the time.

Greek nationalism only began to spread to the Pontos in the 1800s after the Greek nation gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. This nationalism came during a time of commercial prosperity in the Pontos. Again, Acherson writes, "The teachers and the school curricula came from Athens, bringing with them a new concept of Greekness which linked the Greek-Orthodox communities of the Black Sea and the 'nation' of Greece." He goes on to explain how the Greek government encouraged nationalist thinking: "A speaker in the Greek parliament in 1844 expounded this newly designed identity: 'The Kingdom of Greece is not Greece. It constitutes only one part, the smallest and the poorest. A Greek is not only a man who lives within the Kingdom, but also one who lives in Yoannina, Serrai, Adrianople, Constantinople, Smyrna, Trebizond, Crete and in any land associated with Greek history and the Greek race."{{cite book |last1=Ascherson |first1=Neal |title=Black Sea |date=1995 |publisher=MacMillan |isbn=9780809015931 |pages=185–186}} The newly established Kingdom of Greece set up consulates in the Ottoman Empire to spread the Megali Idea. While the Anatolians recognized a shared cultural heritage, most weren't involved in an irredentist movement.

Few Pontic Greeks supported the Megali Idea except for some Greek nationalists such as Nikos Kapetanidis. Very few wanted an independent Pontic state, and few had ambition to join with Greece, even in the early 1900s.{{cite book |author1=Benny Morris |author2=Dror Ze'evi |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide:Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities |date=2019 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674240087 |pages=25–27 |chapter=Nationalist Awakenings}}{{cite book |author1=Benny Morris |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide:Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities |author2=Dror Ze'evi |date=2019 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674240087 |pages=382–384 |chapter=Turks and Greeks, 1919-1924}} The reason for this is unclear. Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi give three theories on why most Pontic Greeks distanced themselves from nationalism and separatism: poorly developed political consciousness, tradition of submissiveness to Islamic hegemony, or fears of massacres and economic harm. More generally, Greek nationalism in Asia Minor mostly appealed to "the most enlightened and liberal", to the medical, legal and literary professionals and to the rising middle class. It was opposed, however, by the "ancient [Greek] nobility, the superior clergy, the lay dignitaries of the church and the wealthy merchants". There are also some Turkish-speaking Pontic Greeks, living in the Greek region of Western Macedonia, specifically in Metamorfosi, Kozani.{{Cite journal |last=Γαβριηλίδης |first=Σταύρος Ιάσων |date=2018 |title=Οι τουρκόφωνοι Πόντιοι του ανατολικού Τσιαρτσιαμπά Αντίσταση και συνεργασία Από το αντάρτικο του δυτικού Πόντου στον Ελληνικό Εθνικό Στρατό |url=https://dspace.uowm.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/2289 |journal=Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Μακεδονίας |language=Greek |pages=1–3, 35–36}} These Pontians follow the Greek Orthodox Church and profess a strong Greek identity. After the Greek-Turkish population exchange in 1923, even though the state never considered them a "national threat", many of these Pontians saw their language as a "cultural flaw" and desired to get rid of it. Historian and psychologist Stavros Iason Gavriilidis states that this was a result of the trauma they faced from the Greek genocide.

File:Grave stele 03 pushkin.jpg of two Greek warriors found on the Black Sea coast, Taman peninsula, 4th century BC]]

In Greek mythology the Black Sea region is the region where Jason and the Argonauts sailed to find the Golden Fleece. The Amazons, female warriors in Greek Mythology lived in Pontus, and a minority lived in Taurica, also known as Crimea, which is also the minor unique settlement of Pontic Greeks. The warlike characteristics of Pontic Greeks were once said to have been derived from the Amazons of Pontus.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

File:Greek colonies of the Euxine Sea.svg, 8th to 3rd century BC]]

{{further|Colonies in antiquity|Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea|Roman Crimea}}

The first recorded Greek colony, established on the northern shores of ancient Anatolia, was Sinope on the Black Sea, circa 800 BC. The settlers of Sinope were merchants from the Ionian Greek city state of Miletus. After the colonization of the shores of the Black Sea, known until then to the Greek world as Pontos Axeinos (Inhospitable Sea), the name changed to Pontos Euxeinos (Hospitable Sea). In time, as the numbers of Greeks settling in the region grew significantly, more colonies were established along the whole Black Sea coastline of what is now Turkey, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania.

File:Pontus Eagle Coin.jpg, coast depicting the head of a nymph and an eagle with raised wings, 4th century BC]]

The region of Trapezus (later called Trebizond, now Trabzon) was mentioned by Xenophon in his famous work Anabasis, describing how he and other 10,000 Greek mercenaries fought their way to the Euxine Sea after the failure of the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger whom they fought for, against his older brother Artaxerxes II of Persia. Xenophon mentions that when at the sight of sea they shouted "Thalatta! Thalatta!" – "The sea! The sea!", the local people understood them. They were Greeks too and, according to Xenophon, they had been there for over 300 years.[https://www.angelfire.com/folk/pontian_net/News/who.html Who are the Pontians?]. Angelfire.com. Retrieved on 2011-02-12. A whole range of trade flourished among the various Greek colonies, but also with the indigenous tribes who inhabited the Pontus inland. Soon Trebizond established a leading stature among the other colonies and the region nearby become the heart of the Pontian Greek culture and civilization. A notable inhabitant of the region was Philetaerus (c. 343 BC–263 BC) who was born to a Greek father in the small town of Tieion which was situated on the Black Sea coast of the Pontus Euxinus, he founded the Attalid dynasty and the Anatolian city of Pergamon in the second century BC.

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Diogenes-statue-Sinop-enhanced.jpg

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| alt1 = Stone statue of a bearded man in ancient Greek dress holding a lantern. A sculpted dog sits at his side.

| image2 = Mithridates VI.jpg

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| alt2 = Slightly damaged stone sculpture of a man's head. He wears an animal pelt over his hair.

| footer = Diogenes of Sinope (c. 408–323 BC) and Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (135–63 BC)

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File:Dioecesis Pontica 400 AD.png, 400 AD]]

This region was organized circa 281 BC as a kingdom by Mithridates I of Pontus, whose ancestry line dated back to Ariobarzanes I, a Persian ruler of the Greek town of Cius. The most prominent descendant of Mithridates I was Mithridates VI Eupator, who between 90 and 65 BC fought the Mithridatic Wars, three bitter wars against the Roman Republic, before eventually being defeated. Mithridates VI the Great, as he was left in memory, claiming to be the protector of the Greek world against the barbarian Romans, expanded his kingdom to Bithynia, Crimea and Propontis (in present-day Ukraine and Turkey) before his downfall after the Third Mithridatic War.

Nevertheless, the kingdom survived as a Roman vassal state, now named Bosporan Kingdom and based in Crimea, until the 4th century AD, when it succumbed to the Huns. The rest of the Pontus became part of the Roman Empire, while the mountainous interior (Chaldia) was fully incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire during the 6th century.

Pontus was the birthplace of the Komnenos dynasty, which ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1082 to 1185, a time in which the empire resurged to recover much of Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks. In the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Empire of Trebizond was established by Alexios I of Trebizond, a descendant of Alexios I Komnenos, the patriarch of the Komnenos dynasty. The Empire was ruled by this new branch of the Komenos dynasty which bore the name Megas Komnenos Axouch (or Axouchos or Afouxechos) as early rulers intermarried with the family of Axouch, a Byzantine noble house of Turkic origin which included famed politicians such as John Axouch

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| image1 = Alexios III Megas Komnenos.JPG

| alt1 = Medieval drawing of a bearded Pontic Greek man in jeweled royal regalia.

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| alt2 = Depiction of an elderly Pontic Greek man in a Catholic cardinal's clothes.

| footer = Alexios III (1338–1390), Emperor of Trebizond and Cardinal Bessarion of Trebizond (1395–1472), a Pontian Greek scholar, statesman and cardinal.{{cite book |author= Bunson, Matthew |title=OSV's encyclopedia of Catholic history |publisher=Our Sunday Visitor Publishing |year=2004 |page=141 |isbn=1-59276-026-0 |quote=BESSARION, JOHN (c. 1395–1472) + Greek scholar, cardinal, and statesman. One of the foremost figures in the rise of the intellectual Renaissance}}

}}

This empire lasted for more than 250 years until it eventually fell at the hands of Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461. However it took the Ottomans 18 more years to finally defeat the Greek resistance in Pontus. During this long period of resistance many Pontic Greeks nobles and aristocrats married foreign emperors and dynasties, most notably of Medieval Russia, Medieval Georgia, or the Safavid Persian dynasty, and to a lesser extent the Kara Koyunlu rulers, in order to gain their protection and aid against the Ottoman threat. Many of the landowning and lower-class families of Pontus "turned-Turk", adopting the Turkish language and Turkish Islam but often remaining crypto-Christian before reverting to their Greek Orthodoxy in the early 19th century. The long period of Ottoman rule up until the population exchange was called the Tourkokratia.{{cite book |last1=Bryer |first1=Anthony |title=The Empire of Trebizond and the Pontos |date=1980 |publisher=Variorium Reprints |isbn=9780860780625 |chapter=The Tourkokratia in the Pontos: Some Problems and Preliminary Conclusions}}

In the 1600s and 1700s, as Turkish lords called derebeys gained more control of land along the Black Sea coast, many coastal Pontians moved to the Pontic Mountains. There, they established villages such as Santa.{{cite journal |last1=Bryer |first1=Anthony |title=Greeks and Türkmens: The Pontic Exception |journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |date=1975 |volume=29 |page=122 |doi=10.2307/1291371 |jstor=1291371 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291371|url-access=subscription }}

Between 1461 and the second Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, Pontic Greeks from northeastern Anatolia migrated as refugees or economic migrants (especially miners and livestock breeders) into nearby Armenia or Georgia, where they came to form a nucleus of Pontic Greeks which increased in size with the addition of each wave of refugees and migrants until these eastern Pontic Greek communities of the South Caucasus region came to define themselves as Caucasian Greeks.

During the Ottoman period a number of Pontian Greeks converted to Islam and adopted the Turkish language. This could be willingly, for example so to avoid paying the higher rate of taxation imposed on Orthodox Christians or in order to make themselves more eligible for higher level government and regular military employment opportunities within the empire (at least in the later period following the abolition of the infamous Greek and Balkan Christian child levy or 'devshirme', on which the elite Janissary corps had in the early Ottoman period depended for its recruits). But conversion could also occur in response to pressures from central government and local Muslim militia (e.g.) following any one of the Russo-Turkish wars in which ethnic Greeks from the Ottoman Empire's northern border regions were known to have collaborated, fought alongside, and sometimes even led invading Russian forces, such as was the case in the Greek governed, semi-autonomous Romanian Principalities, Trebizond, and the area that was briefly to become part of the Russian Caucasus in the far northeast.

{{multiple image

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| image1 = Pontian Greek family.JPG

| alt1 = Photograph of Pontic Greek men, women, and children in Western clothes.

| image2 = Pontus Greek family.JPG

| alt2 = Photograph of Pontic Greek man, woman, and their children. The man is dressed in Western clothes, the woman in traditional costume.

| footer = Pontic Greek families of the early 20th century

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Large communities (around 25% of the population) of Christian Pontic Greeks{{cite book | last= Pentzopoulos|first= Dimitri | title= The Balkan exchange of minorities and its impact on Greece | publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers | year=2002|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PDc-WW6YhqEC&q=%22northern+epirus%22%2Bflorence&pg=PA28 | isbn= 978-1-85065-702-6 |pages=29–30}} remained throughout the Pontus area (including Trabzon and Kars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until the 1990s, preserving their own customs and dialect of Greek.

{{See also|Pontic Greek genocide}}

Between 1913 and 1923, the Ottoman leadership attempted to expel or kill its native Christian population of Anatolia, including the Pontic Greeks. The genocide was first perpetrated by the Three Pashas and later by the rebel government under Mustafa Kemal.{{Cite journal|last=Meichanetsidis|first=Vasileios|date=2015|title=The Genocide of the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, 1913–1923: A Comprehensive Overview|url=https://utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/gsi.9.1.06|journal=Genocide Studies International|language=en|volume=9|issue=1|pages=104–173|doi=10.3138/gsi.9.1.06|s2cid=154870709|issn=2291-1847|quote=The genocide was committed by two subsequent and chronologically, ideologically, and organically interrelated and interconnected dictatorial and chauvinist regimes: (1) the regime of the CUP, under the notorious triumvirate of the three pashas (Üç Paşalar), Talât, Enver, and Cemal, and (2) the rebel government at Samsun and Ankara, under the authority of the Grand National Assembly (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) and Kemal. Although the process had begun before the Balkan Wars, the final and most decisive period started immediately after WWI and ended with the almost total destruction of the Pontic Greeks}} Different scholars have made different estimates for the death toll; most estimates range from 300,000 to 360,000 Pontic Greeks killed.{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Adam|title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |publisher=Routledge |year=2010a|orig-date=2006|isbn=978-0-203-84696-4|edition=revised|oclc=672333335|author-link=Adam Jones (Canadian scholar) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kBZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |page=166}}{{Citation |last=Peterson |first=Merrill D. |year=2004 |title=Starving Armenians: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915–1930 and After |place=Charlottesville |publisher=University of Virginia Press |page=124}}{{Citation | last = Valavanis | first = G. K. | year = 1925 | url = http://pontosworld.com/index.php/books/greek/748-2013-08-28-00-01-03 |trans-title=Contemporary General History of Pontus | script-title = el:Σύγχρονος Γενική Ιστορία του Πόντου | place = Athens | language = el | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151108234007/http://pontosworld.com/index.php/books/greek/748-2013-08-28-00-01-03 | archive-date = 8 November 2015 |page=24}} Some notable victims include Matthaios Kofidis and Nikos Kapetanidis. Many were executed, for example during the Amasya trials;{{cite thesis|last=Vergeti|first=Maria|title=Ethno-Regional Identity: The Case of Pontian Greeks|url=http://phdtheses.ekt.gr/eadd/handle/10442/2548?locale=en |publisher=Panteion University|year=1993|doi=10.12681/eadd/2548|language=el|access-date=23 June 2014|hdl=10442/hedi/2548|hdl-access=free|page=77}} others were subject to massacres; many Pontic men were forced to work in labor camps until they died; still others were deported to the interior on death marches.{{cite journal |last1=Basso |first1=Andrew R. |title=Towards a Theory of Displacement Atrocities: The Cherokee Trail of Tears, The Herero Genocide, and The Pontic Greek Genocide |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention |date=2016 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=5–29 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.10.1.1297 |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol10/iss1/5/ |quote=Pontic Greek men (aged 18-48) were forcibly conscripted into the amele taburları and died in great numbers, sometimes upwards of 90 percent. Beginning in the countryside and later urban areas, the Turks raided Pontic Greek homesteads and initiated the deportation caravan process. The Turks marched the remaining Pontic Greeks towards Der Zor in caravans, and they experienced death rates of approximately 80 to 90 percent.|doi-access=free }} Rape, primarily of Pontic women and girls, was prominent.{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide |date=2019 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674916456 |page=390}}{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide |date=2019 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674916456 |page=401}}{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide |date=2019 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674916456 |page=412}}

In 1923 those still remaining in Turkey were exiled 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:

{{cquote|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{{nbsp}}...' 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.{{cite book |title=Black Sea |isbn=978-0-8090-1593-1 |year=1996|last=Ascherson|first=Neal|page=184|publisher=Macmillan }}}}

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,Standard Languages and Language Standards: Greek, Past and Present, Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Michael Stephen Silk, page 52, 2009 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{{Cite web|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14444/TU|title=Pontic Greek in Turkey|last=Project|first=Joshua|website=joshuaproject.net|language=en|access-date=2019-01-05}}{{Cite web|url=https://repairfuture.net/index.php/tr/kimligi-tuerkiye-den-bak-s/pontus-un-kripto-hristiyan-rumlar-islam-ve-h-ristiyanl-k-aras-nda|title="Crypto-Pontus Greeks, between Islam and Christianity." (In Turkish)|website=repairfuture.net|access-date=2019-01-06}}

File:Sinop-Castle.jpg

During their millennia-long presence on the Black Sea's southern coast, Pontic Greeks constructed a number of buildings, some of which still stand today. Many structures sit in ruins. Others, however, enjoy active use; one example is Nakip Mosque in Trabzon, originally built as a Greek Orthodox church during the 900s or 1000s.{{cite book |last1=Sinclair |first1=T. A. |title=Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume II |date=1989 |publisher=Pindar Press |isbn=9781904597759 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKpEBAAAQBAJ}}{{cite journal |last1=Ballance |first1=Selina |title=The Byzantine Churches of Trebizond |journal=Anatolian Studies |date=1960 |volume=10 |pages=152–153 |doi=10.2307/3642433 |jstor=3642433 |s2cid=190694842 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3642433|url-access=subscription }}

Ancient Greeks reached and settled the Black Sea by the 700s BC; Sinope was perhaps the earliest colony.{{Cite book| publisher = University of Michigan Press| isbn = 978-0-472-11199-2| last = Gorman| first = Vanessa B.| title = Miletos, the Ornament of Ionia: A History of the City to 400 B.C.E.| pages=63–66 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yd5EYLWcgNgC&pg=PA63 |date = 2001}}{{Cite journal| doi = 10.2307/631221| volume = 96| pages = 18–31| last = Drews| first = Robert| title = The earliest Greek settlements on the Black Sea| journal = The Journal of Hellenic Studies| date = 1976| jstor = 631221| s2cid = 162253005}} According to the Pontic Greek historian Strabo, Greeks from the existing colony of Miletus settled the Pontus region. Some walls from an early fortification stand in the modern Turkish city of Sinop (renamed from Sinope). These fortifications may date back to early Greek colonization in the 600s BC.{{Cite web | url = https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/countries-alongside-silk-road-routes/turkey | title = Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea | publisher = UNESCO | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150912062757/http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5825/ | archive-date = 12 September 2015}}{{cite web |title=Kaleler (Castles) |url=https://sinop.ktb.gov.tr/TR-74872/kaleler.html |website=Sinop Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism |publisher=Ministry of Culture and Tourism |language=tr}} During late Ottoman and recent Turkish times, the fortress housed a state prison.{{cite web |url=http://www.sinop.adalet.gov.tr/t_cevi.asp?islem=tarihce |title=Tarihi Sinop Kale Cezaevi - Tarihçe |publisher=Sinop Culture and Tourism Directoriate |access-date=2008-10-17 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080617082619/http://www.sinop.adalet.gov.tr/t_cevi.asp?islem=tarihce |archive-date = 2008-06-17|language=tr}}

Between 281 BC and 62 AD, the Mithridatic kings ruled the Pontos region and called it the Kingdom of Pontus.{{cite web |title=Pontus |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Pontus-ancient-district-Turkey |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica}} While the ruling dynasty was Persian in origin, many kings had Greek ancestry, as Pontic rulers often married Seleucid nobility.{{cite book |last1=Højte |first1=Jakob Munk |title=Mithridates VI and the Pontic Kingdom |date=June 22, 2009 |publisher=Aarhus University Press |isbn=9788779344433 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OuqmDwAAQBAJ}} Some of these Persian/Greek rulers were interred in the Tombs of the kings of Pontus. Their necropolis is still visible in Amasya.{{cite web |title=Amasya Harşena Dağı Ve Pontus Kral Kaya Mezarları Unesco Dünya Miras Geçici Listesinde |url=https://kvmgm.ktb.gov.tr/TR-137749/amasya-harsena-dagi-ve-pontus-kral-kaya-mezarlari-unesc-.html |website=General Directorate of Cultural Assets and Museums |publisher=Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism |language=tr}}{{cite web |title=Mount Harşena and the Rrock-tombs of the Pontic Kings |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6039/ |website=United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization |publisher=Permanent Delegation of Turkey to UNESCO |date=2015}}

One Pontic king, Pharnaces I of Pontus, may have built Giresun Castle in the 100s BC.{{cite web |title=Giresun Castle |url=http://tr.blackseasilkroad.com/en/wiki/GiresunCastle/82/1085 |website=Black Sea-Silk Road Corridor}}{{cite book |last1=Alan |first1=Hakan |title=Turkey (English) |date=2010 |publisher=AS Books |isbn=9789750114779 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UYrTfx-vc2QC |chapter=Black Sea Region}}{{cite journal |last1=Aydın |first1=Mustafa |title=Giresun Kalesi (1764-1840) |journal=Karadeniz İncelemeleri Dergisi |date=January 1, 2012 |volume=2012 |pages=39–56 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/106406 |trans-title=The Giresun Castle (1764-1840)}} There's also a chance it was built during medieval times.{{cite book |last1=Elçilik |first1=Büyük |title=Turkey Today: Issues 113-136 |date=1989 |publisher=Turkish Embassy |page=6}} From the castle, the Black Sea and much of Giresun are visible.

File:Insel von Giresun.jpg

Many other structures date back to Greek occupation in ancient times. Ancient Greeks inhabited Giresun, then called Kerasous, from the 5th century BC. During this time, they must also have used Giresun Island. The poet Apollonius of Rhodes mentioned this island in his best-known epic, the Argonautica. Altars on the island date to the Classical or Hellenistic period. Its use as a religious center continued after the rise of Christianity in the region. During Byzantine times, likely in the 400s or 500s AD, a monastic complex was built on the island, dedicated to either St Phocas of Sinope or Mary. It functioned both as a religious center and as a fortress.{{cite book |author1=Ertekin M. Doksanaltı |author2=İlker M. Mimiroğlu |title=THE PHENOMENA OF CULTURAL BORDERSAND BORDER CULTURES ACROSS THE PASSAGEOF TIME |publisher=Trnava University |isbn=978-80-8082-500-3 |pages=86–87 |url=https://www.academia.edu/5895044 |chapter=Giresun/Aretias - Kalkeritis Island|year=2011 }}

Many old Pontic Greek city-states remain in ruins. One is Athenae, an archaeological site near modern Pazar. It sat on the Black Sea coast and housed a temple to Athena.{{cite DGRG |wstitle= Athe'nae 2. |volume= 1 |page= 255 | last= Smnith |first= William |author-link= William Smith (lexicographer) |year=1854| short=1}}

After Christianity spread to the Pontus region in Roman times, Pontic Greeks began constructing a number of churches, monasteries, and other religious buildings. The Virgin Mary Monastery in Şebinkarahisar District, Giresun Province may be one of the oldest Greek Orthodox monasteries in the region; Turkish archaeologists suspect it may date to the 2nd century. The monastery is made of carved stone and built into a cave. As of the mid-2010s, it was open for tourism.{{cite web |title=Meryemana Manastırı |url=http://www.sebinkarahisar.gov.tr/meryemana-manastiri/ |website=Şebinkarahisar Kaymakamlığı |publisher=Government of Şebinkarahisar, Giresun |access-date=18 August 2020 |language=tr}}{{cite web |last1=Yetgin |first1=Gültekin |last2=Mutlu |first2=Gülsen |title=Meryem Ana Manastırı'na Yunanlı ziyareti |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/kultur-sanat/meryem-ana-manastirina-yunanli-ziyareti/23467/ |website=Anadolu Agency |access-date=18 August 2020 |language=tr |date=July 23, 2015}}{{cite web |title=Meryemana Monastery (Ruins) |url=https://giresun.ktb.gov.tr/TR-206818/meryemana-manastiri-orenyeri.html/ |website=Giresun Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate |publisher=Giresun Province |access-date=15 August 2020 |language=tr}}

Other religious buildings were constructed later. Three ruined monasteries lie in Maçka, Trabzon Province: Panagias Soumela Monastery, Saint George Peristereotas Monastery, and Vazelon Monastery. These were built during early Byzantine times. Vazelon Monastery, for example, was built around 270 AD, and it retained great political and societal importance until its abandonment in 1922/3.{{cite journal |last1=Demciuc |first1=Vasile M. |last2=Köse |first2=İsmail |title=VAZELON (ST. JOHN) MONASTERY OF MAÇKA TREBIZOND |journal=Codrul Cosminului |date=July 2014 |volume=20 |issue=1 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293440517 |issn=1224-032X}} While St. George Monastery (also called Kuştul Monastery)[http://www.peristereota.com/history1.htm {{lang|el|Η Ιστορία της Μονής στον Πόντο}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061028055930/http://www.peristereota.com/history1.htm |date=2006-10-28 }}, peristereota.com and Vazelon are abandoned, Sumela is a prominent tourist attraction.{{cite web |title=Sümela Manastırı |url=https://www.sumela.gov.tr/ |language=tr}}

{{wide image|Sumela Monastery (2674157750).jpg|600px|align-cap=center|Fresco depicting Mary and Jesus in Sumela Monastery}}

Pontic Greeks also constructed a number of non-religious buildings during Byzantine times. In the 500s, for example, a castle was built in Rize on the order of Justinian I. It was later expanded. The old fortress still stands today, serving tourists.{{cite web |url=http://www.rizekulturturizm.gov.tr/TR,127865/kaleler.html |publisher=Rize İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü |title=Kaleler |language=tr|access-date=2016-06-03 }}

Later, the Pontians built further churches and castles. Balatlar Church is a Byzantine church dating back to 660. It lies on the Black Sea coast. Despite vandalism and natural deterioration, the church still has old frescoes, which have been of interest to modern historians. The actual structure itself may date to Roman times. It likely had different uses over the centuries, potentially being a public bath and gymnasium before its use as a church. Pottery found at the site dates to the Roman and Hellenistic eras.{{cite journal |last1=Alper |first1=Eda Güngör |title=Hellenistic and Roman Period Ceramic Finds from the Balatlar Church Excavations in Sinop between 2010-2012 |journal=Anatolia Antiqua |date=2014 |volume=22 |pages=35–49 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/anatoliaantiqua/289}}{{cite journal |last1=Yuksel |first1=Fethi Ahmet |last2=Koroglu |first2=Gulgun |last3=Yildiz |first3=Mehmet Safi |title=Archaeogeophysical Studies Conducted on Sinop Balatlar Church |journal=Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems 2012 |series=Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems Proceedings |date=January 2012 |pages=610 |doi=10.4133/1.4721889 |url=https://library.seg.org/doi/abs/10.4133/1.4721889|url-access=subscription }} There is also speculation that a piece of the True Cross was found at Balatlar Church; however, it's more likely that the materials found were actually the relics of a saint or other holy person.{{cite web |last1=Hafiz |first1=Yasmine |title=Piece Of Jesus' Cross Found? Archaeologists Discover 'Holy Thing' In Balatlar Church In Turkey |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jesus-cross-found-archaeology_n_3691938 |website=Huffpost |date=August 3, 2013}}

File:Hagia Anna.JPG

Trabzon has at least three more late Byzantine churches that stand today. St. Anne Church, as the name suggests, was dedicated to Saint Anne, the mother of Mary. While the actual date of construction is uncertain, it was restored by the Byzantine emperors in 884 and 885.{{cite book |last1=Sagona |first1=A. G. |title=The Heritage of Eastern Turkey: from Earliest Settlements to Islam |date=2006 |publisher=Macmillan Art Publishing |isbn=9781876832056 |page=170 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bW06PE0GRXEC |quote=...{{nbsp}}the small Church of St. Anne, the oldest extant Byzantine building in Trabzon, rebuilt during the reign of Basil I (AD 867-86).}} It had three apses and a tympanum over the door. Unlike many churches in Trabzon, there is no evidence of it being converted into a mosque following Ottoman conquest in 1461.{{cite book |last1=Ćurčić |first1=Slobodan |last2=Krautheimer |first2=Richard |title=Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture |date=1992 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300052947 |page=395 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WXwX7fQ2DkUC}}{{cite book |title=Turkey Today: Issues 113-136 |date=1989 |publisher=Turkish Embassy |page=7}}{{cite web |last1=Özmen |first1=Can |title=Value Assessment on Hagia Sophia Complex in Trabzon |url=http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12620600/index.pdf |publisher=Middle East Technical University |location=Ankara, Turkey |page=88 |date=October 2016}}{{cite book |last1=Eastmond |first1=Anthony |title=Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781351957229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=swVBDgAAQBAJ}}

Two other structures in Trabzon, built as churches in Byzantine or Trapezuntine times, are now functional mosques. The New Friday Mosque, for example, was originally the Hagios Eugenios Church dedicated to Saint Eugenios of Trebizond.{{cite book |last1=Sinclair |first1=T. A. |title=Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume II |date=1989 |publisher=Pindar Press |isbn=9781904597759 |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LKpEBAAAQBAJ}} Another is Fatih Mosque. It was originally the Panagia Chrysokephalos church, a cathedral in Trabzon.Gabriel Millet, [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bch_0007-4217_1895_num_19_1_3650 "Les monastères et les églises de Trébizonde"], Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 19 (1895), p. 423Selina Ballance, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3642433 "The Byzantine Churches of Trebizond"], Anatolian Studies, 10 (1960), p. 146 The name is fitting; {{lang|tr|fatih}} means "conqueror" in both Ottoman and modern Turkish.{{cite book |last1=Redhouse |first1=James William |title=An English and Turkish Dictionary |date=1856 |publisher=B. Quarich |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CydMAAAAYAAJ}}

Another church, Trabzon's Hagia Sophia, was perhaps built by Manuel I Komnenos.Eastmond, Anthony. "The Byzantine Empires in the Thirteenth Century" in Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004, p. 1.{{cite journal |last1=Kalin |first1=Arzu |last2=Yilmaz |first2=Demet |title=A Study on Visibility Analysis of Urban Landmarks: The Case of Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) in Trabzon |journal=METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture |date=2012 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=241–271 |doi=10.4305/metu.jfa.2012.1.14 |url=http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/2012/cilt29/sayi_1/241-272.pdf |quote=Though the actual date of founding is still obscure, according to some researchers the main church (probably the monastery) is believed to be founded by Manuel I the Great Comnenos (1238-1263) or his immediate successors.|doi-access=free }} It was used as a mosque after Turkish conquest; the frescoes may have been covered for Muslim worship. Hagia Sophia underwent restoration work in the mid-20th century.Some details of the preservation can be read in David Winfield, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1505228 "Sancta Sophia, Trebizond: A Note on the Cleaning and Conservation Work"], Studies in Conservation, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Nov., 1963), pp. 117-130.

File:Aya Sofya, Trabzon (2673340959).jpg

After European invaders sacked Constantinople in 1204,{{cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=Mark |title=1204: The Sack of Constantinople |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1188/1204-the-sack-of-constantinople/ |website=World History Encyclopedia}} the Byzantine Empire fractured. The Pontus region went into the hands of the Komnenos family, who ruled the new Empire of Trebizond.

During the Empire of Trebizond, many new structures were built. One is Kiz Castle in Rize Province. The castle sits on an islet just off the Black Sea coast. According to Anthony Bryer, a British Byzantinist, it was built in the 1200s or 1300s on the order of Trapezuntine rulers.{{Cite web | author1=BRYER, A. | author2=WINFIELD, D. | year=1985 | title=The Byzantine monuments and topography of the Pontos | location=Washington, D.C. | publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection | url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.02923}}{{cite web |title=Kız Kalesi - Rize |url=https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/turkiye/rize/gezilecekyer/kiz-kalesi |website=Kültür Portalı |publisher=Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism |language=tr}}{{cite web |title=Tarihi Kız Kalesi Restore Ediliyor |website=Haberler |publisher=Anadolu Agency |url=https://www.haberler.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822173316/https://www.haberler.com/tarihi-kiz-kalesi-restore-ediliyor-5920083-haberi/ |archive-date=August 22, 2020 |date=2014}} Zilkale Castle is another fortress in Rize Province. According to the same historian, it may have been built by the Empire of Trebizond for local Hemshin rulers.{{Cite book|last1=Bryer|first1=Anthony|title=Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos|last2=Winfield|first2=David|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection|year=1985|isbn=978-1597403177|series=Dumbarton Oaks Centre Studies|volume=2|pages=348}} Yet another fortress, the Kov Castle in Gümüşhane Province, may have been built by Trapezuntine Emperor Alexios III.{{cite journal |last1=Macler |first1=Frédéric |last2=Gulbenkian |first2=Fundação Calouste |title=Revue des études arméniennes |journal=Revue des études arméniennes |date=1985 |page=214 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1vBfAAAAMAAJ |trans-title=Journal of Armenian Studies |publisher=Association de la revue des études arméniennes |language=fr, en}}{{cite web |title=Kov Castle |url=https://gumushane.life/culture/kov-castle/ |website=Gumushane Culture and Nature}}{{cite web |title=Gümüşhane Kaleleri |url=http://gumushane.gov.tr/gumushane-kaleleri |publisher=Governorship of Gümüşhane |language=tr}}

File:Kaçkar Mountains National Park 21.jpg, Rize Province]]

Alexios III, one of the last emperors under whom the Empire of Trebizond flourished, built Panagia Theoskepastos Monastery in the 1300s. It was an all-female monastery in Trabzon.{{cite web |last1=Öztürk |first1=Özhan |title=Trabzon imparatorlarının kemikleri belediye mezarlığına mı gömülecek? |url=http://www.karalahana.com |publisher=Radikal Newspaper |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111022010918/http://www.karalahana.com/makaleler/Ozhan/trabzon-imparatorlarinin-kemikleri.htm |archive-date=October 22, 2011 |language=tr |date=2007}}{{cite book |last1=Yücel |first1=Erdem |title=Trabzon and Sumela |date=1989 |publisher=Net Turistik yayınlar |isbn=9789754790566 |page=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QtULAAAAIAAJ}} The monastery may undergo restoration work to boost tourism.{{cite web |title=Kızlar Monastery to serve as museum, enliven cultural life |url=https://www.dailysabah.com/life/history/kizlar-monastery-to-serve-as-museum-enliven-cultural-life |website=Daily Sabah |publisher=Anadolu Agency |date=February 24, 2020}}

After Mehmed the Conqueror lay siege to Trabzon in 1461, the Empire of Trebizond fell.Franz Babinger, [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rebyz_0766-5598_1949_num_7_1_1014 "La date de la prise de Trébizonde par les Turcs (1461)"], Revue des études byzantines, 7 (1949), pp. 205–207 {{doi|10.3406/rebyz.1949.1014}} Many church buildings became mosques around this time, while others remained in the Greek Orthodox community.

Pontic Greeks continued to live and build under Ottoman rule. For example, Pontians in Gümüşhane established the valley town of Santa (today called Dumanlı) in the 1600s. Even today, many of the stone schools, houses, and churches built by Santa's Greek Orthodox residents still stand.{{cite book |last1=Bryer |first1=Anthony |title=Peoples and Settlement in Anatolia and the Caucasus, 800-1900 |date=1988 |publisher=Variorum Reprints |isbn=9780860782223 |page=234 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4RpAAAAMAAJ |quote=New Greek settlements sprung up south of the Pontic Alps in the highland valleys of Torul (6), Zigana (3)...and Santa (4) especially}}{{cite web |title=Works initiated for concrete structures in Santa ruins |url=https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/works-initiated-for-concrete-structures-in-santa-ruins-134257 |website=Hurriyet Daily News |date=July 6, 2018}}

They weren't divorced from Ottoman society, however; Pontic Greeks also contributed their labor to Ottoman construction projects. In 1610, Pontians built the Hacı Abdullah Wall in Giresun Province. The wall is {{convert|6.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} long.{{cite web |title=Turizm |url=http://www.giresun.gov.tr/turizm |publisher=Governorship of Giresun Province}}

Trabzon remained an important center of Pontic Greek society and culture throughout Ottoman times. A scholar named Sevastos Kyminitis founded the Phrontisterion of Trapezous, a Greek school operating in Trabzon from the late 1600s to the early 1900s. It was an important center for Greek-language education across the whole Pontus region.{{cite book | last= Özdalga|first=Elisabeth | title= Late Ottoman society: the intellectual legacy | publisher=Routledge | year=2005 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sRtTyyGIgXsC&pg=PA259 | isbn= 978-0-415-34164-6| page =259}}{{cite web | last=Salvanou |first=Emilia | title=Φροντιστήριο Τραπεζούντας ("Phrontisterion of Trapezous")| url=http://www.ehw.gr/asiaminor/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=6622 | access-date=2010-10-14|work=Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία}} Some students came from outside of Trabzon to learn there (one example being Nikos Kapetanidis, who was born in Rize).

File:Mansion of K. Theophylaktos in Trebizond.jpg

After the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856 guaranteed more religious freedom and civic equality for the Ottoman Empire's Jews and Christians,{{cite journal |last1=Davison |first1=Roderic H. |title=Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian-Muslim Equality in the 19th Century |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1954 |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=844–864 |doi=10.2307/1845120 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1845120 |publisher=Oxford University Press|jstor=1845120 |url-access=subscription }} new churches were constructed. One of these was the church at Cape Jason in Perşembe, Ordu Province. Local Georgians and Greeks built this church in the 1800s; it remains today.William J. Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia;With Some Account of Their Antiquities and Geology v.1 (London: John Murray, 1842), 269 Another was the small stone church in Çakrak, Giresun Province.{{cite web |title=ÇAKRAK KİLİSESİ VE KÖPRÜSÜ |url=https://giresun.ktb.gov.tr/TR-206823/cakrak-kilisesi-ve-koprusu.html |publisher=Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism}} Still another was Taşbaşı Church in Ordu, built in the 1800s; after the Greek Orthodox were expelled from Turkey, it saw some use as a prison.{{cite web |title=Ordu ili tarihi yapılar kilise ve kaleler |website=Karalahana |url=http://www.karalahana.com/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612074129/http://www.karalahana.com/karadeniz/ordu-ili-tarihi-yerler.htm |archive-date=June 12, 2008 |language=tr |date=2007}}{{Cite web|url=http://imturkey.com/en/tasbasi-church|title=Taşbaşı Church History,Opening Hours,Information,Locaiton,Map Turkey|website=imturkey.com}} Many other less-notable churches remain throughout the Pontus region.{{cite web |title=Turkey Cultural Heritage Map |url=https://turkiyekulturvarliklari.hrantdink.org/?lang=en |website=Hrant Dink Foundation }}{{cite web |title=Part 12: Gümüşhane |website=Karalahana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511145300/http://karalahana.com/english/archive/trabzon12.html |archive-date=May 11, 2012 |date=2007 |url=http://www.karalahana.com/}}{{cite web |title=Gumushane |website=Karalahana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504012239/http://www.karalahana.com/karadeniz/gumushane.htm |archive-date=May 4, 2012 |date=2007 |url=http://www.karalahana.com/}}

Some of the old houses once belonging to Pontic Greeks still stand. For example, Konstantinos Theofylaktos, a wealthy Greek,{{cite book |last1=Warner |first1=Jayne L. |title=Turkish Nomad: The Intellectual Journey of Talat S Halman |date=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781838609818 |page=379 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhiWDwAAQBAJ}} had a mansion built for him in Trabzon. It now functions as Trabzon Museum.[http://www.karalahana.com/english/archive/Kostaki-Mansion-Museum-of-Trebizond.html Kostaki Mansion - Museum of Trebizond] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011044726/http://karalahana.com/english/archive/Kostaki-Mansion-Museum-of-Trebizond.html |date=2011-10-11 }}. Kara Lahana, retrieved 12 October 2011{{cite book |last1=Bussmann |first1=Michael |last2=Tröger |first2=Gabriele |title=Türkei Reiseführer: Individuell reisen mit vielen praktischen Tipps |date=2015 |publisher=Michael Müller Verlag |isbn=9783956542978 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YF53DwAAQBAJ |language=de |quote=The museum is located in the magnificent mansion of the former Trapezuntine banker Kostaki Teophylaktos{{nbsp}}...}}

Many structures have not survived to the present day. One example of this is Saint Gregory of Nyssa Church, Trabzon, which was dynamited in the 1930s to make way for a new building.{{cite book |last1=Bryer |first1=Anthony |last2=Winfield |first2=David |last3=Ballance |first3=Selina |last4=Isaac |first4=Jane |title=The Post-Byzantine Monuments of the Pontos |date=2002 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=9780860788645 |page=202 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmfqAAAAMAAJ}}

{{See also|Greeks in Russia|Greeks in Ukraine}}

File:Map of Pontus.jpg after World War I, based on the extent of the six local Greek Orthodox bishoprics.]]

File:Evler2b.jpg

Some of the settlements historically inhabited by Pontian Greeks include (current official names in parentheses):

;In Pontus proper

:Amasea, Samsunda (Amisos), Aphene, Argyrion (Akdağmadeni), Argyropolis (Gümüşhane), Athina (Pazar), Bafra, Comana Pontica (Gümenek), Etonia (Gümüşhacıköy), Fatsa, Galiana (Konaklar), Gemoura (Yomra), Hopa, Imera (Olucak), Kakatsis, Kelkit, Cerasus(Giresun), Kissa (Fındıklı), Kolonia (Şebinkarahisar), Nikopolis (Koyulhisar), Kotyora (Ordu), Kromni (Yağlıdere), Livera (Yazlık), Matsouka (Maçka), Meletios (Mesudiye), Myrsiphon (Merzifon), Mouzena (Aydınlar), Neocaesarea (Niksar), Ofis (Of), Oinoe (Ünye), Platana (Akçaabat), Rizounta (Rize), Santa (Dumanlı), Sinope (Sinop), Sourmena (Sürmene), Therme (Terme), i.e. the ancient of the Themiscyra, Evdokia (Tokat), Thoania (Tonya), Trebizond (Trabzon), Tripolis (Tirebolu), Cheriana (Şiran).

;Outside Pontus proper

:Adapazarı, Palea (Balya), Baiberdon (Bayburt), Efchaneia (Çorum), Sebastia (Sivas), Theodosiopolis (Erzurum), Erzincan (see below on Eastern Anatolia Greeks) and in the so-called Russian Asia Minor (see Batum Oblast, Kars Oblast' and Caucasian Greeks) and the so-called Russian Trans-Caucasus or Transcaucasia (see Černomore Guberniya, Kutais Guberniya, Tiflis Guberniya, Bathys Limni, Dioskourias (Sevastoupolis), Gonia, Phasis, Pytius and Tsalka).

;In Crimea and the northern Azov Sea

:Chersonesos, Symbolon (Balaklava), Kerkinitida, Panticapaeum, Soughdaia (Sudak), Tanais, Theodosia (Feodosiya).

;On the Taman peninsula and Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai (in particular Essentuki)

:Germonassa, Gorgippa (Anapa), Heraclea Pontica, Phanagoria.

;On the southwestern coast of Ukraine and the Eastern Balkans

:Antiphilos, Apollonia (Sozopol), Germonakris, Mariupol, Mesembria (Nesebar), Nikonis, Odessos (Varna), Olbia, Tyras.

Ethnic Greeks indigenous to the high plateau of Eastern Anatolia to the immediate south of the boundaries of the Empire of Trebizond – essentially the northern portion of the former Ottoman Vilayet of Erzurum between Erzinjan and Kars province, that is the western half of the Armenian Highlands – are sometimes differentiated from both Pontic Greeks proper and Caucasian Greeks.Topalidis, Sam, 'A Pontic Greek History' (2006), introduction. These Greeks pre-date the refugees and migrants who left their homelands in the Pontic Alps and moved onto the Eastern Anatolian plateau after the fall of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461. They were mainly the descendants of Greek farmers, soldiers, state officials and traders, who settled in Erzurum province in the late Roman and Byzantine Empire period.

Unlike the thoroughly Hellenized areas of the western and central Black Sea coast and the Pontic Alps, the Erzinjan and Erzerum regions were primarily Turkish- and Armenian-speaking, with Greeks forming only a small minority of the population.Koromela, Marianna and Evert, Lisa,'Pontos-Anatolia : northern Asia Minor and the Anatolian plateau east of the upper Euphrates : images of a Journey', (1989), p. 37. The Greeks of this region were consequently more exposed to Turkish and Armenian cultural influences than those of Pontus proper, and also more likely to have a strong command of the Turkish language, particular since the areas they inhabited had also been part of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and other pre-Ottoman Turkish powers in Central and Eastern Anatolia.Topalidis, Sam, 'A Pontic Greek History' (2006), pp. 39–46. Many are also known to have "turned Turk" in both the Seljuk and Ottoman periods, and consequently to have assimilated into Turkish society or reverted to Christian Orthodoxy in the 19th century. Erzurum province was invaded and occupied by the Russian Empire several times in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and large numbers of Eastern Anatolia Greeks are known to have collaborated with the Russians in these campaigns, particularly that of the 1828–29 Russo-Turkish War, alongside Pontic Greeks inhabiting areas to the immediate north of Erzinjan and Erzurum.

As with Pontic Greeks proper, those Eastern Anatolia Greeks who migrated eastwards into Kars province, Georgia, Armenia and Southern Russia between the early Ottoman period and 1829 generally assimilated into the branch of Pontic Greeks usually called Caucasian Greeks.Xanthopoulou-Kyriakou, Artemis, 'The Diaspora of the Greeks of the Pontos: Historical Background', Journal of Refugee Studies, 4, (1991), pp. 26–31. Those who remained and retained their Greek identity into the early 20th century were either deported to the Kingdom of Greece as part of the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1923-4 or massacred in the Greek genocide that occurred after the larger Armenian genocide in the same part of Anatolia.Topalidis, Sam, 'A Pontic Greek History' (2006), pp. 22–25.

{{Main article|Pontic Greek culture}}

{{More citations needed section|date=May 2023}}

File:Sumela From Across Valley.JPG]]

The culture of Pontus has been strongly influenced by the topography of its different regions. In commercial cities like Trebizond, Sampsounta, Kerasounta, and Sinope upper-level education and arts flourished under the protection of a cosmopolitan middle class. In the inland cities such as Argyroupolis, the economy was based upon agriculture and mining, thus creating an economic and cultural gap between the developed urban ports and the rural centers which lay upon the valleys and plains extending from the base of the Pontic alps.

{{Main|Pontic Greek}}

File:Phrontisterion of Trapezous.JPG, early 20th century]]

Pontic's linguistic lineage stems from Ionic Greek via Koine and Byzantine Greek with many archaisms and contains loanwords from Turkish and to a lesser extent, Persian and various Caucasian languages.

Tsalka Greeks speak a dialect of Turkish, the Tsalka language.

File:Pontus Rum 1903.JPG

The rich cultural activity of Pontian Greeks is witnessed by the number of educational institutions, churches, and monasteries in the region. These include the Phrontisterion of Trapezous that operated from 1682/3 to 1921 and provided a major impetus for the rapid expansion of Greek education throughout the region.{{cite book | last= Özdalga|first=Elisabeth | title= Late Ottoman society: the intellectual legacy | publisher=Routledge | year=2005 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sRtTyyGIgXsC&pg=PA259| isbn= 978-0-415-34164-6| page =259}} The building of this institution still remains the most impressive Pontic Greek monument in the city.{{cite book | last1= Bryer |first1=Anthony |last2=Winfield|first2=David | title= The post-Byzantine monuments of Pontos | publisher=Ashgate | year=2006 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gmfqAAAAMAAJ| isbn= 978-0-86078-864-5| page =xxxiii}}

Another well known institution was the Argyroupolis, built in 1682 and 1722 respectively, 38 highschools in the Sinopi region, 39 highschools in the Kerasounda region, a plethora of churches and monasteries, most notable of which are the St. Eugenios and Hagia Sophia churches of Trapezeus, the monasteries of St. George and St. Ioannes Vazelonos, and arguably the most famous and highly regarded of all, the monastery of Panagia Soumela.

During the 19th century hundreds of schools were constructed by Pontic Greek communities in the Trebizond Vilayet, giving the region one of the highest literacy rates in the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks of Caykara, who according to Ottoman tax records converted to Islam during the 17th century, were also recognized for their educational facilities. Teachers from the Of-valley provided education for thousands of Anatolian Sunni and Sufi students in home schools and small madrassas. Some of these schools taught Pontic Greek alongside Arabic (and to a lesser extent Persian or Ottoman Turkish as well). Although Atatürk banned these madrassas during the early republican period, some of them remained functioning until the second half of the 20th century because of their remote location.[http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/eBooks/MidEast/BOOKS/A%20Nation%20of%20Empire%20Meeker.pdf A Nation of Empire – Ottoman Legacy Turkish Modernity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117014622/http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/eBooks/MidEast/BOOKS/A%20Nation%20of%20Empire%20Meeker.pdf |date=17 November 2015 }} Michael E. Meeker – University of California Press, 2001[http://www.karalahana.com/english/omer_asan.htm Trabzon Greek – A language without a Tongue] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611151243/http://www.karalahana.com/english/omer_asan.htm |date=11 June 2008 }} Ömer Asan on Karalahana.com The effects of this educational heritage continue to this day, with many prominent religious figures, scientists and politicians coming from the areas influenced by the Naqshbandi Sufi orders of Pontic Greek extraction in Of, Caykara and Rize, among them president Erdogan, whose family originates from the village of Potamia.

{{Main|Pontic Greek music}}

File:Matzouka macukali.jpg, davul, zurna. Photo from 1950s in Matzouka, Trabzon, Turkey.]]

Pontian music retains elements of the musical traditions of Ancient Greece, Byzantium, and the Caucasus (especially from the region of Kars). Possibly there is an underlying influence from the native peoples who lived in the area before the Greeks as well, but this is not clearly established.

Musical styles, like language patterns and other cultural traits, were influenced by the topography of Pontos. The mountains and rivers of the area impeded communication between Pontian Greek communities and caused them to develop in different ways. Also significant in the shaping of Pontian music was the proximity of various non-Greek peoples on the fringes of the Pontic area. For this reason we see that musical style of the east Pontos has significant differences from that of the west or southwest Pontos. The Pontian music of Kars, for example, shows a clear influence from the music of the Caucasus and elements from other parts of Anatolia. The music and dances of Turks from Black Sea region are very similar to Greek Pontic and some songs and melodies are common. Except for certain laments and ballads, this music is played primarily to be danced to.

An important part of Pontic music is the Acritic songs, heroic or epic poetry set to music that emerged in the Byzantine Empire, probably in the 9th century. These songs celebrated the exploits of the Akritai, the frontier guards defending the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire.

The most popular instrument in the Pontian musical collection is the kemenche or lyra, which is related closely with other bowed musical instruments of the medieval West, like the Kit violin and Rebec. Also important are other instruments such as the Angion or Tulum (a type of Bagpipe), the davul, a type of drum, the Shiliavrin, and the Kaval or Ghaval (a flute-like pipe).

The zurna existed in several versions which varied from region to region, with the style from Bafra sounding differently due to its bigger size. The Violin was very popular in the Bafra region and all throughout west Pontos. The Kemane, an instrument closely related to the one of Cappadocia, was highly popular in southwest Pontos and with the Pontian Greeks who lived in Cappadocia. Finally worth mentioning are the Defi (a type of tambourine), Outi and in the region of Kars, the clarinet and accordion.

Popular singers of Pontic music include Stelios Kazantzidis, Chrysanthos Theodoridis, Stathis Nikolaidis, Theodoros Pavlidis, Giannis Tsitiridis, and Pela Nikolaidou.

{{Main|Pontic Greek folk dance}}

File:Verbreitungskarte der türkischen Volkstänze.png in blue.]]

Pontian dance retains aspects of Persian and Greek dance styles. The dances called Horoi/Choroi ({{langx|el|Χοροί}}), singular Horos/Choros (Chorus) ({{langx|el|Χορός}}), meaning literally "Dance" in both Ancient Pontian and Modern Greek languages, are circular in nature and each is characterized by distinct short steps. A unique aspect of Pontian dance is the tremoulo ({{langx|el|Τρέμουλο}}), which is a fast shaking of the upper torso by a turning of the back on its axis. Like other Greek dances, they are danced in a line and the dancers form a circle. Pontian dances also resemble Persian and Middle Eastern dances because they are not led by a single dancer. The most renowned Pontian dances are Tik (dance), Serra, Maheria or Pyrecheios, Kotsari and Omal. Other, less common, dances include Letsina, Dipat, Podaraki, and Atsiapat.

File:Pontus Greek Soccer Team.JPG.]]

Pontic Greek history with organised sports began with extra-curricular activities offered by educational institutions. The students would establish athletics clubs providing the Pontic Greek youth with an opportunity to participate in organised sporting competition. The Hellenic Athletic Club, Pontus Merzifounta, founded in 1903 was one such example formed by students attending Anatolia College in Merzifon near Amasya. The college's forced closure in 1921 by the Turkish government resulted in the school's relocation to Greece in 1924, along with much of the Greek population of Asia Minor in the aftermath of genocide and a subsequent treaty that agreed upon a population exchange between Greece and Turkey. This resulted in the establishment of Pontic and Anatolian Greek sporting clubs in Greece, of which football is the sport with which they are most commonly associated. Today a number of these clubs still compete; some at a professional and intercontinental level. Such as:

• Apollon Pontou FC
• AE Pontion Verias
• AO Ellas Pontion
• AE Ponton Evmirou
• AE Ponton Vatalakkou
• AEP Kozanis
• Pontikos Neas Santas'

Outside of Greece, due to the widespread Pontic Greek diaspora, association football clubs also exist. In Australia, the Pontian Eagles SC are a semi-professional team based in Adelaide, South Australia and in Munich, Germany, FC Pontos have an academy relationship with PAOK FC.

Pontic Greeks have also contributed to sporting successes internationally, not limited to but mostly representing Greece, with several team members a part of sports triumphs in major international basketball (2006 FIBA World Championship, Eurobasket 2005) and football tournaments (UEFA Euro 2004). Champion individuals of Pontic Greek origin have also emerged in World Championship and Olympic levels of competition for athletics (Katerina Stefanidi, Voula Patoulidou), gymnastics (Ioannis Melissanidis), diving (Nikolaos Siranidis), taekwondo (Alexandros Nikolaidis) and kick-boxing (Mike Zambidis, Stan Longinidis).

On 19 May of each year, the Evzonoi of the Greek Army Presidential Guard ceremonial unit wear the traditional black Pontic uniform to commemorate the Pontic genocide.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/zJ6psL0DnBw Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200308204545/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ6psL0DnBw&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ6psL0DnBw| title = Οι Πόντιοι Εύζωνες στο Σύνταγμα στα 100 χρόνια από τη Γενοκτονία των Ποντίων | website=YouTube| date = 19 May 2019 }}{{cbignore}}

{{Main|Pontic Greek cuisine}}

File:Τσιριχτά.JPG

Today, Pontic Greek cuisine is mostly found in the northern part of Greece.{{Cite journal |last1=Keramaris |first1=Achillefs |last2=Kasapidou |first2=Eleni |last3=Mitlianga |first3=Paraskevi |date=2022-01-15 |title=Pontic Greek cuisine: the most common foods, ingredients, and dishes presented in cookbooks and folklore literature |journal=Journal of Ethnic Foods |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=3 |doi=10.1186/s42779-022-00117-8 |s2cid=257163571 |issn=2352-6181|doi-access=free }} Culinary traditions have played an integral role in the preservation of Pontic Greek identity. Dairy products, grains, and vegetables are commonly used. Pontic cuisine specialities include:

• Felia ({{lang|pnt|φελία}}), Pontian French toast{{cite web |title=Pontian Felia |url=https://www.cooklos.gr/syntages/felia-pontiaka |website=Cooklos}}{{cite web |title=Felia |url=https://www.trapezounta.gr/recipe/felia-oi-pontiakes-aygofetes/ |website=Trapezounta}}
• Kinteata ({{lang|pnt|κιντέατα}}), nettle soup{{cite web |title=Kinteata with oatmeal: fast and healthy Pontian recipe |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/293330/syntages/kinteata-me-plougour-pontiaki-synta/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=March 9, 2014}}
• Otía (pnt) ({{lang|pnt|ωτία}}), fried dessert{{cite web |title=Fried otia |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/270900/syntages/methysmena-otia/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=February 1, 2013}}
• Pirozhki ({{lang|pnt|πιροσκί}}){{cite web |title=Piroski |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/265-piroshki-sh |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• Pishía (pnt) ({{lang|pnt|πιςία}}), Pontian boortsog{{cite web |title=Πισία με γιαούρτι (Yogurt pishía) |url=http://www.sintagespareas.gr/sintages/pisia-me-giaourti.html |website=Oι συνταγές της παρέας |date=27 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804030211/http://www.sintagespareas.gr/sintages/pisia-me-giaourti.html |archive-date=August 4, 2010 |language=Greek}}
• Pita, flatbread{{cite web |title=Pishia |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/266-pishia-sh |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• Sousamópita ({{lang|pnt|σουσαμόπιτα}}){{cite web |title=Sousamopita |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/264162/syntages/sousamopita/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=November 11, 2012}}
• Tanoménon sorvá or Tanofái ({{lang|pnt|τανωμένον σορβά, τανοφάι}}), soup made with onions and yogurt{{cite news |title=Tanomenos sorvas |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/338416/syntages/tanomenos-sorvas/ |date=October 17, 2015 |language=Greek}}{{cite web |title=How to make Tanomenon surva |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/270-tanomenon-shourva-sh |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• Tsirichtá (pnt) ({{lang|pnt|τσιριχτά}}), type of loukoumades{{cite web |title=Tsirichta |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/262034/syntages/tsirichta/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=October 19, 2012}}
• Siron (pnt) ({{lang|pnt|σιρόν}}), pasta{{cite web |title=Siron with yogurt: Pontian pasta |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/273574/syntages/siron-me-paskitan-pontiaka-zymarika/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=March 11, 2013}}
• Varenika ({{lang|pnt|βαρένικα}}), type of ravioli{{cite web |author1=Savvas Karipoglou |title=Varenika step-by-step by Savvas Karipoglou |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/457783/syntages/varenika-vima-vima-apo-ton-savva-karip/ |website=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=January 17, 2020}}
• Sourva, wheat or barley porridge{{cite book |last1=Voutira |first1=Eftihia |title=The 'right to Return' and the Meaning of 'home' |date=2011 |publisher=Lit |isbn=9783643901071 |page=10 |quote=A few of my school friends were Pontic Greeks, and I remember their exotic foods, such as sourva and tan{{nbsp}}...}}
• Tan, drink{{cite web |title=Tan: the Pontian soft drink |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/270083/syntages/tan-to-pontiako-anapsyktiko/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=January 22, 2013}}
• Stupa or stupa torshi, pickled vegetables{{cite web |title=Pickled cucumbers from the Pontian Alps |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/283744/syntages/angourakia-toursi-ta-pontiaka-stypa/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=September 3, 2013}}{{cite web |title=The Pontian Festive Table |url=https://www.perek.gr/blog/συνταγές/ποντιακό-εορταστικό-τραπέζι |website=Perek |language=Greek |date=December 29, 2020}}{{cite web |title=Pontian Torshi |url=https://www.dimiourgiestisnias.com/2017/08/blog-post_60.html?m=1 |website=Dimiourgies Tis Nias |language=Greek |access-date=3 May 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505230255/https://www.dimiourgiestisnias.com/2017/08/blog-post_60.html?m=1 |url-status=dead }}
• Pilav, rice dish.{{cite web |title=Five Pontian recipes for Lent |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/293024/syntages/pente-pontiakes-syntages-gia-to-sarak/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=March 2, 2014}} In coastal Pontus, it was sometimes made with mussels.{{cite web |title=Mythopilavon: the Pontian mussel pilav |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/272040/syntages/mythopilavon-to-pontiako-mydopilafo/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=February 15, 2013}} Other versions included pilav with saffron, chicken, or anchovies.{{cite web |title=Hapsipilavon, the Pontian pilaf with fish |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/640286/syntages/chapsopilavon-pontiako-pilafi-ta-psaria/ |website=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=February 19, 2021}}{{cite web |title=Sinope Pilaf |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/260394/syntages/pilafi-sinopis/ |website=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=October 7, 2012}}
• Dolmades, stuffed leaf dish{{cite web |title=Pontian Sarma with Black Cabbage for the Christmas Table |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/373931/syntages/pontiakoi-sarmades-me-mavrolachana-gi/ |publisher=Pontos News |date=December 17, 2016}}
• Kibbeh made with lamb and/or beef
• Briami, roasted vegetables
• Havitz (pnt) ({{lang|pnt|Χαβίτς}}), porridge{{cite web |title=Havitz |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/260601/syntages/chavits/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=September 26, 2012}}{{cite web |title=Recipe for Havitz |date=6 October 2023 |url=https://www.lelevose.gr/xavits-me-fournikon-aleuri/ |publisher=Lelevose Radio |language=Greek}}
• Perek ({{lang|pnt|Περέκ}}), pie similar to the Greek tiropita{{cite web |title=Perek in the oven |date=December 2015 |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/342715/syntages/perek-sto-fourno/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek}}
• Avgolemono, egg-lemon soup
• Kebab, roasted meat{{cite web |title=Pontian pork skewers with atzika and tsatsibeli |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/442023/syntages/pontiaka-choirina-souvlakia-me-atzika/ |publisher=Pontos News |date=April 17, 2020}}
• Mantía ({{lang|pnt|Μαντία}}), dumplings{{cite web |title=Mantia, a popular Pontian food |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/279228/syntages/mantia-ena-agapimeno-fagito-ton-ponti/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=June 12, 2013}}
• Lalággia ({{lang|pnt|Λαλάγγια}}), pancakes{{cite web |title=Lalaggia: Pontian pancakes for breakfast |url=https://www.pontosnews.gr/277698/syntages/lalangia-oi-pontiakes-tiganites-gia-t/ |publisher=Pontos News |language=Greek |date=May 18, 2013}}
• Foustoron, type of omelette{{cite web |title=Foustoron (Pontian Omelette) |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/255-foustoron |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• Mavra laxana, cabbage soup{{cite web |title=Cabbage and Beans |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/253-cabbage-and-beans |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• Lavashia ({{lang|pnt|Λαβάσια}}), bread similar to Armenian lavash{{cite web |title=Lavashia |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/260-lavashia |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• Tsatsoupel, a condiment similar to salsa made from quince, tomato, chili peppers, bell peppers, and a variety of spices{{cite web |title=Tsatsoupel |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/271-tsatsoupel |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}
• {{lang|tr|İmam bayıldın}}, stuffed eggplant; shared with Turkish cuisine{{cite web |title=Imam-bayildin |url=https://pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/cuisine/258-imam-bayildin |website=Pontos World|date=7 February 2017 }}

There are many different views on Pontians in Greece. Pontians may be celebrated as representations of Greek heroism or as near-mythic warriors. However, they have also been stereotyped as simple and backwards rural people. There is a genre of Greek humor, called Pontic anecdotes, that depicts the Pontians as buffoons, while in some Greek slang the word "Pontian" may mean "idiot"; these stem from the pre-1950s reception of the Pontic refugees, and today most Pontians are amused by the anecdotes.{{sfn|Tsekouras|2016|p=5}}

• In the 1984 movie Voyage to Cythera (Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα),[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088241/ Taxidi sta Kythira (1984)], imdb.com directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos, the protagonist is a Pontian Greek who was deported to the Soviet Union after the Greek civil war. He returns to Greece after 32 years.
• In his 1998 movie From the Edge of the City (Από την άκρη της πόλης),[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181547/ Apo Tin Akri Tis Polis], imdb.com the film director Constantinos Giannaris describes the life of a young "Russian Pontian" from Kazakhstan in the prostitution underworld of Athens.
• In the 1999 movie Soil and Water (Χώμα και νερό),[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230167/Homa kai nero], imdb.com one of the characters is a Pontian Greek from Georgia who works as a woman's trafficker for a strip club.
• In the 2000 memoir Not Even My Name: From a Death March in Turkey to a New Home in America, A Young Girl's True Story of Genocide and Survival by Thea Halo, life in the Pontus region is described by her mother Sano Halo before and after the Greek genocide.
• In the 2000 movie The Very Poor, Inc. (Πάμπτωχοι Α.Ε.),[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273937/ The Very Poor, Inc.], imdb.com one of the characters is a Pontian Greek from the Soviet Union named Thymios Hloridis. A mathematician with a specialty in chaos theory, Hloridis is forced to make a living selling illegal cigars in front of the stock-market.
• In the 2002 novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, one of the side characters is a Pontian-American career criminal named Zizmo.{{cite book |last1=Eugenides |first1=Jeffrey |title=Middlesex |date=2002 |publisher=Picador |isbn=0374199698 |page=89}}{{cite book |last1=Eugenides |first1=Jeffrey |title=Middlesex |date=2002 |publisher=Picador |isbn=0374199698 |page=112}}
• In the 2003 Turkish movie Waiting for the Clouds (Bulutlari Beklerken, Περιμένοντας τα σύννεφα),[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418309/ Waiting for the Clouds], imdb.com a Pontian Greek woman who didn't leave Pontus as a child with her brother during the population exchange, meets Thanasis, a Pontian Greek man from the Soviet Union, who helps her to find her brother in Greece. The movie makes some references to the Pontic genocide.
• In the 2008 short movie Pontos,[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1553201/ Pontos (2008)], imdb.com written, produced, and directed by Peter Stefanidis, he aims to capture a small part of the genocide from the perspective of its two central characters, played by Lee Mason (Kemal) and Ross Black (Pantzo).
• A 2012 poetry collection, The Black Sea by Stephanos Papadopoulos, depicts the imagined trials and voyages of the Pontic Greek exodus from the region. It was published by Sheep Meadow Press.

{{Main|List of Pontic Greeks}}

• Diogenes of Sinope (412 or 404{{nbsp}}BC{{snd}}323{{nbsp}}BC) (philosopher; founder of Cynic movement)
• Bion of Borysthenes (philosopher)
• Dionysodorus of Amaseia (mathematician)
• Strabo (historian)
• Philetaerus ({{circa|343–263 BC}}) (founder of the Attalid dynasty){{cite book |author1=Renée Dreyfus |author2=Ellen Schraudolph |title=Pergamon: The Telephos Frieze from the Great Altar |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1996 |page=24 |isbn=0-88401-091-0 |quote=Philetairos of Tios on the Black Sea, son of a Greek father and a Paphlagonian mother, a high-ranking officer in the army of King Lysimachos and also his confidant, was the actual founder of Pergamon.}}
• Mithradates VI Eupator (ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus from 120 to 63{{nbsp}}BC)
• Marcion of Sinope (85–160{{nbsp}}AD) (theologian)
• Aquila of Sinope ({{circa|130 AD}}) (translator of Hebrew bible into Greek)
• Evagrius Ponticus (345–399{{nbsp}}AD), Christian monk

===Medieval===

• Alexios II of Trebizond
• Nicephorus Gregoras{{Cite web |title=2006POBeo..80..269T Page 269 |url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2006POBeo..80..269T |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=adsabs.harvard.edu}}
• Constantine Loukites{{Cite web |date=2015-04-17 |title=Μεγάλη διαδικτυακή εγκυκλοπαίδεια της Μικράς Ασίας |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417062347/http://www.ehw.gr/asiaminor/forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=8274 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=web.archive.org}}
• Ecumenical Patriarch John VIII
• Ecumenical Patriarch Maximus V
• Michael Panaretos
• George Amiroutzes
• Gregory Choniades
• George of Trebizond
• Basilios Bessarion

{{div col}}

• Ioannis Amanatidis (footballer)
• George Andreadis (novelist)
• Peter Andrikidis (film & TV director)
• Diana Anphimiadi (poet)
• Antonis Antoniadis (footballer)
• Joannis Avramidis
• Konstantin Bazelyuk
• A.I. Bezzerides
• Georges Candilis
• Alexander Deligiannidis
• Alex Dimitriades
• Odysseas Dimitriadis (music conductor)
• Ioannis Fetfatzidis
• Adonis Georgiadis
• Georgios Georgiadis (footballer, born 1972)
• Georgios Georgiadis (footballer, born 1987)
• George Gurdjieff
• Nikos Kapetanidis
• Michael Katsidis (boxer)
• Stelios Kazantzidis
• Yevhen Khacheridi
• Matthaios Kofidis
• Savvas Kofidis
• Venetia Kotta
• Arkhip Kuindzhi
• Filon Ktenidis
• Mike Lazaridis
• Yuri Lodygin
• Stan Longinidis
• Takis Loukanidis
• Dimitris Melissanidis
• Ioannis Melissanidis
• Kostas Nestoridis
• Alexandros Nikolaidis
• Apostolos Nikolaidis
• Demis Nikolaidis
• Lazaros Papadopoulos
• Stephanos Papadopoulos
• Mimis Papaioannou
• Lefteris Pantazis
• Evangelos Marinakis{{Cite web |last=Marti |first=Stella |date=2024-02-28 |title=Βαγγέλης Μαρινάκης: Κατακτώντας την κορυφή με «την καρδιά του πρωταθλητή» |url=https://www.thetotalbusiness.com/2024/02/28/vaggelis-marinakis-kataktwntas-korifi-kardia-prwtathliti/ |website=The Total Business |language=el}}
• Klavdia Papadopoulou (Eurovision 2025 participant)
• Dimitrios Partsalidis
• Ioannis Passalidis
• Voula Patoulidou (track & field Olympic gold-medal winner)
• Dimitris Psathas
• Viktor Sarianidi
• Ivan Savvidis
• Giourkas Seitaridis
• Nikolaos Siranidis
• Arthur Sissis
• John Sitilides
• Georgios Skliros
• Pamphylia Tanailidi
• Takis Terzopoulos
• Chrysanthos Theodoridis
• Vasilis Torosidis
• Vasilis N. Triantafillidis
• Vladimir Triandafillov
• Matthaios Tsahouridis (musician)
• Iovan Tsaous
• Markos Vafiadis
• Alexandros Ypsilantis
• Demetrios Ypsilantis
• Fyodor Yurchikhin
• Nikos Xanthopoulos (actor & singer)
• Mike Zambidis (kickboxer)

{{div col end}}

File:Pontus Rumlarının.JPG|alt=Old photo of five Pontic Greeks in western dress, seated or standing inside.|A wealthy Pontic Greek family in Geneva

File:Pontic Greeks.JPG|alt=Photograph of Pontian woman, man, and children seated inside.|A middle-class Pontic Greek family

File:Pontus Greek family.JPG|Pontian Greek family of Kerasounta

File:Yunanlilar Trabzon.JPG|alt=Family photograph of Pontians at a house. Some old women wear traditional clothes. A young boy holds a rifle.|Pontic Greek family in the courtyard of a Trapezounta house (modern Trabzon, Turkey)

File:Greeks Trabzon.JPG|alt=Photograph of Pontian women and girls in western dress.|Pontian Greek ladies and children of Trapezounta

File:Yunan Trabzon 1900.JPG|alt=Photograph of elaborately dressed Pontian man and woman inside.|Pontic Greek couple in Trapezounta

File:Yunanlılar Karadeniz Giresun Kerasounta.JPG|alt=Photograph of Pontian boys in sports uniforms.|Pontian Greek athletics team from Kerasounta (modern Giresun, Turkey)

File:Trabzon Yunan Okulu.JPG|alt=Rows of Pontian girls in school uniforms with their teacher.|Pontian Greek female students of Trapezounta

File:Pontus Greek Soccer Team.JPG|Pontian Greek soccer team called 'Pontos'

File:Greeks Georgia Batumi.JPG|alt=Two rows of short Pontian men in suits.|Pontic Greeks in Batumi, Georgia

File:Pontus Yunan kano.JPG|alt=Pontian men wearing western suits in a canoe, Black Sea. Some wear fezes or carry instruments.|Pontian Greek Canoe, off the coast of Trapezounta

File:Pontic family in Russia.jpg|Pontic family of Russia at the beginning of the century, wearing traditional costume.

File:Caucasus Greek Major in the Russian Imperial Army, Christos Adamidis from Muzarat, Ardahan district..JPG|alt=Pontian man in old military uniform posing with a gun.|Pontic Greek from the Caucasus as member of the Russian Imperial Army

• Amaseia, a city with Pontic Greeks
• Yannis Vasilis, a former ultra-nationalist Turk turned pacifist and promoter of Greek heritage after finding out his Pontic Greek heritage.
• Caucasus Greeks

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Berikashvili, Svetlana. Morphological aspects of Pontic Greek spoken in Georgia. LINCOM GmbH, 2017. {{ISBN|978-3-8628-8852-8}}
• {{cite journal|author=Bruneau, Michel|url=https://journals.openedition.org/anatoli/315|title=Le patrimoine menacé des Grecs pontiques, entre Turquie et Grèce|journal=Anatoli|year=2015|volume=6 |language=fr|issue=6|doi=10.4000/anatoli.315}}
• Halo, Thea. Not Even My Name. Picador. 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-312-26211-2}}.
• Hofmann, Tessa, ed. Verfolgung, Vertreibung und Vernichtung der Christen im Osmanischen Reich 1912–1922. Münster: LIT, 2004. {{ISBN|978-3-8258-7823-8}}
• {{cite thesis |last=Tsekouras |first=Ioannis |date=2016 |title=Nostalgia, Emotionality, and Ethno-Regionalism in Pontic Parakathi Singing |type=PhD |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign}}

{{Commons category-inline}}

• [http://www.pontos.gr Pontian Federation of Greece]
• [http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/bondyrev.html#* Website with map showing colonization of the Black Sea by Greeks]
• [https://turkiyekulturvarliklari.hrantdink.org/ An interactive map featuring historic sites in Turkey, which can be filtered to show only Greek sites]

{{Immigration to Russia}}

{{Peoples of the Caucasus}}

{{Ethnic groups in Greece}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Ethnic groups in Greece

Category:Ethnic groups in Georgia (country)

Greeks

Category:Ethnic groups in Russia

Category:Russian people of Greek descent

Category:Greeks in Turkey

Category:Turkish people of Greek descent

Category:Ethnic groups in Ukraine

Category:Ukrainian people of Greek descent

Category:Ethnic groups in Abkhazia

Category:Peoples of the Caucasus

Category:Ancient peoples of Anatolia

Category:Sub-ethnic groups