The Pontian Greeks are Greeks from the shores of the Black Sea, the Pontus. They traditionally speak Pontic Greek. Map of the Black Sea. ... After the colonisation of the Anatolian shores by the Ionian Greeks, Pontus soon became a name which was applied, in ancient times, to extensive tracts of country in the northeast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) bordering on the Euxine (Black Sea), which was often called simply Pontos (the Main), by... Pontic Greek is a Greek language which was originally spoken on the shores of the Black Sea (Pontus). Pontics linguistic lineage stems from Attic Greek, and contains influences from Byzantine Greek, Turkish influence and some Persian and Caucasian borrowings. ...

Greek colonies had been established on the shores of the Black Sea since antiquity. Placed under Byzantine control in the Middle Ages, they remained isolated from the rest of the Greek-speaking world afterward. Like other Christian minorities as Armenians or Assyrians, Pontian Greeks had to face persecution and ethnic cleansing at the beginning of the 20th century (Hofmann 2004). In 1923, the remaining Pontians were expelled from Turkey to Greece as part of the population exchange defined by the Treaty of Lausanne. In politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a geographically-distant state (or city, in ancient times). ... Map of the Black Sea. ...     Byzantine Empire (Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων) is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... It has been suggested that Assyrian people be merged into this article or section. ... Population transfer is a term referring to a policy by which a state forces the movement of a large group of people out of a region, invariably on the basis of ethnicity or religion. ... The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty that delimited the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey. ...

It has been suggested that Greek-speaking Muslims be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Nowadays, the actual number of Pontians is unknown. The largest communities of Pontians (or people of Pontian descent) around the world are: According to the Pontian Diaspora 2000, more than 1 million in Greece, more than 500,000 in Russia and in other countries of the exUSSR, 120,000 in the Ukraine, 50,000 in Georgia ("Rumka"), 80,000 in the USA, 56,000 in Australia, 25,000 in Kazakhstan, 20,000 in Canada, 11,000 in Uzbekistan, 2,000 in Armenia. Some demographers estimate that there are 300,000^{[citation needed]} Pontians in Turkey (in Trabzon, mostly Muslim). There is also a sizable Pontian community in Germany and a significant growing number in the Republic of Cyprus. A small portion of Greek-Americans are Pontian. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... The term Greek-speaking Muslims corresponds to three diverse groups of people currently living in Turkey: 1. ... Shows the Location of the Province Trabzon Trabzon is a province of Turkey on the Black Sea coast. ... A Greek American is a citizen of the United States who has significant Greek heritage. ...

Sources

Hofmann, Tessa, ed. Verfolgung, Vertreibung und Vernichtung der Christen im Osmanischen Reich 1912-1922. Münster: LIT, 2004. ISBN 3-8258-7823-6

See also

• Ömer Asan
• Trabzon
• Ancomah
• Cheveneburi
• Ajarians
• Greek Muslims
• Pomaks
• Hamshenis
• Gagauz
• Torbesh

Picture of Ömer Asan, 2005 in Edirne. ... Traditional Trabzon country house Location of Trabzon Province within Turkey Trabzon, formerly known as Trebizond or Τραπεζούντα (Trapezoúnda; see also List of traditional Greek place names) in Greek, is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey (Lat (DMS) 41° 2 60N Long (DMS) 39° 43 37E). ... Ancomah (Antzomakh, Antzimah) is a mythological place which was first mentioned by Hasan Umur in the 1940s, approximately fifty meters inland near Trabzon, Turkey. ... Cheveneburi means ours an ethnic identity for Georgian immigrants who came from Acharia in 1877 after the Ottoman-Russo wars. ... Official language Georgian Capital Batumi ISO code GE.AJ Head of the Government Levan Varshalomidze Area  - Total  - % water 2,900 km² n/a Population  - Total (1989)  - Density 392,432 135. ... The term refers to a religious minority in western Thrace, in north-east Greece. ... Pomaks can mean: Muslim Bulgarians, the descendants of Bulgarian Christians who converted to Islam under the Ottomans. ... Hamsheni elder from BaÅŸ HemÅŸin Hamshenis (Turkish HemÅŸinli(ler)) are a distinct ethnic group (of Armenian origin) in the Black Sea region of Turkey. ... The Gagauz are a Turkic people minority of southern Moldova (in Gagauzia) and of southwestern Ukraine (in Budjak) that numbers around 250,000. ... The Torbesh are a Muslim Slav Macedonian peoples. ...

External links

• The official web site of the Pontian Federation of Greece
• Pontian Federation of Australia
• Pontian Association in Stuttgart, Germany
• Pontian Association in South Russia
• Pontian web site catalogue
• Pontian Association in Frankfurt, Germany / Verein der Griechen aus Pontos in Frankfurt
• Pontian International site
• The Pontian-Greek Genocide
• Internet Radio "Akrites tou Pontou"
• About Pontic Culture of Anatolia