Pontus
was the last region of the Byzantine Empire to succumb to the Ottomans, after the fall of Constantinople. Despite attempts to forcibly Islamise the region's inhabitants over the course of five centuries, the plethora of churches, monasteries and schools built by the Pontus Greeks between 1471 and 1914 attests to the failure of efforts to expunge the Greek character of the region.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 700,000 Greeks in the Ottoman Empires Pontus region. Until 1922, there were six Metropolitan Churches of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Amasya, Gumushane/Haldea, Niksar/Neokesaria, Makca/Rodopolis, Trabzon/Trapezous and Sebinkarahisar/Kolonia) in the area. After the Ottoman Empires defeat in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the Young Turks regime (1913-1918), and subsequently the government under Kemal Ataturk (1919-1923), decided to resolve the Ottoman Empires nationalities problem by driving the autochthonous population from their ancestral lands.
The beginning of the First World War saw the first violent attacks against Pontus Greeks. In 1916, there were widespread ethnic cleansing operations against them in Samsun and Bafra (Pafra). By 1923, some 353,000 people - half the ethnic Greek population of Pontus - had been wiped out. Moreover, the 1,134 churches and 960 schools of the region were razed to the ground. These operations continued even after 1923, with a view to eradicating the last remaining Pontus Greeks, who were either hidden or trapped in the mountains. Those who survived the genocide emigrated to Greece, Australia, the United States of America and Canada.
The genocide of the Black Sea Greeks was recognised by the Hellenic Parliament by Law 2193/94 (Government Gazette 78/A/1994), which establishes 19th May as a Day of Remembrance of the Genocide. On this day, public and private bodies organise commemorative events throughout Greece.
The genocide of the Black Sea Greeks has also been recognised in Declarations and Resolutions by the legislative bodies of the American States of New Jersey (2002), New York (2002), Pennsylvania (2004), New York (2005), Florida (2005) and Massachusetts (2006).
Last updated: 24 May 2007