The fate of the Pontic Greeks

Few people are aware any more of their existence, but prior to 1923 the north coast of what is now the Turkish Republic was home to hundreds of thousands of Pontic Greeks, living in such ancient coastal communities as Sinope and Trapezous (Trebizond). Nowadays we tend to think of Greeks living in Greece and Turks in Turkey, with an international boundary neatly separating the two nationalities. But at the beginning of the last century, it was impossible to draw such a geographical line between them. The major centres of Greek culture were Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Smyrna (all three within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire), and Alexandria, Egypt. By contrast, Athens, a city very nearly invented 66 years earlier, was a provincial backwater. Yet even these same culturally Greek urban centres had substantial numbers of Armenians and Jews. Together these three communities -- differentiated by religion rather than by that shadowy notion of ethnicity -- formed the backbone of the Ottoman economy.


Pontic Association of Katerini

The Pontic Greeks had their own distinctive dialect and musical tradition. By the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne, which ended the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922, all Orthodox Christians were expelled from the territory of the new Turkish Republic and "repatriated" to Greece, while all Muslims were deported to Turkey. (The only exceptions were the Turks of western Thrace in northern Greece and the Greeks of Constantinople, who were allowed to stay put.) This meant that Pontic Greeks, who had inhabited the shores of the Black Sea for some 3 thousand years, were forced to leave their homes behind and move to a country many of them had never seen. Although dispersed to Greece proper and beyond, they have attempted to maintain their distinctive traditions wherever they have settled.

There is a wonderful website devoted to the subject of Pontic music, the Pontic Music Homepage, which includes a number of excerpts from recordings of the region's folk music. I discovered this five years ago and occasionally check back to see whether its author, Leigh Cline (a nonGreek with an active interest in such music), has updated the pages and musical files.

Ever since my relatives became refugees almost exactly three decades ago, I have a special place in my heart for people who have lost their homes and homelands, whether legally (e.g., by treaty) or illegally (e.g., by invasion and dispossession). This includes the Pontic Greeks.