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Dr. Konstantinos Fotiadis
[Professor of History
at the University of Thessaloniki
and the Pedagogic College
Florina]
The presence of Greeks
at the Euxeinos Pontos, the Black Sea, dates back to early
times. Research suggests that in the period around 1000 BC
first trading adventures in this area took place, searching
mainly for gold and minerals.
The trip of Jason and the Argonauts to Kolchis, the adventures
of Ulysses in the country of the Cimmerians, the punishment
of Prometheus by Zeus and the arresting of his body to the
mountains of Caucasus, the sailing of Hercules on the Black
Sea and other Greek myths related to this area, testify the
existence of ancient trading routes.
In the 8th century BC, the only occasionally occupied trading
posts began to develop into permanent settlements. The town
of Miletus was the first to start its colonization politics
at the Black Sea by founding its daughter-city Sinope that
proved to have great advantages with its useful harbour and
its accessibility towards the hinterland. In a similar pattern
numerous cities with large populations emerged in the course
of time, strong centres with important sea trade and strong
cultural influence.
Archaeological excavations and plenty of written sources of
the classical and post-classical period have unveiled interesting
testimonies about the organization of these settlements, of
their economic activities and of the trade and political relations
with their colonial mother-cities, with other Greek cities
and also with indigenous people.
In the first centuries of their existence the colonies remained
in the same patterns of social and political organization
as their colonial mother-towns.
The predominance of the Greek cities in the political life
of the region becomes apparent by the reaction of the local
people who took over Greek culture and Greek thinking out
of their own will. In the period of Alexander the Great and
his successors, the economic power of the Greek cities peaked.
The impact of the Greek culture on the indigenous people remained
strong and helped to develop their social and cultural systems.
Under the reign of the Pontian king Mithridates VI Eupator,
the Greek language became official language of the many and
therefore polyglot people of Asia Minor.
Even in Roman times, the Greek culture in the eastern part
of the Black Sea retained its freedom, its independence and
self-determination as well as its leading role in the economic
and cultural life of that region.
Christianity arrived in Pontos very early by the apostles
St. Andrew and St. Peter. Both of them and also later the
church fathers profited from the fact that in most of the
hellinized indigenous societies the spoken language was Greek.
By the spread of Christianity, Greek culture and national
identity was in turning transferred to these people. As a
result, a homogenous culture emerged, based on the uniting
element of Orthodoxy.
The capture of Constantinople by the Franks in 1204, resulted
in the splitting of the Byzantine Empire into small Frankish
states, but also in the foundation of smaller Greek empires.
Alexios, a member of the dynasty of the Komnenes, and his
brother David, founded with the help of their aunt, the Georgian
queen Thamar, in Pontos the Empire of the Great Komnenes of
Trebizond. The up to that point. unimportant city achieved
a place in world’s history by this coincidence.
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The fall of
Constantinople (1453) and, eight years later of Trebizond
(1461) mark one of the greatest fractures in Greek history.
Immediately after the seize of Trebizond by the Ottomans,
many inhabitants of the rich coastal towns and the villages
fled. Most of them escaped into the remote mountain regions
of Pontos. Here, out of the sight of the new rulers, they
founded new villages and cities, a new and free Greek civilization.
However, part of the refugees settled in central Russia, at
the coasts of southern Russia, in the region of Georgia, Armenia
and Kazakhstan, where they founded new Greek cities, cultural
centers, to which persecuted Greeks were gracefully received
also in later years.
This in turn resulted in the simultaneous existence of a second
Pontian-Greek civilization, particularly in Russia, which
through the whole period of Ottoman reign, grew by migration
of refugees.
Only in Russia half a million Pontians existed. By the year
1918 the total population grew up to 650,000 people. On the
opposite shore of the Black Sea, on Turkish territory, the
history and culture of the Pontians and also of the other
Greek-born inhabitants came to a tragic end through the treaty
of Lausanne in 1923. This treaty brought about the forceful
expulsion of Greek people living on Turkish territory; a process
called «the Catastrophe of Asia Minor» in Greek
history.
The criteria for the exchange in the treaty of Lausanne was
the religious dependency, which had the effect that Greeks
which had turned themselves to Islam in 17th century, did
not become part of the exchange. This explains why inhabitants
in regions around the Pontian towns Tonya, Ophis, Sourmena
and Matsouka still today, 75 years after the Catastrophe of
Asia Minor live in Turkey and speak their Pontian-Grek dialect.
They remember their Greek despondence and preserve their Greek
and even Christian traditions.
Pontians living in the territory of the former Soviet Union
are still estimated to be half a million people who stick
to their Pontian-Greek traditions to the extent as that is
permitted by the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The Pontians managed – like all persecuted and in the
first years disadvantaged refugees – to heal the wounds
of their fate by diligent and honest behavior. In their respective
new home countries they preserved their tradition, songs and
dances, in short: their culture.
Those who settled in former times especially in boarder areas,
continue today to be boarder guards, diligent, honest and
progressive.
Adopted from http://www.pontos.org
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