Pontic Greek genocide
| Pontic Greek genocide | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Greek genocide | |
| Location | Pontus region – northeastern Asia Minor |
| Date | 1914–1923 |
| Target | Pontic Greeks |
Attack type | Genocide, mass murder, death marches, ethnic cleansing, mass deportation, labour battalions |
| Deaths | 350,000–360,000 |
| Perpetrators | Young Turks, Turkish National Movement |
| Motive | Anti-Greek sentiment, Turkification, Anti-Eastern Orthodox sentiment |
The Pontic Greek genocide, or the Pontic genocide (Greek: Γενοκτονία των Ελλήνων του Πόντου), was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the indigenous Greek community in the Pontus region (the northeast of modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire during World War I and its aftermath.
The Pontic Greeks had a continuous presence in the Pontus region from at least 700 BC, over 2,500 years ago. Following the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461, the area came under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The rise of Turkish nationalism at the beginning of 20th century dramatically increased anti-Greek sentiment within the Ottoman Empire. The genocide began in 1914 by the Young Turk regime, which was led by the Three Pashas, and, after a short interwar pause in 1918–1919, continued until 1923 by the Kemalist regime which was led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Both nationalist movements massacred the Pontians and deported them to the interior regions of Anatolia. This resulted in approximately 350,000 deaths – about half of the pre-genocide Pontic population.
The genocide ended with the deportation of the survivors to Greece during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. The Pontic genocide is part of the wider Greek genocide, but it is often covered separately because of the geographic isolation of Pontus and several political and historical features.