Timeline of the Greek Genocide of Pontus (1914-1923)
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Pontus (Pontos), an ancient Greek word for “sea”, refers to the Black Sea and the surrounding coastal areas.
Greek presence in Asia Minor dates as back as 1500 BC, the late Bronze Age, and among those who walked its soils was the epic poet Homer, author of the two central works of the ancient Greek literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The age-old presence of Greeks would be brutally interrupted in the early 20
thcentury. The dying Ottoman Empire and its heir apparent to the Young Turks managed to eliminate anything Greek from Asia Minor within only nine years. The fate of other Christian populations was the same, as Armenians and Assyrians were also either exterminated or deported.