PONTOS: 3000 YEARS, 0F HELLENISM


May 19th has been instituted by the Greek parliament as a day of remembrance of the Pontian genocide. During the period of 1914-1922, 300,000 Pontian Greeks were systematically massacred by the official Offoman-Turkish state.


Etymology: Pontos (noun), is an ancient Greek word and it means "sea". The adjective Pontios is translated as, "a person of the sea".

In terms of geography Pontos is located at the north-eastern part of Asia Minor. Pontians are descendants of the Ionian Greeks who settled in Pontos around 1209 B.C.

The gospel first arrived in Pontos in 35 A.D. with the Apostle Andrew. Before the exchange of populations in 1923 there were in Pontos six Metropolises under the jurisdiction of the Oecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinopie. The famous Pontian monastery of, "PANAGIA SOUMELA" was founded in the year 386 A.D. The famous icon of the Monastery was made by the Apostie Luke. The monastery was re-founded in 1952 in Veroia, Greece.


It is estimated that in 1914, 700,000 Greeks iived in Pontos. In Pontos there were to be found over 1,400 Greek schools with 86,000 students. The crown jewel of the Pontian educational system was the famous school of Trapezounta which was founded in 1682. In short, Pontos had all the cultural ingredients of a fully developed center of Hellenism.


The defeat of the Greek Army in the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922 meant the end of the Greek presence in Asia Minor. Arnong the 1.5 million Greek refugees who arrived in Greece in 1922-1923 there 400,009 Pontian Greeks. The population of Greece at the time was 4.5 million. Once in Greece the community adopted a slogan affirming the inevitable regeneration of Pontian Hellenism: "E Romania ki an perasen anthei kai pherei ki ailo". That means, "even if Romania (Byzantium) is gone, it will flower and bear fruit again.


The "PONTIAKA" is a Greek dialect which derives from the ancient Ionic dialect and resembles ancient Greek even more than the modern demotic Greek.


A number of notable Greeks are of Pontian descent. The philosopher Diogenes (4th B.C.), the historian and geographer Stravo (lst A.D.), the Ypsilanti and Mourouze families, etc.