Information AboutPontian Greeks |
|
The Pontian Greeks are Greeks from the shores of the Black Sea , the Pontus . They traditionally speak Pontic Greek . Greek Colonies had been established on the shores of the Black Sea since antiquity. Placed under Byzantine control in the Middle Ages, they remained isolated from the rest of the Greek-speaking world afterward. Like other Christian minorities as Armenians or Assyrians , Pontian Greeks had to face persecution and Ethnic Cleansing at the beginning of the 20th century (Hofmann 2004). In 1923, the remaining Pontians were expelled from Turkey to Greece as part of the Population Exchange defined by the Treaty Of Lausanne . Nowadays, the actual number of Pontians is unknown. The largest communities of Pontians (or people of Pontian descent) around the world are: According to the ''Pontian Diaspora 2000'', more than 1 million in Greece , more than 500,000 in Russia and in other countries of the exUSSR, 120,000 in the Ukraine , 50,000 in Georgia ("Rumka"), 80,000 in the USA, 56,000 in Australia , 25,000 in Kazakhstan , 20,000 in Canada , 11,000 in Uzbekistan , 2,000 in Armenia . Some demographers estimate that there are 300,000 speakers of Pontian Greek (Asan 1996) in Turkey (in Trabzon , mostly Muslim). There is also a sizable Pontian community in Germany and a significant growing number in the Republic of Cyprus . A small portion of Greek-American s are Pontian. In his 1998 movie '' From The Edge Of The City '', with dialogues in Greek, Pontic Greek and Russian, the film director Constantinos Giannaris , describes the life of a young "Russian Pontic" (Ρωσσοπόντιοι) from Kazakhstan in the Athens prostitution underworld. Some film critics compared this movie to '' My Own Private Idaho ''. SOURCES
SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|