Greeks of Western Pontus

The Turkish-speaking Greek Pontians – When and why they spoke Turkish – In which area of Pontus did they live – Why did they come to Greece and where did they settle.

With the permission of the writer and lawyer of Kilkis Mr. Theodoros Pavlidis, I publish the following texts. Where comment is judged, there will be an explanation.

The village in which he lived and grew up is Divouno or Divouni in the prefecture of Kilkis which after the “exchange” of populations was inhabited by Bafralides.

Watch our video dedicated to the Hellenism of the Western Pontus

The people of Divouni believe that the village was originally called Agios Pavlos. Until 1955-56 the correspondence with the address (Agios Pavlos) came to Divouno. The first inhabitants of the village settled in the central settlement called Kiosem Tsali. The village, however, was named Otmanlis after another settlement about a kilometer north. The surrounding area was scattered by small Turkish machalades (… Fanarli, Geni Mahale, Ondoulou, Asi Oglari, Portsali etc.) which were abandoned by their inhabitants / owners with the exchange of populations. In 1923, when the first Divuni (Greek Pontian refugees) came to live in the area, they found Turkish Muslims there who had not yet left for Turkey. With the decree 28.12.1926 (Government Gazette A7-1927) the settlement Otmanli was named Agios Pavlos and with the decree 20.8.1927 (Government Gazette A179-1927) the settlement Kiosem Tsali was named Divuno. There is evidence for the name Otmanlis that the original name must have been Ottoman, from the name of a possible Osman Aga of the area and because of corruption the Greeks called it Ottoman. In the Ottoman period the village was written odmanli and not otmanli. Od means fire and is the root of odun which means wood. In the view of Recep Yilmaz (Recep Yilmaz, a profound scholar and researcher of the etymology of words) odmanli means wooded area, as Divuno really is. The “Kosemcali” – Kiosem Tsali, the Greeks corruptly pronounce it as Kiose-mourtsali.

As a small student as I was (Mr. Pavlidis recounts), proud of my origin, I recounted to my father the achievements of Kolokotronis and Markos Botsaris, who with frustration and almost anger answered: “f*** them. Are they captains? We had captains there in Bafra, Nebuen and Yudag. “All of them here were goat thieves.” I was angry with the insult that was made in the face of Botsaris and Karaiskakis, but I gave in to his “nonsense”, with the argument: “let him say, he is an illiterate man ..… he does not know… !!!”.

It took me a long time to realize that if the Pontian Republic became a reality, the photos of Bouboulina would not hang on the walls of the schools, but of Anton ‘Pasha (Antoniou Hatzieleftheriou), Istil’ Aga (Stylianos Kosmidis), Pantel ‘Aga ( Pantelis Anastasiadis), Tsimenlis Timit (Dimitriou Charalambidis), Telis Socrates ‘(Socrates Papadopoulos), Telis Lazik (Lazarou Avramidis), Pits Vassil’ (Vassilios Tsaousidis), Vassilios Ustas Koustas Kyriakos Papadopoulos), Anastas Aga (Anastasiou Papadopoulos), Giouvachlon Giouvanis, Aponoz Giorgis, Delis Timos, Kara Ilias and so many other heroic figures of the western Pontus who fought with the Turks for their family, religion and their homeland. Skinny child then, surrendered to the “educational care” of the state and in the words of my teacher, it was impossible to accept the view of my peasant father who, after all, did not even speak Greek. I was late to understand that the Struggle for Greece was made mainly by non-Greek speaking Greeks. Arvanitophones in Roumeli in 1821, Slavophones in Macedonia in 1904-1908 and Turkophones in Pontus 1916-1923.

The Greeks of Bafra were fed up with tears, suffering, torture, the loss of their own people. They paid dearly for their Hellenism and Christianity without most people knowing it, and above all without any fault. In Greece, the Bafralides (in the sense of the Bafralides all Turkophones could fit) ceased to be Pontians and became only Turkophones. This had been blamed on them. Because the prefecture of Samsun could not be disputed that historically and geographically it belonged to Pontus, the disputing of Pontianism to Bafraion was not done directly, but with half-truths and implication. For the first time in the world, the political ideology of a people was used as a criterion of its nationality. Thus, for the “enlightened” of the post-occupation left, the Bafralides were not Pontians, not for historical, ethnic, cultural, geographical, etc. reasons but because they were right-wing, fascist, monarchical… and collaborators of the Germans. Thus the Bafralides were devalued by the Pontian-speaking left-wings.
The reasons for the Turkophony of the Bafrais and the other western Pontians are not national and its time dates back to the first half of the 17th century.
Why should the refugees of the “exchange” feel responsible for their Turkish-speaking, since that is how they found it centuries ago?
Why should a 21st century citizen feel guilty about his or her parents speaking Turkish?
How Turkish-speaking can a young third generation born and living in Greece be called, when he does not know a single Turkish word?
The Turkic-speaking of the Bafrais is clearly not connected with their national origin, but is a linguistic feature imposed on them by political-social circumstances. If the Turkophony of the Bafrais could automatically make them Turks, they would have no reason not to be proud of their Turkishness. But their historical course is not only unfriendly, but on the contrary is completely hostile to the history of the Turks.
Aristovoulos Manesis, a university professor of constitutional law, said: “… the elements that compose the meaning of the Nation are:
Common history
Common tradition
and common culture
Never common language!!!
In a nation, different ethnic groups can speak different languages, such as in the USA in Switzerland but also in Greece (Albanian, Vlach, Sarakatsani, Turkish, etc.).
Due to bad information, ignorance of history and expediency, many Bafrais were annoyed when they called them Turkic speakers. This annoyance is more annoying for the descendants of the Bafra refugees, the current new generation of Pontic children, the majority of whom do not even know Turkish.
Turkophony characterized the generation of Greeks in the Western Pontus until the “exchange”. This generation, for the most part, was extinct, so their descendants should no longer be called Turkish-speakers since the etymological content of the term no longer corresponds to reality.
So, when the term is used, it cannot imply the Greek Bafraios who speak Turkish, but the Greek Pontian whose distant origin is from the Western Pontus. The most correct term for use is: West Pontians.
There are many cases where Bafralides Greeks who excelled in knowledge and arts called themselves Asia Minor, or completely concealed their origin because they were ashamed or because their grandfather in old photographs wore a fez. Their lack of knowledge of history blinded them and they could not comprehend their national origin. The Bafrais were Christians and even fanatics, because 710 years 1214-1924 AD despite their Turkophony, they did not become Turks, they maintained their traditional traditions, they had Greek schools, Greek teachers, priests and the first metropolitan Germanos Karavangelis, but also the only heroic guerrilla movement against the Turks, but mainly the Bafralides paid their Greek Nationality and Christianity, more than the rest of the Pontians in blood, lives and property. What distinguishes the Western Pontians from their other compatriots is the Turkophony. The people of the “exchange” from the region of the Western Pontus, are Greeks, this is what their history, culture and traditions say. They could be called Paphlagonians, Ionians, Bithynians, Cappadocians or Carians. But they are called Pontians, because the place where they lived belongs historically and geographically to Pontus. If in the future is proved that all the Turkic-speakers of the western Pontus are descendants of Greek Cappadocians, their racial, ethnic physiognomy would not change at all.
Simply, the Turkophones, instead of being proud Pontians, would be proud Cappadocians. In fact, doubly proud, because in the rich culture of the Cappadocians they would have added that of the Pontians. After all, their common element was the language and the Karaman script. So it matters little whether the Turkish-speaking refugees are Pontians, Cappadocians, or Ionians. It matters that they are Greeks !!!
Pericles Triantaphyllides, “The Pontic Greek Tribe, namely the Pontians” (Lazaros Vilaras printing house, Athens 1866), who toured the Pontus, mentions in which areas the Greeks spoke Turkish. So he writes about the area of Tokat (ancient name of Evdokia) …….
“Greek language is not spoken here, and the care paid to the literacy of the inhabitants by the High Priests is small. “In general, the Greek population is sparse throughout the super-temperate country, and not everyone speaks Turkish.”
For Kotyora-Ordou he says: “… but most of them Turkish-speakers they are in complete ignorance and of this origin…”. For me, Neocaesarea (Niksar) writes that it is: “… a city that has about sixty true Greek houses and not Greek-speaking people” and the Greek of Theodosia (Tosia) Kastamonis and Saframpolis characterizes linguistically “Turkish-speaking” they spoke both Greek and Turkish. And for Zila he writes that “the language is entirely Turkish…”
For Amaseia, he mentions that it is the center of the Metropolis, although the metropolitan resides most of the time in Amisos (Samsun). But linguistically, Amaseia “and about fifty and a hundred houses, according to the usual Turkish speakers… “
“The orthodox or mixed villages in the outskirts of the city are included in this category.”
He writes about Bafra that it is Polichni. “…containing four hundred non-Greek-speaking households and producing tobacco and silk. The Bafraians maintained a school for men and girls alike, established under the already patriarchal Greek, and paid great attention to the recovery of their ancestral language, so that it began to be transmitted to their young people.”
Finally, he writes about Alatsham that it contains “… three hundred houses and these are not Greek speakers”.
In contrast to the above cities, he writes that Sinope “… contained four hundred Greek-speakers of a Greek house; throughout the Black Sea coast, the Sinopeans were probably spoking the ancient Greek language”
It does not appear from the work of Triantaphyllides when these Greek populations spoke Turkish, however it appears that once these same populations spoke only Greek and he is pleased with the fact that the educational effort of mainly metropolitans in recent years has had effect. In fact, he is satisfied with the fact that it is not so much the effort of the metropolises to educate the Turkish-speakers, but the desire of the Turkish-speakers to receive a Greek education, and this emerges from his pen: “…. the desire to recover the lost, in most citizens, ancestral language, it appears warmer “. Pantelis Kontogiannis, (“Geography of Asia Minor” – Publication of the Association for the Distribution of Useful Books, Athens 1921) writes about the area of Bafra: “… the Greek language has shown in recent years, a huge spread through schools …” It is noted that his book was written in 1921, a period concerning the claims during which Hellenism was not only prosperous but also constantly manly. Konstantinos Amantos, describing the Hellenism of Asia Minor during the Middle Ages, does not make any reference to the Turkic-speaking of the Greeks in Pontus. While he claims that many ethnicities, namely, Zeybeks, Takhtatzides, Kizilbasids, Yuruks, although they converted to Islam and were externally referred to as Turks, “They can not be considered Turks, because they have the same (their) religious customs, they drink wine, they eat pork, they do not observe the Muslim prayers, they perform many Christian rites, some secretly and some openly. They allow their wives to go out uncovered, believe in transmigration, pay homage to trees and stones. They are hated by the Turks.”

And while he makes extensive reference to the crypto-Christians, those who were obviously Turks (in language and religion), but were secretly Christians, he does not mention not in a single line about those who openly spoke Turkish and were openly Christians. Amantos, who identifies Christianity (ie Orthodoxy) with Hellenism, obviously considers it unnecessary to deal with the Hellenism of Turkish-speaking Christians. Referring to the language of the Hellenes, he writes: “… The language of the Greeks of Pontus, retained many Ionizations and followed a development partly different from the usual Greek, proves that it has been preserved for millennia ancient and much Hellenism…” D. Economides, (“The Pontus and the rights of Hellenism in it” – Published by the Association for the Distribution of Useful Books, Athens 1920), for the Turkish-speaking Greeks of Pontus, writes: “…The Greek christian of Bafra, they are Turkish-speaking, they are Greek-speaking and they write in the Turkish language but through the letters of the Greek alphabet (as the Caesars), but within the city they are Greek-speaking, as they have been for twenty years and beyond. the Greek language was amazingly spread through the schools…”
Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos (“Tours to the Pontus” State Printing House, Athens 1903, p. 330) describes as strange the phenomenon of Turkophony of the Christian Orthodox in the prefectures of Sevasti, Ankara and Caesarea, and in fact of Bafra for which he expresses his question. Especially for Bafra it gives many elements of the social, religious, economic, linguistic, educational and population situation of the orthodox Turkophones. “And numerous scientists, enjoying the first lights of the letters in the schools of Bafra”
It does not attempt to explain the reasons for the Turkophony and when it prevailed, on the contrary it is clear about the Muslimization of the Christian Orthodox of today and today Pontiophones (Greek speakers) of the regions of Ofeos and Thonia which took place in the years 1685-1690. According to the well-known Bafra scholar Georgios Antoniadis, who spent his life researching the history, traditions and culture of the Turkic-speaking Pontians, the Ottomans in the second half of the 17th century attempted violent Turkification of the Hellenes, forcing them to choose a religion or language. The thought of the Turks was obvious, that is, whatever the choice of the Greek Pontians, religion or language, would lead to one and the same result. As it turned out, the Greeks of the eastern Pontus who preferred to keep the language and change the religion (Ofis – Rizaio – Thoania – wider area of Chaigara) finally became Turks and the Greeks of the western Pontus who preferred to keep their religion and change their language, eventually remained in Hellenism. If the plans of the sultans were not the violent Turkification but the violent Muslimization of the non-Muslim populations, there would be historical evidence. History, on the other hand, does not record group and violent Islamizations. As Amantos writes, “The large group Islamizations of Greeks did not take place against the Ottoman Turks, but the small and gradual ones did not disappear.” The Ottomans, who succeeded in converting the Pontic-speaking Ofites to Islam, could more easily achieve the Islamization of the Western-speaking Turkic-speaking Turks. It does not appear, however, that they have attempted it. Obviously there are other reasons for the Turkophony of the Western Pontics.

Germanos Karavangelis, metropolitan of this predominantly Turkish-speaking region from 1908 to 1922, although he founded many schools and intellectual institutions and worked closely with the Turkish-speaking captains, in his interview with Antigoni Bellou – Threpsiadoy (Forms of Macedonian warriors and the Pontic ones of the Germanou Karavangelis, Trochalia Publications, Athens 1984), does not attempt to interpret the Turkophone of these people, he avoids referring at least to their Turkophone. It is enough that they are Greeks and Christians !!! Besides, in Kastoria the captains with whom he collaborated against the Bulgarian komitatzids, were foreign-speaking. Germanos Karavangelis, this legendary hierarch, was the metropolitan of Kastoria in the period 21.10.1900 until 5.2.1908 and the metropolitan of Amaseia and Amisos in Pontos based in Amisos (Samsounta) from 5.2.1908 until 27.10.1922. In both metropolises, in addition to his pastoral-hierarchical work, he also showed national. Against the Bulgarian komitatzids in Kastoria and against the Turkish Chets in Pontos. And while he served in Kastoria for only seven and a half years (7.5), while in Samsun for more than fourteen and a half years (14.5), he is known in Greece and is mentioned only as the metropolitan of Kastoria. This is proven even today if you notice any school textbook, or frame, but also its bust next to Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki. Michael Staikos, Metropolitan of Austria, Exarch of Hungary and Central Europe, in his book entitled “German Karavangelis, Metropolitan of Amasya and Exarch of Central Europe 1924-1935”, confesses: “And while the impressive presence of Germanos Karavangelis in the Diocese of Kastoria has definitely been emphasized and his contribution to the Macedonian Struggle has depended on the critical years 1900-1907, his presence in the Diocese of Amaseia is not sufficiently known.”

At this point I must point out that Mr. Pavlidis Theodoros (lawyer of Kilkis) ardent Bafralis and a keen connoisseur and researcher of the history of the Turkish-speaking West, created the Association of Western-speaking prefectures of Kilkis “THE GERMAN KARAVANGELIS” as the minimum tax of honor and recognition for the serious insult of the name of the Hierarch by the official Greek state and the official Church. This Greek militant hierarch passed away full of bitterness that his homeland did not recognize him from his 30 years of ministry and his contribution to the Country, both during the Macedonian Struggle and during his stay in Pontus. Karavangelis himself in his will, in which he set inheritance his birthplace of Stypsi Lesvos, thus expressed his sorrow for the ignorance shown by both the State and the Church: “My funeral will take place in the Church of Agios Georgios Karytsis with only one priest. I do not accept at my funeral either a representative of the state or the church, if they would like to be remembered after the death of my national services.I do not owe anything to anyone, I offered to the Nation what was possible as Hierarch of ’21 … “. The Turks tried to cut off the Greeks from their mother tongue because they believed that in this way they would convert the Christians to Islam. The Turkish-speaking Greeks, however, despite the loss of language, maintained their customs, habits and cultural characteristics.

According to Symeon Koimisoglou (“Cappadocia” I.L.Production Publications. Thessaloniki 2005, p. 205), Gaston Deschams in a lecture in Paris, refers to the effort of the Greek Christians of Isparta of Pisidia to learn Greek. So Gaston Deschams says in his lecture: “I tried to communicate with these residents but I was surprised because they did not understand me. They were Greeks who spoke Turkish. One of them, blushing with shame, because he was forced to express himself in a language he had no reason to love, said: “What should we do? Many years ago something terrible and unheard of happened in our city. The Turks took and cut the languages of a whole generation of our compatriots, men and women, to forget their mother tongue. So, we can no longer speak Greek and we are very sorry about that. It is something terrible and makes us blush with shame in front of strangers. We are Romans but we speak Turkish. Our alphabet is Greek but we express ourselves in Turkish”. According to Symeon Koimisoglou, the well-known case of Pope Eftym (Efthymios Karahisaridis) is part of the broader plans of Kemalism to recognize Turkish-speaking Christians as Christianized Turks. The teacher of the Genus, George Mavrochalividis (“The Axis of Cappadocia”, published by Orestis Mavrochalyvidis, Athens 1990), states that after Hatti Serif 1839 and Hatti Houmayoun 1856, group Islamizations ceased (which are based on Islam). With education, the Greek language returned to the Turkish-speaking Christians of Asia Minor. It is therefore considered reasonable that Turkophony was universal at least until the middle of the last century. Closer to the truth (states in his book Theodoros E. Pavlidis – Lawyer Kilkis – “The Hellenism of the West Pont” Kyriakidis Brothers Publications 2009), the explanation of the Turkophony of the Greeks of the West Pontus, attempted by A. Papadopoulos (“The enslaved Hellenism of Asian Greece, examined nationally and linguistically ” Publication of the association for the dissemination of useful books, Athens 1919). “The time of the conquest and the proximity to a sufficient Turkish element took place in the oblivion of Greek. But in the case of the Turkish-speaking settlers near the sea in the province of Amaseia, this reason was no longer valid, because it remains unexplained that there are Turkish-speakers in Charsaba, a short distance from the Amisos region, where the Greek population is very dense. Or, that there are Turkish speakers in Bafra and Alatsami, while Greek speakers in Kerze and Sinop. The problem is easily solved if we accept that of course these Turkic-speaking populations are not indigenous but settled, descending in time, not far from the Mediterranean villages of Cappadocia to the sea to avoid the injuries of the Turks or perhaps for the sake of trade. Besides, this migratory tendency of the Cappadocians on the beaches to the Black Country continues to this day. The inhabitants of Marsovan (Merzifounta) and the village of Zile were expelled from Caesarea, and also from the same province are settled most of the inhabitants of Amisos who began to gather from the middle of the 19th century. The ancient Greek-speaking inhabitants of the city constitute the same settlement, above the new city called Kadikioi”.

Similarly, Iakovos Koulocheris (“Amisos and her passions” Kyriakidis Brothers Publications, Thessaloniki 1991), writes: “Two hundred years ago Pafra was a small and insignificant town. However, its natural advantages attracted the attention of the experienced Karamanlides, who came and settled in Bafra one hundred and fifty years ago, leaving their homes until then, without hesitation. These Karamanlides immediately became friends with the Paphraeans and began to work with them as genuine children of the place, with the same desires and the same dreams. In a short time, they managed to make Pafra a commercial city. And its surroundings with one hundred and sixteen villages, in prosperous and flourishing agricultural centers. The whole place became jealous for the prosperity of its inhabitants. During this period, a significant change took place in the life of the Greeks of Bafra”.
Mr. Theodoros Pavlidis notes: “It seems that the Turkish-speaking Karamanlides were in the majority and for this reason Turkish επικ prevailed there as a mother tongue.” The settlement of Amisos by Cappadocians is mentioned in many historical sources. It seems that some of them settled in Bafra. The fact that the Bafrais also used the Karamanli script until the beginning of the twentieth century, suggests the presence of Cappadocians in the area. Besides, the surname Antavaloglou, which refers to the Antaval of Cappadocia, was brought by well-known families of Bafra. A historical pamphlet of the Municipality of Bafra (owned by Mr. Pavlidis) states that after the battle of Matzikert in 1071 AD, Bafra passed into the hands of the Seljuks and in 1214 the Seljuk ruler of Anatolia, Izzetin Keykuvas, established there the tribe of the Turkmen. In 1243, with the entry of the Mongols, the Seljuk empire was overthrown and this caused the Turkish Beys to settle in the area. At this time a small Seljuk bey, the Bafra bey, was founded in the area. Finally, in 1460 AD. Bafra came under Ottoman rule. Because the Beyliks did not provide the basic guarantees of an organized state, in terms of protection of human rights, language, religion, culture, etc., it is not unlikely that the change of the Greek language took place violently in this critical period. of the years 1214 – 1460 AD.
According to Dr. Tassos Amanatidis (former mayor of Kilkis), the fiscal, administrative and other heterogeneous measures imposed by the Ottoman system only on non-Muslims (ie non-Muslims), led to the voluntary Muslimization of the rich and wealthy but the wealthy . A key element, however, remains that although they converted to Islam, they did not change religion.
Historically, the manner and time of the Turkophony of the Greeks of the western Pontus remains unknown, while on the other hand, the violent Islamization of the region of Ofeos in 1650 -1660 AD is clearly known. during the time of Veziridon Kioproulides. The possibility of group Turkification is ruled out for the additional reason that among the Turkish-speaking villages of the Amisos region, there were many Greeks who spoke the Pontic dialect. Therefore, the case that Turkish-speaking was imposed in some Greek villages and not in others, is very unlikely. In the end, it seems that there were many reasons for Turkish-speaking in the Bafra area. Certainly this did not happen all at once. The Greek language of the Pontians during the Byzantine period is not historically disputed. After all, its idiom has survived to this day. Little by little in this area, the Greeks began to speak Turkish.

Where was the Turkish-speaking population distributed after the exchange in Greece:

According to Professor Stathis Pelagidis, Hellenism in the region of Amasia amounted to 173,683 souls. In the province of Bafra 40,500 souls. Christos Samuelidis, in his book “Amisos and its periphery” mentions that the Greeks of Santzaki Tzanik (Sampsountos) amounted to 71,000 souls. George Valavanis mentions that the Greek Orthodox of the Diocese of Amasia and Amisos before the general war amounted to 183,000 souls.