User:Kravk/WIP
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The Pontian Greek diaspora refers to the approximately two million Pontian Greeks[a] who live outside of the Pontos in northeast Turkey.[1] Pontian Greeks, also simply called Pontians, are indigenous to the Pontos, which is located in the Black Sea region of modern Turkey.[2][3][4][5] They traditionally speak Romeika, which is related to Demotic Greek, and practice Greek Orthodox Christianity.
In the 21st century, the majority of Pontians live in Greece. A significant number of Pontians live in formerly Soviet countries, including Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. These people are called Soviet Greeks. Many Soviet Greeks have moved to Greece since the mid-1960s. Still other Pontians live throughout Europe and the Middle East, with further diaspora communities in Australia and the United States of America.
History
Many authors refer to Pontians as part of a larger Greek diaspora.(WEASEL) However, Pontians have lived continuously in the Black Sea region since ancient times. For this reason, author Richard Clogg, writing about the Greek diaspora, does not consider Pontians living in the Pontos to be members of a diaspora at all.[6]
- origin of the Pontian ethnicity
In the 1800s and early 1900s, numerous Pontians left the Ottoman Empire for Russia and the Caucasus in the wake of the Russo-Turkish wars and the Greek War of Independence.[7]
- movement centuries ago toward the Caucasus, Crimea, etc.
- was there exodus after Trebizond fell to the Turks?
- the genocide and population exchange - exodus primarily to Greece but also to Russia, the Caucasus, other countries
- Muslim Pontians remaining in Turkey
In former Soviet countries
When Turks took over the Pontos region after the Fall of Trebizond in 1461, Pontians fled to Russia and the Caucasus. There, they joined Greek communities which had existed in Georgia, Crimea, and southern Ukraine for thousands of years. Russia welcomed Christian refugees from the Ottoman Empire, granting them special privileges. Pontians continued to migrate to Russia over the next few centuries.[8]
In the 1800s and early 1900s, numerous Pontians left the Ottoman Empire for Russia and the Caucasus in the wake of the Russo-Turkish wars and the Greek War of Independence.[7] Some feared Turkish violence in the wake of the Greek War of Independence, so they fled alongside Russian troops following the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829.[9] Pontians settled in the Caucasus in Mariupol, Sukhumi, Krasnodar, Maykop, and Kars, all of which were Russian-occupied at the time.[10]
During World War I, Pontians again migrated to Russia en masse as refugees fleeing the Greek genocide. Russian troops briefly occupied some Pontian cities during the war, and as they retreated, Pontians fled with them. They feared violence from the Turkish troops in the wake of Russian retreat.[10] By 1917, the Pontian population in Russia was estimated to be around 350,000 people. Most were poor farmers who only spoke Romeika and had little formal education. Many worked as tobacco farmers in Russia.[11] Many of them sought asylum in Greece during the Russian Civil War and Russian Revolution.[12] This caused a strain on Greece, which was already struggling to accommodate refugees from Asia Minor.[13]
Other Pontians remained in Russia. Pontians in Russia were politically and culturally active. Under early Soviet rule, Pontians had their own schools, books, and newspapers. Books and newspapers were published in Romeika. The Pontian diaspora even opened their own theater in Sukhumi.[7] Theodoros Kanonidis, an actor from Novorossiysk, directed the theater. His troupe of 35 actors performed in Sukhumi and also toured the countryside. They performed plays in Romeika and in Demotic Greek, many written by Kanonidis.[14]
Soviet Greeks published multiple Marxist newspapers for their community. The Greek Marxist paper Spartakos published pieces in Romeika in the early 1920s in Novorossiysk.[15] Komunistis Press published books and newspapers in Romeika. They published farmer's almanacs, literary works, political propaganda, and schoolbooks.[14] Before the Russian Revolution, Romeika was rarely written down. However, Romeika had limited vocabulary to describe the new political and social ideas that the newspapers wanted to discuss. Additionally, the educated Marxist Soviet Greeks largely preferred Demotic Greek and Katharevousa over Romeika. In 1926, the Soviet Greek leadership decided that Demotic Greek rather than Romeika should be the official language of Soviet Greeks.[16]
However, in the late 1930s, Josef Stalin began to characterize many ethnic minorities, including the Soviet Greeks, as disloyal to the Soviet Union. By 1938, Soviet Greek schools, cultural centers, publishing houses, and the theater had all been closed. The authorities also ended the publication of Greek-language newspapers and books.[14]
In the 1940s, most of the Soviet Greeks were deported and their property confiscated. The government alleged that Soviet Greeks had collaborated with the Germans during World War II. Most were exiled to Central Asia, especially Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. This was one of many forced population transfers in the Soviet Union.[17] Their movement was severely restricted: in the first years of exile, they were only allowed to move within 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) of where they lived. They had to check in with authorities every week, then every month. Eventually, restrictions lifted. By the 1960s, Soviet Greeks were allowed to leave for Greece or return to their homes elsewhere in Russia. During perestroika, Greek was once more taught in schools, and Soviet Greeks were allowed to form cultural organizations and dance groups. Still, thousands migrated to Greece every year between the 1960s and 1990s.[18]
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
See Greeks in Georgia, Tsalka, Beshtasheni, Sameba, Georgia, Trialeti (town)
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Russia
Ukraine
see Ukrainian Greeks
Uzbekistan
see Greeks in Uzbekistan, Lefteris Pantazis
In Greece
Early 20th century
During the Greek genocide of 1914-1923, many Pontians fled to Greece.
- how many?
- when did massacres begin? when did the West become aware of this?
- when did Greece start accepting Pontian refugees?
In 1923, in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922, the governments of Greece and Turkey agreed to a population exchange. Over a million Greek Orthodox Christians were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in Turkey and made refugees in Greece, including Greek Orthodox Pontians. A small minority of Muslim Pontians were allowed to remain in the country. Almost half a million Greek Muslims were also forcibly removed from Greece and made to resettle in Turkey. For many of the Greek Muslims, their families had lived in Greece for hundreds of years.(SOURCES)
By 1928, according to the Greek census, there were 240,695 Pontian refugees in the country. About half were from Anatolia, and the remainder were from Russia and the Caucasus.[19]
When Pontians arrived in Greece, they found the local culture to be completely alien. Although the Pontians and the European Greeks shared a common religion, they had many cultural differences. They spoke Romeika; few spoke Demotic Greek, the common spoken form of Greek, or understood Katharevousa, the purist literary form of Greek. Georgios Kritikos, writing about Pontian refugees, says that Romeika "is unintelligible to speakers of modern Greek."[19] Not only was their language completely alien, they also shared very little history with European Greeks.[20]
Patricia Fann Bouteneff, a historian who has written extensively on Pontian Greek folklore, said: "To the mainland Greeks not only was the Pontic dialect mutually incomprehensible with standard Greek but Pontic dances were utterly alien, Pontic music cacophonous, and Pontic native dress outlandish. Furthermore, because political tensions remained high between Greece and Turkey for decades after the Exchange of Populations, all the Asia Minor Greeks were strongly discouraged from publicly discussing their history or culture and were urged to assimilate fully in mainstream Greek culture."[21] This assimilation sometimes occurred by force: the children of Pontian refugees, growing up in the mid-20th century in Greece, report being beaten for speaking Romeika in schools.[22]
Pontian refugees experienced discrimination from local Greeks. One man, Abraham Elvanides, described his experience as a refugee: "The [Pontian] people didn’t know Greek. The locals mocked us and called us 'sons of Turks.'"[19] Comparison to Turks was common. Greeks also referred to the refugees as Turks, "Turk-spawn," "Turkish seeds," or "sowed by Turks."[23][20] They were even termed "ethnically impure invaders."[24] Greeks viewed Pontians as dirty, believing they carried lice and other diseases. They were also viewed as less than true Christians; Greeks described them as "baptized in yogurt," mocking both their cuisine and calling their faith into question. Pontian women were stereotyped as sexually voracious, and Pontian men were stereotyped as stupid and criminal.[20] Fann Bouteneff believed the reason for this discrimination was political. She argued that European Greeks viewed Pontians as a reminder of the failure of the Megali Idea.[23] Additionally, the waves of Asia Minor refugees put a strain on Greece's already struggling economy during a period of frequent wars.[13]
Pontian refugees in Greece also found that the political system differed from what they were used to in their homeland. Pontians were used to self-government; Turkish and Ottoman rulers generally left rural Pontians to their own devices. Many disliked the monarchy and voted in favor of the Greek republic in the 1924 referendum to abolish the monarchy. Patricia Fann Bouteneff writes, "The abolition of the monarchy in 1924 has been directly attributed to their influence."[23] Pontians generally favored the foreign policy of Eleftherios Venizelos to that of Kings Constantine I and George II.[24]DOUBLE CHECK THESE Pontians, as a group, were also more likely to have a communist or leftist affiliation than native Greeks.[25]DOUBLE CHECK THESE
Ioannis Tsekouras, an ethnomusicologist whose work focuses on Pontian parakathi singing, says that Pontians did not fully intergrate into Greek society until 1980.[26]
Late 20th century
Beginning in the 1960s, many Pontians who lived in the Soviet Union migrated to Greece. (Why? Persecution, yes, but also economic opportunity? Search for ethnic homeland?)
Modern day
Many Pontians living in Greece in the modern day embrace their identity as Greeks.[20] Pontians are generally seen WEASEL as a sub-ethnic group of Greeks. Ioannis Tsekouras writes about the cultural narrative of Pontians in Greece, saying, "Pontians are represented as freedom fighters and exemplary Greek revolutionaries, in accordance with the national heroic narrative of Greek mainstream historical discourse, and especially that of the 1820s revolution. The second trope is that of ethnic purity. The Pontians are represented as ethnically purer than the local Greeks, as exemplifying continuity with the ancestral ancient culture to a higher degree."[27]
A number of Russian and Ukrainian Pontians are migrant workers in Greece. Men often work in home repair and construction alongside other European migrant workers, such as Romanians, Poles, Bulgarians, and Albanians. Women often work in the leisure, tourism, and sex industries. They send money home to family in Russia, Ukraine, and other formerly Soviet countries.[28]
Compared to other Greek citizens, the descendants of Asia Minor Greek refugees are more likely to support Syrian refugees seeking asylum in Europe. Pontians, as well as Cappadocians and other Anatolian Greeks, are included in the umbrella of Asia Minor Greeks.[29]
Pontians in Greece (Soviet refugees)
- There's also some confusion over what is the true "homeland": Russia, Greece, or the Pontos. "The Caucasian Greeks go to Greece as the “Homeland,” but what they discover there...is their otherness. The majority of them speaks Russian or Turkish, but do not know any Greek. If they have maintained the Pontic Greek dialect in their families...they soon realize that it is not comprehensible for native Greeks. In fact, their Greek-ness, which constituted the desire of three generations to live in Greece, is put into question. They encounter a new ethnic border between the native-born Greeks, who are called the “Hellenes,” and newcomers, migrants from the former Soviet Union, who are defined by the natives as “Russo-Ponti” (literally, the Russian Pontians). They departed from the Caucasus as Greeks, but arrived in Greece as the Russians and Pontians." Distance from "real" Greeks and the perceived homeland. "In Vitiazevo, a 40-year-old man told me that he had heard that the Pontic Greeks and Hellenes did not like each other because the Greeks from Greece did not help the Pontians during the massacre in the Pontos."[30]
Pontians in Greece (modern day)
- Some regard Greeks and Pontic Greeks as separate ethnicities[31][32]
- Many Pontians, even today, find themselves discriminated against. "Albanians reported higher discrimination against their ethnic group, but not higher discrimination against themselves, personally, than Pontic Greeks."[33]
- Historiography in the 1960s/70s: "Greek Orthodox refugees were portrayed as Ionian brothers who fled from the lands of Homer; the Greek Orthodox native population who received them as brothers as immune to racism. National unity and homogeneity were also preserved through the pages of Greek school textbooks, which silenced the voices of refugees who suffered not only during their exodus from Asia Minor but during their resettlement in Greece. The indifference displayed by Greek historians on this issue facilitated nationalist propaganda by fostering collective amnesia about the extraordinary role played by immigration in the economic renewal and cultural enrichment of Greece in the twentieth century."[19]
- One Pontian man recalls an event that happened when he was a student in Thessaloniki the 1980s: He and some other students went to sing Pontian carols in the market around Christmastime. Multiple people spat in their direction.[34]
In other countries
Australia
In 1949, Australia loosened its immigration policy to allow immigrants from anywhere in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks moved to Australia from the 1940s to the 1980s. Many were Pontian Greeks who themselves had fled to Greece as refugees in the early 20th century.[35] Pontians in Australia went on to form numerous cultural groups, such as the Panagia Soumela Pontian Society of Sydney, founded in 1964 in Sydney.[36] The Federation of Pontian Associations in Australia serves as an umbrella group uniting Pontian diaspora organizations across the country. The Federation was founded in 1989 and is based in Melbourne.[37] Cultural groups perform traditional Pontian dances and traditions, such as Momogeri, a Christmas tradition that involves humorous plays and caroling.[38]
Sweden
About 20,000 Swedes of Pontian descent live in the southern portion of the country, spread across a number of communities. Diaspora communities exist in the large cities of Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, and Uppsala. Many of these emigrated from Greece in the mid-20th century. Pontians are active in the larger Greek diaspora across Sweden and have also founded their own cultural groups. For example, the Pontian diaspora in Stockholm founded the Evxinos Pontos cultural association.[39]
United States of America
- In northern and Western Europe (Sweden, Germany?)
- Canada? NZ?
See also
Notes
- Also called Pontic Greeks