The Caucasus Greeks ( or more commonly , ), also known as the Greeks of Transcaucasia and Russian Asia Minor, are the ethnic

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

of the

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

and

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

in what is now southwestern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, and northeastern

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. These specifically include the

Pontic Greeks The Pontic Greeks (; or ; , , ), also Pontian Greeks or simply Pontians, are an ethnically Greek group indigenous to the region of Pontus, in northeastern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). They share a common Pontic Greek culture that is di ...

, though they today span a much wider region including the Russian north Caucasus, and the former Russian Caucasus provinces of the Batum Oblast and the Kars Oblast (the so-called ''Russian Asia Minor''), now in north-eastern Turkey and Adjara in Georgia.Mikhailidis, Christos & Athanasiadis, Andreas, Introduction. Greek people migrated into these areas well before the Christian/Byzantine era. Traders, Christian Orthodox scholars/clerics, refugees, mercenaries, and those who had backed the wrong side in the many civil wars and periods of political in-fighting in the Classical/Hellenistic and Late Roman/Byzantine periods, were especially represented among those who migrated. One notable example is the 7th-century Greek Bishop Cyrus of Alexandria, originally from Phasis in present-day

. Greek settlers in the Caucasus generally became assimilated into the indigenous population, particularly in Georgia, where

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

Greeks shared a common Christian Orthodox faith and heritage with the natives. The vast majority of these Greek communities date from the late Ottoman era, and are usually defined in modern Greek academic circles as 'Eastern Pontic reeks (modern Greek - , modern Turkish ''), as well as 'Caucasus Greeks', while outside academic discourse they are sometimes defined somewhat pejoratively and inaccurately as 'Russo-Pontic reeks (modern Greek - ). Nevertheless, in general terms Caucasus Greeks can be described as Russianized and pro-Russian empire Pontic Greeks in politics and culture and as ''Mountain Greeks'' in terms of lifestyle, since wherever they settled, whether in their original homelands in the Pontic Alps or Eastern Anatolia, or Georgia and the

Lesser Caucasus The Lesser Caucasus or Lesser Caucasus Mountains, also called Caucasus Minor, is the second of the two main ranges of the Caucasus Mountains, of length about . The western portion of the Lesser Caucasus overlaps and converges with east Turkey an ...

, they preferred and were most used to living in mountainous areas and especially highland plateaux.See Michel Bruneau, 'The Pontic Greeks: from Pontus to the Caucasus' In broad terms, it can be said that the Caucasus Greeks' link with the South Caucasus is a direct consequence of the highland plateaux of the latter being seen and used by the Pontic Greeks as a natural refuge and rallying point whenever North-eastern Anatolia was overrun by Muslim Turks in the Seljuk and Ottoman periods.

Ancient and medieval history

Although large numbers of Greeks live in parts of Ukraine and southern Russia, such as

Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...

and Stavropol Krai, the term Caucasus Greeks strictly speaking should be confined to those Greeks who had settled in the former Russian

Transcaucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

provinces of

Batum Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the second-largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest, north of the border ...

and Kars Oblast, parts of Georgia such as the region around

Tsalka Tsalka ( ka, წალკა, tr , , or , ) is a town and municipality center in southern Georgia (country), Georgia's Kvemo Kartli region. Population The district had a population of 2,326. According to the 2014 census, 47% of its population ...

, central

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

and other localities of the Black Sea Russian Riviera. Following the Ottoman conquest of the

Empire of Trebizond The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was one of the three successor rump states of the Byzantine Empire that existed during the 13th through to the 15th century. The empire consisted of the Pontus, or far northeastern corner of A ...

in 1461 large numbers of Pontic Greeks left the Pontic Alps region as refugees and resettled in parts of the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

, and particularly Georgia. Even the son of King David of Trebizond's son George had fled there with his retinue and married a Georgian princess of the

Gurieli The House of Gurieli () was a Georgia (country), Georgian princely (''mtavari'') family and a ruling dynasty (dukes) of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal ru ...

dynasty. However, the numbers of these early Pontic Greek refugees to Georgia were in any case probably fairly small, and so although some of the refugees managed to retain their Pontic Greek language and identity, others assimilated through intermarriage into the other Christian communities of the

region, particularly their fellow Christian Orthodox

Georgians Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia (country), Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Ge ...

but also those

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

who were Orthodox.Xanthopoulou-Kyriakou, p. 64.

Early modern period

To complicate matters further, many so-called "Ottoman Turks" who settled in Georgia and the South Caucasus following Lala Mustafa Pasha's Caucasian campaign of the 1570s were actually Pontic Greeks from northeastern Anatolia who had adopted Islam and the Turkish language for official purposes but continued to use Pontic Greek in their daily lives, with one prominent example of an Ottoman Muslim Georgian of Pontic Greek origin being Resid Mehmed Pasha. These

Greek Muslims Greek Muslims, also known as Grecophone Muslims, are Muslims of Greeks, Greek ethnic origin whose adoption of Islam (and often the Turkish language and identity in more recent times) dates either from the contact of early Arabic dynasties of th ...

who adhered to Islam in Georgia also either eventually assimilated with the Turkish-speaking Muslim population of southern Georgia usually defined as

Meskhetian Turks Meskhetian Turks, also referred to as Turkish Meskhetians, Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans, (; ka, მესხეთის თურქები ''Meskhetis turk'ebi'') are a subgroup of ethnic Turkish people formerly inhabiting the Mes ...

, returned to parts of eastern Anatolia such as Kars following the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1801, or reverted to their Greek Orthodoxy following the annexation and reintegrated into the Greek Orthodox population of the country. Finally, according to available historical evidence we know that thousands of Pontic Greeks from Ottoman north-eastern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

and especially the

Gümüşhane Gümüşhane () is a city in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Gümüşhane Province and Gümüşhane District.Argyroupolis) region of the Pontic Alps are known to have gone to Georgia in 1763 on being invited by King Heraclius II of Georgia to develop silver and lead mining at Akhtala and Alaverdi (in present-day Armenia). Many of their descendants survive in Georgia’s Marneuli district and Armenia's Akhtala region, although most immigrated to Greece, and particularly

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

(

Salonika Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

) in

Greek Macedonia Macedonia ( ; , ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and geographic region in Greece, with a population of 2.36 million (as of 2020). It is highly mountainous, wit ...

in the mid-1990s. It is difficult to verify the numbers of all such waves of Pontic Greeks from the Pontic Alps region to Georgia and the South Caucasus between circa 1520 and 1800, which according to Anthony Bryer is the most obscure period in the history of Pontus and the Pontic Greeks, owing to the scarcity of contemporary Greek and Ottoman Turkish sources on the subject. Modern historians suggest that following the Ottoman conquest of 1461, many, if not most Pontic Greeks retreated up into the highlands, where it was easier to maintain their culture and freedom from the encroachments of the Ottoman authorities. This movement was reinforced in the early 1600s by the growing power along the coastal valleys districts of the ''derebeys'' ('valley lords'), which further encouraged Pontic Greeks to retreat away from the coast deeper into the highlands and up onto the eastern Anatolian plateau, before some moved further east into the neighbouring Lesser Caucasus around Kars and southern Georgia. Modern historians also suggests that a major migratory movement of Pontic Greeks onto the eastern Anatolian plateau and the Lesser Caucasus occurred in the reign of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648–87), during which a common pattern was initiated in Ottoman history: the Ottomans and their clients the

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

suffered a string of severe defeats at the hands of the expansionist

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and so followed this up with a wave of repression against the Greeks of both the southern Balkans and the Pontic Alps region, on the pretext that Greek statesmen and traders had colluded with the Tsar. As a result, many Pontic Greeks felt pressured into following their cousins who had left Pontus as refugees in previous generations, and so they too decided to migrate to southern Russia or neighbouring Georgia and the South Caucasus. However, the largest number of Pontic Greeks from north-eastern Anatolia who settled in Georgia, according to extant historical evidence, were those who fled Ottoman reprisals following the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish war, the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

, the 1828-29

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

, and the war of 1853-56, which unlike earlier such movements are more widely attested in documentary evidence and traditionally cited by many Pontic Greeks themselves. In the war of 1828-29 many north-eastern Anatolia Greeks welcomed, collaborated with, or fought in the Russian Army that occupied

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

Gümüşhane Gümüşhane () is a city in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Gümüşhane Province and Gümüşhane District.Erzinjan, and

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

(all now in north-eastern Turkey). Most of their descendants settled in Georgia (in areas such as

and Samtskhe-Javakheti), the Russian Trans-Caucasus, and other parts of southern Russia. A smaller number of such Pontic Greeks had of course settled in Georgia and the Russian Caucasus well before the Russo-Turkish wars, most notably those belonging to noble and landowning families from the pre-Ottoman

. These included several members of the late

Komnenos The House of Komnenos ( Komnenoi; , , ), Latinized as Comnenus ( Comneni), was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. ...

or Comnenid dynasty and collateral branches, who often married into princely families from neighbouring Georgia, including those of the Bagrationi and especially the

and Andronikashvili. Among those who remained in the Pontic Alps and north-eastern

some led local revolts against the Ottomans, while many others actually intermarried into the Ottoman ruling elite, thereby converting to Islam and joining the Turkish millet. Several Ottoman-era sources tell us, however, that even among

belonging to local noble families - such as those of Gavras, Doukas and the

Komnenoi The House of Komnenos ( Komnenoi; , , ), Latinized as Comnenus ( Comneni), was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. Th ...

- who had ''turned Turk'', many remained Crypto-Christian (in north-eastern Anatolia often referred to as Stavriotes), openly renouncing Islam and taking up arms against Ottoman troops based around

Gümüşhane Gümüşhane () is a city in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Gümüşhane Province and Gümüşhane District.Erzinjan during the Russo-Turkish wars, before following the Russian army back into Georgia and southern Russia. It was some of these

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek (, ; or ''Romeika'') is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety ...

community leaders that claimed noble lineages extending back to the

who subsequently became officers in the Russian Imperial army, as many Armenian and Georgian princes such as Ivane Andronikashvili had previously done. These Caucasus Greek officers, whether of noble Byzantine or more humble Pontic Greek origin, played a significant role in the 1877 Russian conquest of

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

and Ardahan, where many of them settled with their families and other displaced Greeks from northeast Anatolia and Georgia (the latter themselves the descendants of pre-1877 Greek refugees and exiles from northeast Anatolia now re-settled in Kars by the Russian Imperial government). Caucasus Greek Orthodox cleric and community leaders

Caucasus Greek Orthodox cleric and community leaders

Language

A large number of Caucasus Greeks who settled in Georgia became referred to as Urum (from the Turkish for ' yzantineRomans') and spoke a Turkish dialect with a large admixture of Pontic Greek, Georgian, and Armenian vocabulary. According to local Greek legend, after the suppression of their revolt against Ottoman rule, these Turkish-speaking but Christian Orthodox Caucasus Greeks had been given the choice by Sultan

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

either to accept Islam but continue to use their Greek mother tongue, or to use the Turkish language but retain their Christian Orthodox faith. Selim I had been based in the Trebizond region before he became Sultan in 1512, since he was himself of partly

origin on the side of his mother Gülbahar Hatun. Nevertheless, most Caucasus Greeks had never had to face this predicament of having to choose between their Christian Orthodox faith and their Pontic Greek language and so were able to retain both, although when in Russian territory they eventually came to adopt Russian as their second language for public and educational purposes. Caucasus Greeks also often maintained some command of Turkish as more or less a third language, thanks to their own roots in north-eastern Anatolia, where they had after all lived (usually very uneasily and in a state of intermittent warfare) alongside Turkish-speaking Muslims since the Seljuk-backed Turkish migrations into 'the lands of Rum' or Anatolia during the 11th and 12th centuries. Pontic Greeks in Georgia and the Russian Caucasus also maintained this command of Turkish so as to communicate with their Muslim neighbours living in the region, most of whom used Turkish as a ''lingua franca'' or even adopted it as their first language irrespective of actual ethnic origin. This situation is in stark contrast to that of the

of western

called

Vallahades The Vallahades () or Valaades () are a Greek-speaking Muslim population who lived along the river Haliacmon in southwest Greek Macedonia, in and around Anaselitsa (modern Neapoli) and Grevena. They numbered about 17,000 in the early 20th centur ...

and the Cretan Muslims, both of whom generally remained ignorant of Turkish, continued to use Greek as their first language, and retained Greek culture and traditions long after converting to Islam in the middle Ottoman period. Of course, while many Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks had also adopted Islam as early as the 1500s or before, these "new Turks" generally either adopted Turkish and then assimilated into the Turkish-speaking Muslim Ottoman population or they remained Crypto-Christian and then openly reverted to their Christian Orthodoxy on the occasion of the 1828 Russian occupation of northeastern Anatolia or after the passing of the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856. Kars 1828

It should be stressed, then, that the vast majority of these eastern Pontic Greeks who had settled in southern Russia, Georgia, and the Trans-Caucasus region but preserved their distinct Greek identity were mainly the descendants of the Greeks who left the Pontic Alps and the northeast Anatolian highland region after the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768-74 and 1828–29. Contrary to certain popular myths, these Pontic Greek settlers therefore had absolutely nothing to do with those Greeks who had settled in the South Caucasus region in the Hellenistic or Classical Greek period, although they generally did merge with those somewhat smaller Pontic Greek communities who had settled in Georgia, Armenia, and the South Caucasus in general in the late Byzantine and early Ottoman period. The main reason Caucasus Greeks preferred to identify themselves exclusively with the later, particularly 19th century waves of Pontic Greek refugees to the South Caucasus rather than also with ancestors who had already settled in the region in the late Byzantine or early Ottoman period is probably because this helped in the presentation of their history as being linked for a longer period to the territories ruled by the

, that is

Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...

proper, and also helped minimize the historically inconvenient evidence of both substantial non-Greek influences on their culture and extensive intermarriage with the indigenous, non-Hellenic races of the South Caucasus region. According to conservative estimates these eastern Pontic Greeks who collaborated with and/or followed the Russian army into Georgia and southern Russia following the 1828 Russian occupation of

and

Gümüşhane Gümüşhane () is a city in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Gümüşhane Province and Gümüşhane District.Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and (after 1878) Kars Oblast. Like those Pontic Greeks who fought for Russia in the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish war, most male Greeks who settled in Russian territory following the 1828-29 war continued to serve in the Russian Imperial army, often bearing their own community's hopes to re-capture more Christian Greek territory from the Muslim Turks on the back of the Russian Empire. Like Georgians, Armenians, and other peoples from the South Caucasus, many Caucasus Greek men fought and lost their lives through service in the Russian army not just in wars against the Ottomans, but also in other campaigns, such as the 1817-1864

Caucasian War The Caucasian War () or the Caucasus War was a 19th-century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series o ...

, in which Russia sought to impose its rule over the Muslim mountain tribes of the

north Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

Role in Russian conquests

The 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War and the Treaty of San Stefano and Treaty of Berlin that brought it to a close led to the Russian Empire making permanent gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire in north-eastern Anatolia. These centred around the fortified city of Kars in historical northern Armenia, which Russia now administered as the Kars Oblast, i.e. the militarily administered province of Kars, which also included the towns and districts of Ardahan and Sarikamish. As in the 1828-29 war, many Greeks of north-eastern Anatolia and Pontus fought in or collaborated with the Imperial Russian Army in the 1877-78 war against the Ottomans, often serving as soldiers and officers in an army that included large numbers of Georgians, Armenians, Ossetians and Cossack, as well as Russians proper - the Georgians and Armenians in particular being represented among the senior ranks. Although the Ottoman province or 'vilayet' of Kars already had several Greek villages dating back to 1830 or sometimes even earlier, most of these later pro-Russian Greeks of north-eastern Ottoman Anatolia settled in Kars province after it was incorporated into the Russian empire in 1878. It was precisely because most of the Greek settlers in the Kars Oblast had entered the region with the Russians from the direction of Georgia, that contemporaries - and academics later on - came to define them as Caucasus Greeks or Russianized Pontic Greeks, in contrast to those Greeks who had never left Ottoman-ruled North-eastern Anatolia. Even in Russian occupied Georgia, however, these Greeks had generally lived in the southern areas of the country which - like the Kars-Ardahan region - were part of the Lesser Caucasus highland plateau, rather than among the deep valleys and jagged mountain peaks of the High Caucasus range in northern Georgia. In terms of population, the areas in both Georgia and Kars province inhabited by the Caucasus Greeks tended to be those that also had large concentrations of Armenian populations – one well-known product of this Greek-Armenian mix being the famous mystic and theosophist

George Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff ( – 29 October 1949) was a philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, composer, and movements teacher. Born in the Russian Empire, he briefly became a citizen of the First Republic of Armenia after its formation in 1 ...

. Another well known, although more recent Caucasus Greek with roots in these areas but born in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

was Yanis Kanidis, a Russian PE instructor and hero of the Beslan school hostage crisis in

North Ossetia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

. These same areas now in Georgia also had various pockets of Muslims of Turkish and non-Turkish (convert) ethnic origin - though the latter had generally become Turkish in speech and culture. Greeks Georgia Batumi

The Caucasus Greeks of the Kars Oblast were mainly concentrated in around 77 towns and villages as part of official Russian government policy to people a traditionally Turkish, Kurdish, Georgian-Muslim (here often called Chveneburi) and Laz-Muslim or Christian but generally non-Orthodox Armenian area with a staunchly pro-Russian Christian Orthodox community. In general they were settled on grassy highland plateaux, such as the Gole/Kiolias plateau of present-day Ardahan province, since these resembled their original lands in the Pontic Alps and later ones they had settled on in Georgia. In towns like Kars, Ardahan, and Sarikamish ethnic Greeks constituted only a small minority (10-15%) of the inhabitants, most of whom were Christian Armenians, Kurdish Muslims, or smaller numbers of Orthodox Georgians, while even many of the mainly ethnic Greek villages still included small numbers of Armenians (including Greek Orthodox Armenians), Georgians, and even Kurds, employed by the Greeks to look after the sheep, cattle, and horses. The Caucasus Greeks of the Kars Oblast were generally reasonably well educated, every village having its own school, although most were involved in farming, horse breeding, or mining for their livelihoods. A smaller but still significant number did, however, work outside the agricultural and mining sectors. In particular, many pursued careers as regular soldiers and officers in the Russian Imperial Army, in the regional police force, as clergymen, or even within the provincial Russian administration. Unlike the Pontic Greeks of the Black Sea coastal cities like Trebizond, however, very few Caucasus Greeks were involved in trade. Chindjovo 006 original

Caucasus Greeks were often multilingual, able to speak, read, and write Greek and Russian and speak Eastern Anatolian Turkish, and sometimes also basic Georgian and Armenian. Although their native language was Greek, generally only the most highly educated - such as scholars, lawyers, members of the Orthodox clergy educated in Russian universities, and other community leaders claiming noble or royal lineage extending back to the

- had more than an intermediate-level knowledge of formal

Demotic Greek Demotic Greek (, , , ) is the standard spoken language of Greece in modern times and, since the resolution of the Greek language question in 1976, the official language of Greece. "Demotic Greek" (with a capital D) contrasts with the conservat ...

and the more classicizing

Katharevousa Katharevousa (, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contemporary vernacular, Demotic ...

of the late Byzantine period. The majority were restricted to their own variant of Pontic Greek, which had a somewhat larger admixture of Turkish, Georgian, Russian, and Armenian vocabulary than the colloquial form of Greek used in Pontus proper. However, the Caucasus Greeks had had to become fluent Russian speakers, as a result of the schooling and education policies implemented by the Russian Imperial government, although at home and amongst themselves they continued to favour Greek. But Caucasus Greeks were still often conflated or confused with Russians in the Kars Oblast because of their use of Russian and worship alongside Russians in the same Orthodox churches as well as their generally Russianized and pro-Russian empire outlook. In fact, one quite popular but stereotyped way local 'Turks' might differentiate Caucasus Greeks from other Pontic Greeks was by stating that the former were "Greeks who had taken the Borshch

oup Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

from the Russians"! The Caucasus Greeks had close social links with the Greek Orthodox Russian settlers of the Kars Oblast through worshiping in each other's churches as well as marrying partners of Russian Caucasus origin. These links were closer than those with either non-Orthodox Armenians or Orthodox Georgians, primarily because most of the former were not in communion with the

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is heade ...

while many of the latter were becoming increasingly attracted to Georgian nationalism. However, contacts and intermarriage between Caucasus Greeks and Armenians who were members of the Greek Orthodox church was fairly common, and to a lesser extent also existed between Caucasus Greeks and other Greek Orthodox communities of the South Caucasus, such as

. Since many of the Turkish, Kurdish, and Indigenous Laz-speaking Muslims from the Kars region had fled westwards into Ottoman territory during and after the 1877-78 war, many other non-Orthodox Christian communities were also resettled there by the Russian administration. These included Russian religious minorities considered "heretical" by the Russian Orthodox Church, such as Dukhobors and Molokans, who as pacifists did not perform Russian military service and so unlike the Caucasus Greeks, Georgians, and Armenians did not play a significant role in the wars against the Ottomans. Even smaller numbers of Caucasus Germans,

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people () are a Finnic ethnic group native to the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, primarily their nation state of Estonia. Estonians primarily speak the Estonian language, a language closely related to other Finni ...

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

, and

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

, were settled in the Kars Oblast, despite none of these communities having any significant historic or cultural links with the

and Eastern Anatolia, in contrast to the long-standing links Pontic Greeks had always had with the region.

Contemporary (post-World War I)

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

most able-bodied Caucasus Greek men again fought for Russia against the Ottoman Empire, usually serving in the Russian Caucasus Army, which was led by a coterie of senior Russian, Georgian, and Armenian officers. In the final stages of the war, a Greek Caucasus Division was even established by bringing together Caucasus Greeks from different regiments of the Russian army in the South Caucasus, and whose primary purpose was to help defend ethnic Greek villages in the Kars, Erzerum, and Erzincan regions. Most Caucasus Greeks left Kars Oblast following the cession of the area back to the Ottoman Empire in 1917, but before the official population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1922-23. They mainly settled in villages in

previously inhabited by Ottoman Muslims, and again generally preferred those situated on grassy plateaux or mountain districts, since these most closely resembled their former home in the South Caucasus. However, like many other Greeks of

and north-eastern Anatolia, significant numbers of Caucasus Greeks who wanted to remain in what was now Turkish territory at any cost chose to convert to Islam and adopt the Turkish language for public purposes so as to be exempted from the population exchange. According to the terms of the population exchange protocol (which was essentially an appendage to the

Treaty of Lausanne The Treaty of Lausanne (, ) is a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923 and signed in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially resolved the conflict that had initially ...

) the categories 'Greek' and 'Turk' were defined by religious affiliation rather than ethnicity, resulting in large numbers of

from Macedonia and Crete being categorized as 'Turkish in soul' and so resettled in the Turkish Aegean and parts of Anatolia. Those Caucasus Greeks who had remained in north-eastern Anatolia, like the many other Pontic Greeks who had also converted to Islam and adopted the Turkish language, subsequently became assimilated into the wider Turkish-Muslim population of the provinces of Trabzon, Sivas, Erzurum, Erzinjan, Kars, and Ardahan. However, after 1917 many Caucasus Greeks from Kars Oblast, and in particular those who had close Russian family links through intermarriage, also resettled in parts of Southern Russia that already had pre-existing communities of Pontic Greeks descended from earlier waves of refugees from northeastern Anatolia. These Greeks were based mainly in Stavropol Krai, in the foothills of the

, where they still make up a significant element of the population (often up to 10%) in both urban and rural areas. They became fully assimilated into modern Russian life and society, although following the dissolution of the Soviet Union they substantially increased their links with Greece – and particularly with northern Greece – through work, trade, or study in their "mother" country and through taking up Greek nationality alongside their Russian one.

Caucasus Greeks in contemporary Greek Macedonia

Most of the Caucasus Greeks of Kars Oblast who had not sided with the Bolsheviks subsequently left for Greece in 1919, before the province was officially re-incorporated into the territory of the new Turkish Republic and the large-scale Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1922-23. Most were resettled in

Kilkis Kilkis () is a city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2021 there were 24,130 people living in the city proper, 27,493 people living in the municipal unit, and 45,308 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional un ...

province and other parts of central and eastern

, particularly in villages of the mountainous

Drama prefecture Drama (, ''Perifereiakí Enótita Drámas'') is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Its capital is the town of Drama. The regional unit is the northernmost within the geographical region of ...

that until 1922 had been inhabited largely by "Turks" (in this case Ottoman Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin). During the German occupation of Greece (1940–44) and

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

of 1943-49 most Caucasus Greek men fought for ELAS, the military wing of EAM, the leading Greek communist guerrilla organisation that fought against the German occupation. Many in Greece argue that the strong communist affiliations of Greek Macedonia's Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks, most of whom even today continue to support the Greek Communist Party KKE, has never had anything to do with ideology but was actually due to residual pro-Russian sentiment and traditional family expectations, despite the fact that many had grandparents who had not remained in Russian territory precisely because they had not sided with the Bolsheviks. The communist affiliations of most Caucasus Greeks has also been cited to account for why they often play down or even conceal any previous involvement their ancestors may have had in the Tsarist army or administration during the Russian occupation of the Transcaucasus region. For those communist Caucasus Greeks who, following the 1946-49

, settled as refugees in the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

, particularly the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, playing down or concealing their community's previous links with the

was an essential tactic to ensure a safe, secure, and flourishing life in a communist state and society. One example of a high-ranking Caucasus Greek from Kars Oblast who spent much of his life fighting and propagandizing against Soviet communism, after having fought against the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

with the forces of the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

, was

Constantine Kromiadi Constantine Gregorievich Kromiadi (, ; 21 January 1893 – 25 April 1990) was a Russian military officer of Greek origin. A staunch anti-communist, he served in the Imperial Russian Army and the White Army, later heading the collaborationist ...

. Caucasus Greeks have generally assimilated well into modern Greek society, being successful within a broad range of trades and professions. They are generally conflated by other Greeks with the Pontic Greeks of Pontus proper, whom many in Greece see as very socially conservative, clan-like, and inward-looking. Otherwise, Caucasus Greeks are often inaccurately described by other Greeks as 'Russo-Pontic reeks and sometimes even confused with the many ethnic Greeks who came from Georgia and southern Russia in the mid-90s, particularly since they often live in the same parts of Thessaloniki, share a similar Pontic Greek dialect, and tend to have surnames ending in '-dis' (from the Ancient Greek for 'the sons of ... '). However, it is generally the ethnic Greeks who came to Greek Macedonia from Georgia and southern Russia in the mid-1990s rather than the Caucasus Greeks who came shortly after 1919 that other Greeks often accuse of among other things being involved in organised crime in northern Greece and the wider Balkans and creating a kind of parallel, underground society. The Caucasus Greeks and Pontic Greeks in general who settled in northern Greece between 1919 and 1923 have, on the other hand, had a lot more time to assimilate into contemporary Greek society than the more recent arrivals from Georgia and southern Russia, and as a consequence have a far better command of standard Modern Greek and awareness of mainstream Greek culture. The Caucasus Greeks and Pontic Greeks of Greek Macedonia have still managed to preserve some of their unique traditions and have also established many cultural and civil society organisations. The aspect of Pontic Greek culture most apparent to the outside observer is their traditional food, costume, music, and dance, with those of the Caucasus Greeks reflecting heavier Russian, Georgian, and Armenian influences. For example, the traditional costume of Caucasus Greek women resembles that of southern Russian women, while the men's costume is light grey, in contrast to the black attire worn by Greek men from Pontus proper, which they share with the Muslim Laz of the eastern Pontic Alps.Topalidis, p. 137.

References

Bibliography

* Acherson, Neal, 'Black Sea' (Jonathan Cape, London, 1995). * Anderson, A. M., 'The Eastern Question' (1967). * Browning, Robert, 'The Byzantine Empire' (1980). * Caucasus Calendar, 1912 (British Government War Office Publication, 1914). * Coene, Frederik, 'The Caucasus - An Introduction', (2011) * Drury, Ian, The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 (1994). * Eloyeva, FA, 'Ethnic Greek Group of Tsalka and Tetritskaro (Georgia)', Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and Practice of Linguistic (1994). * Gocha, R. Tsetskhladze 'Greek Colonization of the Eastern Black Sea Littoral (Colchis)',(1992). * Koromela, Marianna and Evert, Lisa,'Pontos-Anatolia : northern Asia Minor and the Anatolian plateau east of the upper Euphrates : images of a Journey', (1989). * Mikhailidis, Christos & Athanasiadis, Andreas, 'A Generation in the Russian Caucasus'- in Greek, Γεννηθείς εις Καύκασον Ρωσίας (Inthognomon, 2007). * Morison, John, Ethnic and National Issues in Russian and East European History (Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress, 2000) * Papadopoulos, Stephanos, 'Black Sea' (Kastaniotis Publications, 2012). * Soteriou, Dido, 'Farewell Anatolia' (Kedros, 1996). * Topalidis, Sam, 'A Pontic Greek History' (2006). * Woodhouse, C. M. 'The Struggle for Greece, 1941-1949' (1984). * Xanthopoulou-Kyriakou, Artemis, 'The Diaspora of the Greeks of the Pontos: Historical Background', Journal of Refugee Studies, 4, (1991).

(article on migration of Pontic Greeks from Russian South Caucasus to Greek Macedonia, between 1897 and 1919) *http://www.academia.edu/4067183/ANTON_POPOV_From_Pindos_to_Pontos_the_Ethnicity_and_Diversity_of_Greek_Communities_in_Southern_Russia

External links

* http://pontosworld.com/

(article on migration of Pontic Greeks from Russian South Caucasus to Greek Macedonia, between 1897 and 1919) * https://www.academia.edu/4067183/ANTON_POPOV_From_Pindos_to_Pontos_the_Ethnicity_and_Diversity_of_Greek_Communities_in_Southern_Russia * http://kafkasios-pontokomitis.blogspot.co.uk/ (information and old photos of Caucasus Greek villages and people - in Greek) * https://www.facebook.com/pages/Caucasus-Greeks/555808977783530 (Facebook page for links and old photos of Caucasus Greek villages and people - in English) * http://kars1918.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/kilkis-kars/ (Blog on Caucasus Greeks in Kars Oblast by community representative from Kilkis, Greek Macedonia) * https://www.academia.edu/4067183/ANTON_POPOV_From_Pindos_to_Pontos_the_Ethnicity_and_Diversity_of_Greek_Communities_in_Southern_Russia * http://pontos-patridamou.blogspot.co.uk/ very useful site on east Pontic/Caucasus Greeks (in Greek) * http://rga.revues.org/2092 - Michel Bruneau, 'The Pontic Greeks: from Pontus to the Caucasus' (article in English) {{authority control Ethnic groups in Russia Greek minorities Peoples of the Caucasus Greek diaspora Pontic Greeks