Pontus (region)Pontus or Pontos (ˈpɒntəs; Πόντος, "Sea") is a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region and its mountainous hinterland (rising to the Pontic Alps in the east) by the Greeks who colonized the area in the Archaic period and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Εύξεινος Πόντος (Eúxinos Póntos), "Hospitable Sea", or simply Pontos (ὁ Πόντος) as early as the Aeschylean Persians (472 BC) and Herodotus' Histories (circa 440 BC).
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the Mediterranean world.
Greek genocideThe Greek genocide (Γενοκτονία των Ελλήνων, Genoktonia ton Ellinon), which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia which was carried out mainly during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1922) on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. It was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the Government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire.
Turkish War of IndependenceThe Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by the Turkish National Movement that culminated into a revolution, after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following its defeat in World War I. These campaigns were directed against Greece in the west, Armenia in the east, France in the south, loyalists and separatists in various provinces, and British and Ottoman troops around Constantinople (Istanbul).
Empire of TrebizondThe Empire of Trebizond (Αυτοκρατορία της Τραπεζούντας), or Trapezuntine Empire, was a monarchy and one of three successor rump states of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Despotate of the Morea and the Principality of Theodoro, that flourished during the 13th through to the 15th century, consisting of the far northeastern corner of Anatolia (the Pontus) and the southern Crimea. The empire was formed in 1204 with the help of the Georgian queen Tamar after the Georgian expedition in Chaldia and Paphlagonia, commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople.
Achaemenid EmpireThe Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (əˈkiːmənᵻd; 𐎧𐏁𐏂, Xšāça, ) was the ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC, also known as the First Persian Empire. Based in Western Asia, it was the largest empire the world had ever seen at its time, spanning a total of from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians.
Ecumenical Patriarchate of ConstantinopleThe Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, ikumeniˈkon patriarˈçion konstandinuˈpoleos; Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constantinopolitanus; Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi, İstanbul Ekümenik Patrikhanesi, "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches (or "jurisdictions") that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Turkish peopleTurkish people or Turks (Türkler) are the largest Turkic people who speak various dialects of the Turkish language and form a majority in Turkey and the disputed state of Northern Cyprus. In addition, centuries-old ethnic Turkish communities still live across other former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a "Turk" as: "Anyone who is bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship.
Ottoman NavyThe Ottoman Navy (Donanma-yı Humâyûn or Osmanlı Donanması), also known as the Ottoman Fleet, was the naval warfare arm of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the Ottomans first reached the sea in 1323 by capturing Praenetos (later called Karamürsel after the founder of the Ottoman Navy), the site of the first Ottoman naval shipyard and the nucleus of the future navy. During its long existence, the Ottoman Navy was involved in many conflicts and signed a number of maritime treaties.
ColchisIn classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis ('kɒlkɪs; Κολχίς) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi (ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the Colchians, are generally thought to have been an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe ancestral to contemporary western Georgians, namely Svans and Zans. According to David Marshall Lang: "one of the most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus by the Middle Bronze Age.