a large part of the Muslim population is of Greek origin and they have neither forgotten their origin nor the Greek language, which they still speak

 For the Greek-speaking Muslims of northern Turkey, i.e. of the Asia Minor Pontus, we have a wealth of historical data. In 1914 the Greek population of the region amounted to 929,495 and was distributed as follows:

α) Orthodox Greeks: 696,495,

b) Muslim Greeks: 190,000,

c) Crypto-Christians: 43,000

As Metropolitan Chrysanthos of Trebizond informs us, the Islamisations in Pontus were carried out in the period 1648-1687 under the pressure of the feudal lords, the Derebeis. He writes:

"Due to the pressure of the Terebees and the suffering persecutions, the Greek populations from the river Akampsios (Chorokh) to Trapezzounos, the inhabitants of the regions of Rizae, Ofeos, Surmenos and Gimora were massively Islamized. The Christians of the district of Ophesus were Islamised by tradition, together with their bishop Alexander, renamed Iskender...'.

The last wave of Islamisation coincides with the genocide (1916-1923) unleashed by the Turks against the Christian Greek population of Pontus. The Young Turks had decided to forcibly Islamize the Christian nationalities and for this purpose, they created orphanages for the children of the Christians they had exterminated. They provided the Greek children with Turkish education and Islamic theological education. Greek women were forced to marry Muslims.

The fact that there were no significant Turkish populations in the Pontus area is shown by the fact that the Turkish authorities themselves preferred to use the term "Muslim" rather than "Turk". In a text of understanding - which concerned the terms of the autonomy of Pontus and provided for the equal citizenship of its inhabitants - signed in September 1919 in Istanbul between the Metropolitan Chrysanthos of Trebizond and the Vali of Trebizond Suleiman Netzmi Vei mentioned two groups of inhabitants: the Greeks and the Muslims.

However, in the arguments of the Christian Pontians to the Allied forces, the Greek origin of the Pontic Muslims was used. At the Paris Peace Conference on 30/12/1918, a memorandum was submitted to the Paris Peace Conference for the creation of the "Hellenic Republic of Pontus". Among other things there is the following argument:

"....a large part of the Muslim population is of Greek origin and they have neither forgotten their origin nor the Greek language, which they still speak."

The Importance of These Populations

The Islamised and crypto-Christian populations help us to understand the nature of modern Turkey. They remind us of the old universality of Hellenism. A part of the old Romionism remains in crypto-Christian or Muslim form in the old Greek lands of the East.

The Turkish state is trying in every way to assimilate these populations. It seeks the social division of the compact populations by transferring them to other parts of Turkey. Thus, financial incentives were given for the emigration of Greek-speaking people to Kurdistan, Imbros, and occupied Cyprus. Today, one of the Turkish villages in Imbros is inhabited by Islamised Greek-speaking people, while about 3,000 have settled as settlers in occupied Cyprus.