Trabzon and its surroundings have always been of importance for the imperialist powers for its geopolitical position and especially in developments since and after the 1st World War these policies were often faced with. The region was under the Russian occupation for two years during the 1st World War and this result in emergence of new social, economic and cultural problems. However, because of the fact that the people of the region faced the notion of occupation before the people of other regions of Anatolia,

contributed to emergence of national consciousness earlier.

Apart from this, geographical peculiarities and convenience of the region to international trade, which brought intensive cultural exchange, resulted in positive developments in the region. Especially existence of the way of production which was not based on agriculture, but trade and represented by a middle class, formed a wholly reach social structure.

Furthermore, Trabzon was in the key position on the road that made it possible to reach to the only regular military unit in Erzurum, apart from having an important sea port of the country at that period. By the way, Trabzon was the first place in Anatolia, which was the scene to new developments, especially of the Bolshevik regime in Russia. People of Trabzon met these new events, concepts and people first of all. The fact that the Ittihadist chiefs, who had run to foreign countries, started their attempts to seize the administrative power in Anatolia from Trabzon, made it in this period, i. e. in the period of Armistice and National Struggle after the war, a very important place.

As it could be understood, the city and its surroundings had always attracted the attention of Mustafa Kemal and other leaders of the National Struggle because of the importance it had. Therefore, the importance of Trabzon had always been considered during the War of Independence.

PONTUS PROBLEM IN TRABZON

Greece had been following from the first day of its independence the policy of continually expanding its borders and realizing the Megali Idea. In the same context with this policy, Anatolia was one of the points of concentration. The Eastern Black Sea Region and Trabzon, which was in the position of the center of this area, were the places where the problem of Pontus occurred.

This problem, which emerged during the years of the National Struggle, was in the direct proportion with social-cultural and economic advancement of the Greeks and other minorities. In this period the Greek population of the region was more powerful economically than the Turks and had relationships with the outside world. Furthermore, their dominant position in the local trade was much more advanced than that of the Turks.

The first illegal formation of the problem of Pontus was in the form of re-establishing the historical Pontus Greek Kingdom in the coasts of the Black Sea. Pontus movement speedily became to be widespread under the leadership of religious institutions and persons in the places like patriarchates, metropolitans, churches and schools. The first example of this was seen in 1904 in the American College of Merzifon. The aim of the Pontus Community that was established by young Greeks, was to revive the historical, independent Kingdom of Pontus. [According to their plan – add. by translator] a new State of Pontus would be established in the Eastern Black Sea [region] having as centers Trabzon and Samsun. The territory of the state included the Black Sea costs from Batum till Inebolu, as well as today’s Kastamonu, Çankırı, Yozgat, Sivas, Tokat, Amasya, Gümüşhane and a part of Erzincan.

The worst results of the Ottoman State’s defeat in the 1st World War started to be seen in Trabzon and its surroundings because of the Eastern Black Sea. Russia had occupied Trabzon and its surroundings. These occupations affected deeply the economic, cultural and social life of the people of the region. Applications of the Russians in the region eased the work of Pontist Greeks. The Greeks had intensified their aggression towards the Turkish cities and villages on the one hand and were providing guidance service for the occupations and occupants in the region by collaborating with the Russian army.

The decision of Russia to withdraw from the 1st World War resulted in withdrawal of their army from the region; after this the administration of Trabzon was de facto in the hands of Greeks because of the administrative weakness of the Ottoman State. In this process, especially in the period of Armistice, the Pontists started to realize the separatist organization in the region. On the other hand, they made many attempts in order to obtain international support. With this aim in hand an international congress was organized in Marcella in November 1918 in order to be able to establish a Pontus Society under the leadership of the son of Captain Yorgi, who was one of the previous heads of Giresun municipality, businessman Konstantin Konstantinidis. In fact, the same aims were expressed by the leaders of the Pontus movement in Paris Conference of 1919 and in similar platforms for several times.

In order to get support of international committees the Greeks argued that there were 1,5 millions of Greeks in the region, by falsifying the demographic structure of the region. This number was far from being persuasive, however. The famous historian Arnold Toynbee was of the same opinion. Even the Greeks themselves did not believe this number. It was seen in the report that was presented by the head of the Trabzon Metropolitan Chrysanthos Lain to Paris Peace Conference on the 2nd of May 1919. Chrysanthos argued that together with those who came from Russia their number is 850 thousands; together with the new immigrants from Russia and Caucasus the number of their population would only reach to that of Muslims: he also said that the Armenian population was in minority.

Despite of this fact a policy with many directions was followed in order to be able to establish the Pontus Republic. For this aim the Pontus Newspaper started to be published in Trabzon. On the other hand the Greeks started to realize separatist acts with illegal methods via their clubs number of which reached 40. Especially the public opinion of the West accepted the Eastern Black sea region as Pontus in a short time and even the letters that were sent to Turkey were written in this as such.

On the other side, the Greeks who were living in Sohum (Sukhumi - ?) in Russia were releasing proclamations by a committee that they had established among themselves; in these proclamations they demanded the transfer of the administration o Samsun and Trabzon from the Turks to Entente Powers. Again, as a result of the pressure of these circles, the Istanbul Government was trying to prove that the Christian population of Trabzon was not badly treated; for this reason the government decided to have a research in Trabzon upon the wish of the occupation powers.

Apart from the pressure of the international circles, the Pontusists who were inside the country tried to prove that the Greek population was in majority in the region, in order to make possible the practice of the Wilson Principles the Eastern Black Sea from their point of view. Therefore, in order to make their thesis persuasive, they tried to keep the Turks far away from the Black Sea by using every means. The immigrants from Russia were placed in this region; the Patricide, the Metropolitan and the Entente States were supporting all of these, too; the point about the forced immigration of the Turks by the methods of pressure and violence was overlooked.

By the way, although its effect was not much the region, the policy of the “Trabzon ve Havarisi Adem-i Merkeziyet Cemiyeti,” was towards autonomy and this served the aim of the Pontists. Although the Turks were in majority and the matter of population balance was clearly in favor of the Turks, their number was shown less than really was. The statistics of the Turks and the French denied the Greeks: in official Turkish records of 1914 the number of Muslim population was shown as 921.000 and that of Greeks 161.000; the French sources of 1897 showed Muslim population 806.700, while that of Greeks was 193.000; again, during 1919-1920 the Turks had a crushing majority. In the center of Trabzon there were 60.000 Christians (including Armenians) and 317.000 Muslims; in Giresun there were 10.000 Christians and 190.000 Muslims. In order to change this picture, in the beginning of 1919 the Pontists brought and settled in the region 66.000 immigrants from Russia. Most of these immigrants groups were composed of gangs and soldiers. Despite of this, the numerical majority of the Turkish

population could not be changed.

The Pontists evaluated very well the inability of the Government in Istanbul to handle the situation. In a short time period the weapons and ammunition that they acquired from Russian and Greek sources were brought to the region via different methods. When the year of 1920 started, 25.000 armed Pontus gangsters started to act.

The most dangerous bands of the gangsters were Koroglu and Eftalidis. By the way, on the Noel day of the year 1920 massive attacks were started against the Turks. The Greeks, by the way, started to publish many publications in order to contribute to their armed struggle via ideological struggle. For example, the newspapers, Pontus in Istanbul, Epohi in Trabzon and Elefteria Pontus were some of those newspapers. During the same period a surprising event happened. The Entente States and the western public opinion regarded as the Great Armenia the lands of Eastern Black Sea and Eastern Anatolia regions, which were in the eastern part of Trabzon and Mersin line and also included this region. Although these developments dashed the Pontists’ hope, they never quitted their struggle. Even the Phanariot Patriarchate severely criticized Venezielos from whom, according to their arguments, they could not get enough help. Apart from this, the Patriarchate sent representatives to Paris Conference, which included the Deputy of Patriarch, Dorotios and the Metropolit of Trabzon, Hrisantos. Although this Greek delegate tried to persuade the Entente States to the idea of establishment of the Pontus Republic for eight months, were not able to do so.

After all of these developments, although the idea of giving the region to Armenians did not satisfy the Greeks, they accepted the fact that an Armenian administration, rather than a Turkish one, was the lesser of the two evils and chose the way of acquiring an autonomous Pontus state. In a short period of time, it would become clear that this policy too lacked the historical truthfulness.

STEPS TAKEN AGAINST PONTUS GREEK UPRISING

The Istanbul Government started to the realities in the end. It was decided to punish the Pontists who had weapon arsenal and participated in illegal actions.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha was donated with extraordinary authority and sent to the region as the inspector of the 9th Army, especially in order to solve these problems. Trabzon was also included within the sphere of this competence. On the other hand, Kazim Karabekir Pasha had already started to acquire stability in the region with a number of steps that he took.

After Mustafa Kemal arrived in Samsun, he made research in the places and informed the government about the true reasons of the poor stability conditions in the Black Sea region: these were the massacres done by the Greek gangs and the steps taken by the Turks, which were only of defensive character. Ataturk continued his attempts during the Erzurum Congress and while he was the head of the Representation Delegate. In fact, the 16 delegates in the Erzurum congress, who represented Trabzon, defended the view that although Greece tries to establish the Pontus state in the eastern Black Sea region, the region was the inseparable part of the motherland and the lands belonged to Turks and could not be left to Greece, or Greeks. The head of the congress Mustafa Kemal Pasha too expressed their sensitivity about this topic in the opening of the congress. Furthermore, he said that Muhafaza-i Hukuk-ı Milliye Cemiyeti was established in Istanbul in order to defend the rights of the region. On the other hand, he was continuing to send the telegraphs, reports constantly to Istanbul. By the way, in order to defend the struggle of Trabzon and its surroundings both inside and outside, a newspaper called “Istikbal” started to be published under the leadership of Barutchuzade Haci Ahmet Efendi. Furthermore, while Ali Riza Bey was appointed the head of the National Organization in Trabzon, Topal Osman Agag was appointed as the leader of the organization of Giresun.

In spite of this, there was no serious military power in the Eastern Black Sea region during the Armistice Period to fight against Pontus gangs. On the one hand the army was demobilized and on the other hand the national forces were not formed yet. Although 15th Division and a part of the 5th Caucasian Division was sent to the region, no positive result was acquired. The Greek invasions in the Western Anatolia, the rebellions in Anatolia, which started as a result of encouragement by the Entente States and the Ottoman Government, in the same period, brought the problem of Pontus to a more serious stage. When the threat of control of all of the Black Sea costs, including Samsun and Trabzon, by the Pontus gangs occurred, the T.B.M.M. (The Grand National Assembly of Turkey) government and Mustafa Kemal as a representative of it decided to take some new steps. Although the 3rd Army Corps, which had its center in Sivas, tried to solve the problem using all of its efforts it was seen that this was not enough.

As this was done, in his speech one day after the opening of T.B.B.M., on 24th of April 1920, Mustafa Kemal Pasha set forth there the idea that the forces that were appointed to solve the Pontus problem should be united. In order to achieve this aim of completely finishing the Pontusist actions the Central army was established on 9th of December 1920 and Nureddin Pasha was appointed as its commander. With the army of 10.000 men an effective struggle was started against the Pontus gangs. However, it was thought that Pontists had spread into a wide area and therefore only military operations against them may not be enough; therefore, juridical as well as administrative steps were taken in parallel line with the military ones. First of all, the gangs in the mountains were called to surrender with the declarations that were published with the initiative of the T.B.M.M and Mustafa Kemal. However, although similar calls were repeated for several times, the Greek gangs never considered them. The well-intentioned attempts of Nureddin Pasha did not have any positive results, too; after this, military solutions were conducted. Besides a search for weapons that was done in the region, the arms, flags,

[general] documents, revolution documents and etc. that was captured in Samsun, Trabzon Metropolitans, which were known as the centers of the Pontus movement, and in the American College of Merzifon revealed the dimensions and seriousness of the event with all of its clearness.

In order to finish the rebellion after taking it under the control and to save the people of the region from the gangster Greeks pressure, according to the wish of Mustafa Kemal the T.B.M.M decided on 12th of June 1921 to make the Greeks who were between 15-50 years old to migrate to the inner parts of Anatolia from the point of view of their security. It was decided to dispatch the Greeks who can carry guns to Ergani-Madeni, Malatya, Maraş, Gurun and Darende. This dispatch was going to be done under the control of the Central Army Commander Nureddin Pasha. In spite of pressure from all kinds of local and foreign public opinion, this migration was realized in Samsun and partially in Trabzon. Apart from this, in order to end the effect of the Orthodox Phanariot Greek Patriarchate on the Christians in Anatolia, the attempts of the deputy of Keskin Metropolitan Papa Eftim Efendi towards establishing an independent Orthodox Church in Anatolia were constantly brought into agenda by Mustafa Kemal, the T.B.M.M. and the National Struggle press. This attempt was also supported by the Greek people of Anatolia. Apart from this, the Greeks of Samsun, Chorum, Mecitozu defined themselves as Christian Turks and expressed their wish to bind to the Turkish Orthodox Church in Anatolia via their applications to Mustafa Kemal. After this the Greeks of Anatolia decided to translate the Bible into Turkish and not to have prayers in Greek after being bound to this patriarchy. (24th of July 1921) During this period the leaders of the uprising had been punished. 177 persons were executed, out of which 3 were Muslims and 174 were Greeks, after being tried by the Independence court of Amasya. 74 persons were sentenced to death in their absence, while 10 persons were sentenced to hard labor. 2 persons were sentenced to prison. (10th of October 1921).

On the other hand, the T.B.M.M. Government was explaining the decisions of the Independence Courts’ decisions to the world’s public opinion; in order to show that the courts were not preferring inhuman methods, it was expressed that during the migration the Greek males were allowed to take their families and children with themselves and this showed that preservation of the unity of families was a the principle even under the war conditions.

During this period the Army of the Center was trying to solve the problems of rebellion and forced migration on the one hand and was transferring the soldiers that it recruited from the people of the region to the Western Front. Topal Osman Aga was appointed for this work; he formed a division and thus became a leading figure who organized the participation of the region’s people in the National Struggle.

The methods of the T.B.M.M. Government used in preventing the rebellion in the region was criticized in a diplomatic note sent to Mustafa Kemal Pasha on 18th of July 1921 by the Entente States and Admiral Bristol, who was the Ambassador of the USA in Istanbul. Despite all of these pressures Mustafa Kemal and the Government of Ankara decisively continued to struggle against the Pontus gangs and were able to suppress the rebellion in the first months of 1923. During these events 1817 Turks were killed, 3723 houses were burnt, about 1800 robbery and usurpation cases occurred; on the other hand, 11.118 Greek gangsters lost their lives during the struggle.

According to the Lausanne Treaty, which was signed on 24th of July 1923, the Greeks who were not rebels accepted to have no privileges; the Greek problem of Pontus was completely solved after the Greek people was sent to Greece because of Exchange Treaty that was signed with Greece on 30thof January 1923.

By this way the Pontus Greek rebellion, which was started as a result of local and foreign attempts, was ended; the dream of Pontus state was also finished. There is no doubt that these developments were one of the greatest successes of the National Struggle.

1 Fahri KILIÇ, the International Symposium of History-Language-Literature, Trabzon 2002, p. 611