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Pontic Greek (Pontic: Ρωμαίικα, romanized: Rhomaiika, [a] Greek: Ποντιακά, romanized: Pontiaka; [b] Turkish: Rumca or Romeika) [3] [4] 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.
Ophitic is the last Greek variety spoken in eastern Turkey in the 21st century. [34] Some Ophitic speakers live outside of Turkey; enclaves exist in Cyprus. [35] Romeika faces many threats to its continued existence. Children do not learn Romeika in school; instead, they are taught in the language of the country (standard Greek, Turkish ...
Trabzon remained an important center of Pontic Greek society and culture throughout Ottoman times. A scholar named Sevastos Kyminitis founded the Phrontisterion of Trapezous, a Greek school operating in Trabzon from the late 1600s to the early 1900s. It was an important center for Greek-language education across the whole Pontus region.
According to the United Nations, this figure increased in 2012 and reached 50,000. As of 2023, according to The Economist, "Turkey's Greek community is being revived". [18] A minority of Muslim Pontic Greek speakers, using a dialect called "Romeyka" or "Ophitic", still live in the area around Of in north-eastern Anatolia. [19] [20] [21]
The Republic of Pontus (Greek: Δημοκρατία του Πόντου, romanized: Dimokratía tou Póntou) was a proposed Pontic Greek state on the southern coast of the Black Sea. Its territory would have encompassed much of historical Pontus and today forms part of Turkey's Black Sea Region.
Megali Idea made further claims on Greek-populated territories elsewhere. The Pontic Greeks were far from the new Greek state, and had few connections to it, so joining the new Greece was never strongly considered. [1] At that time, many Pontic Greeks migrated to the much closer orthodox states of Russia and Georgia.
However, as with Yunan (Turkish for "Greek") or the English word "Greek," this term 'is associated in Turkey to be with Greece and/or Christianity, and many Pontic Greek Muslims refuse such identification. [32] [33] The endonym for Pontic Greek is Romeyka, while Rumca and/or Rumcika are Turkish exonyms for all Greek dialects spoken in Turkey. [34]
Pontic culture represented a synthesis between Iranian, Anatolian and Greek elements, with the former two mostly associated with the interior parts, and the latter more so with the coastal region. By the time of Mithridates VI Eupator, Greek was the official language of the Kingdom, though Anatolian languages continued to be spoken in the interior.