Chronicle of Pontos

 

3rd millennium BC Prometheus punished by the gods and banished to the Caucuses for giving fire to humankind.

 

1210 BC          Jason, leader of the Argonautic expedition to Pontos, Jason and Medea in Greece.

770 BC            Militos establishes (founds) its first colony in Sinope.

756 BC            Militos and Phokaia found Amisos

756 BC            Sinope founds Trepizond (Trapezunt). Pontos (the Black Sea), from Pontos Axenos (inhospitable sea) is renamed Pontos Euxine or Euxinus (hospitable sea).

551-549 BC    The occupation of Pontos by the Persians

480-470 BC    Following the defeat of the Persians in Salamina the Greek cities of Pontos become independent.

331 BC            The Greek cities of Pontos declare their submission to Alexander the Great. The beginning of the Hellenistic Period.

280 BC            Mithridates I,  “The Builder”, establishes the Kingdom of Pontos.

145 BC            Mitrhridates the V assists Rome in the third Punic War.

111 BC            Mithridates VI becomes King of Pontos and in the battle with the Romans is distinguished as a leader of Hellenism.

88 BC              The First Mithridatic War.

86 BC              The destruction of Athens by Sylla.

86BC               The defeat of Archelaos, General of Pontos in Chaeronea.

83 BC              The second Mithridatic War.

82 BC              Mithridates defeats Mourenie, the Roman General who had invaded Pontos.

74 BC              The Third Mithridatic War.

63 BC              Pompey occupies Pontos and divides it into the Galatian (Gaul) Pontos and the Polemoniako Pontos.

8 BC-21 AD    Pythodorida, friend of the historian-geographer Stabo of Amasia, reigns in Pontos.

124 AD            The Emperor Hadrian visits Trebizond (Trapezunt).

5th century AD  Wars of the Byzantines and the Persians, Trebizond a large port-passeway to the Silk Route. Pontoa constitutes an Issue of the Byzantine Empire.

1204                Occupation of Constantinople by the Crusaders. The foundation of the Empire of Trebizond by the brothers, Alexis (Alexius) and David Komneno. Alexius becomes the first Emperor 1204-1232.

1346                Defeats of the Turcoman and the Seltzuk Turks in Pontos. Relations of Genoa and Venice with the Trebizond Empire.

1402                The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (Yildirim Bayezid) is defeated by Tamerlan in the battle of Ankara. The military troops of the Trebizond Empire participate in the battle on the side of Tamerlan.

1453                The Fall of Constantinople by the Ottomans. Flooding of refugees to Trebizond.

1461 (15.8)      The Fall of Trebizond-occupied by the Ottomans. The beginning of the Middle Ages (Dark Age) for the Pontians, during a period when Europe leaves the Dark Ages behind and progress towards Renaissance.

1682                The foundation of the Frondistirion of Trebizond. The beginning of the awakening, the revival and the renaissance.

1814                The Foundation of the Philikie Etairea, Prince Alexander Ypsilantis, of Pontian descent, is distinguished as its leader.

1821                Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Proutho river on the border of Russia-Romania and calls for the Balkan peoples insurrection against the Ottomans. The beginning of the Greek Revolution.

1829                The First Russian-Turkish War – the Pontian Exodus to Russia.

1876-78           The second Russian-Turkish Wa, a new Exodus of the Pontian people to Russia.

1885                The First Armenian Genocide.

1894                The establishment of the neo-turk party “Union and Progress”.

1908                Manifestation of the racist neo-turk movement.

1914                Slaughters, deportations, persecutions of the Greeks of Ionia and Thrace.

1915                The Armenian Genocide.

1916-1919       The first period of Pontian Genocide. New Exodus of the Pontian people to Russia.

1919                Kemal Pascha Ataturk lands in Amisso of Pontos. Systematization of the plans to exterminate the Pontians.

1919-1923       The second stage of the Pontian Genocide. Death-deportations, death-exiles to Kurdistan-Syria.

1922                Forced Exodus of the Pontians to Greece and Russia.

1922                Burning and destruction of Smyrne by the kemalists.

1925                The Genocide of the Kurds in the USSR.

1924-1935       The Pontian renaissance in the USSR.

1937                Stalin’s first persecutions of the Pontians.

1945-1949       Deportations of the Pontians from the Crimea, the Caucasus and Georgia to Central Asia.

1949                Civil War in Greece and the Pontian involvement.

1955                Pogrom against the Greeks of Constantinople. The beginning of the Forced Exodus of the Greeks from the historic city.

1967-1974       The dictatorship in Greece.

1988                Second Pontian World Congress. The beginning of a systematic stuggle for international recognition of the Pontian Genocide.

1989-1990       The end of Bipolarity. The New Cycle of the Pontian Refugees from Russia.

1994 (16.2.)     The Greek Parliamnet recognizes the Pontian Genocide.

1994 (19.5.)     The Cypriot Parliament recognizes the Pontian Genocide.

2000                Pontian oppression intensified in Turkey.

2002                George Pattaki the Governor of the State of New York recognizes the Pontian Genocide and May 19 as its Memorial Day. Other states follow in the U.S.A..

2004 (1204)     The Eight Centcentenial, 800 years since the foundation of the Trebizond Empire.