Despite the challenges they faced , Greek and Armenian merchants came to dominate the Black Sea trade by the middle of the 19th century . Numerous Greek schools were founded in south Russia , where liberal and nationalist ideas flourished and a new Intelligentsia arose . More and more Pontic Greeks embraced the nationalist '' Megali Idea '' ideology , while many Ottomans were influenced by emerging Turkish nationalism . Turkish nationalists regarded Greeks as an internal threat to the empire , yet believing that they were resistant to Turkification and should be ethnically cleansed . The solution of the " National Problem " that was put forward by the Young Turk Committee in 1911 and implemented in 1913 , marking the beginning of the Greek genocide . The Pontic Greeks responded by forming insurgent groups , with weapons salvaged from the battlefields of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I or obtained from Russia . During World War I , the eastern Pontus was captured by Russian troops , who recognized the autonomous Provisional Government of Trebizond , formed by Metropolitan Chrysanthus
Greek genocide
Greek genocide
Greek Caucasus Division