The Greeks of western Anatolia and Georgians of the Black Sea region have histories dating from the 20th and 10th centuries BC respectively , and were also Christianized during the first few centuries AD . Similarly the Assyrian and Armenian peoples have an ancient history in southeastern Anatolia , dating back to 2000 BC and 600 BC respectively , both of these peoples were Christianized between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD . These ancient Christian ethnic groups were drastically reduced by genocide during and after World War I ( see Armenian Genocide , Assyrian Genocide and Greek genocide ) at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish army and their Kurdish allies . Population exchange between Greece and Turkey is another reason
Greek genocide
Greek genocide
Christianity in the Middle East