The Ottoman genocide policy against the Pontic Greek populations was initiated after the outbreak of World War I ( 1914 ) , mostly through deportation and forced death marches . This policy of extermination was intensified , after accusations that the Pontic Greek communities supported the Russian army . As a result , the Ottoman authorities deported thousands of local Greeks to the interior of Anatolia . The Ottoman genocide policy took a more violent form in 1917 , when Greece entered World War I . A large number of the deported populations died from disease , exhaustion and epidemics during death marches . Those who managed to survive the marches were either raped , subject to forced islamization or murdered . Meanwhile , Turkish irregular band ( cete ) leaders , like Topal Osman , notorious from his role in the Armenian Genocide , were dispatched against the Greeks of Samsun province in 1916
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Amasya trials