The relationship between ethnic Greek identity and Greek Orthodox religion continued after the creation of the modern Greek nation-state in 1830 . According to the second article of the first Greek constitution of 1822 , a Greek was defined as any native Christian resident of the Kingdom of Greece , a clause removed by 1840 . A century later , when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed between Greece and Turkey in 1923 , the two countries agreed to use religion as the determinant for ethnic identity for the purposes of population exchange , although most of the Greeks displaced ( over a million of the total 1.5 million ) had already been driven out by the time the agreement was signed . The Greek genocide , in particular the harsh removal of Pontian Greeks from the southern shore area of the Black Sea , contemporaneous with and following the failed Greek Asia Minor Campaign , was part of this process of Turkification of the Ottoman Empire and the placement of its economy and trade , then largely in Greek hands under ethnic Turkish control
Greek genocide
Greek genocide
Greeks