According to a German military attaché , the Ottoman minister of war Ismail Enver had declared in October 1915 that he wanted to " solve the Greek problem during the war ... in the same way he believe d he solved the Armenian problem , " referring to the Armenian genocide . ( Germany and the Ottoman Empire were allies immediately before , and during , World War I ) . By January 31 , 1917 , the Chancellor of Germany Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg reported that : The Greek presence in Asia Minor dates at least from the Late Bronze Age ( 1450 BC ) . The Greek poet Homer lived in the region around 800 BC . The geographer Strabo referred to Smyrna as the first Greek city in Asia Minor , and numerous ancient Greek figures were natives of Anatolia , including the mathematician Thales of Miletus ( 7th century ) , the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus ( 6th century BC ) , and the founder of Cynicism Diogenes of Sinope ( 4th century BC ) . Greeks referred to the Black Sea as the " Euxinos Pontos " or " hospitable sea " and starting in the eighth century BC they began navigating its shores and settling along its Anatolian coast . The most notable Greek cities of the Black Sea were Trebizond , Sampsounta , Sinope and Heraclea Pontica
Armenian problem
Armenian Genocide
Greek genocide