Pontos - Travelogue: The last Greek traces are fading away

More visible than ever is the danger of the collapse and consequently the disappearance of the last Greek buildings in Kerasounta and the whole Pontus. According to a report by the Turkish news website Demokrat Haber, which is reported by the expatriate journal «Anatoli», in the Greek settlement of Kerasounta, Zeytinlik (Elaiones), 85 buildings, which are listed as protected buildings of grade B, are in danger of collapsing.

The district is built at the foot of the castle of Kerasounda and extends to the beach. The construction of the houses dates back to 1840 and are positioned in such a way as not to affect the light, views and air circulation of other buildings.

For the construction of the mansions, which were located in spacious gardens, imported materials were used together with masonry stones. While some of the narrow streets of the neighborhood leading to the castle of Kerasounda remained intact, some other streets have been widened, resulting in damage to the historic fabric and the demolition of mansion walls, due to the increasing distorted urbanisation in recent years.

The mansions changed hands

Within the district, in addition to 68 mansions which until the exchange belonged to Greeks of Pontus, there are Catholic, Orthodox churches and a school, which are still in existence. With the exchange of populations many Greek mansions changed hands. Most houses passed into the hands of local residents and some others are used as annexes of various Turkish ministries.

According to journalist Tolga Gunei, the historic Necati Bey High School is now used as a People's Education Centre. One of the mansions was converted by the Ministry of National Education into a people's library. After the restoration work by the Ministry of Culture, from the signs placed outside the Greek mansions we can still read their history. On one of them we read that the mansion, which in 1899 belonged to Maria, daughter of Hatzi Panagiotis, now belongs to a citizen named Musa Yilmaz.

The Greek school became «Imam Hatip Lyceum»

Η church of Agios Nikolaos formerly used by the orthodox of Kerasunda, today it has been turned into a museum and the old Catholic church has been used as a children's library since 1967. The old Greek school, which after the establishment of the Turkish state was used as a Kerasunda commercial high school, was converted into a Imam Hatip High School (religious school) girls of Kerasunda. Apart from these buildings, 2 of the old churches in the neighbourhood have been demolished. The wall of one of them is located inside a building used as a water tank. The Greek cemetery, where the grave of Captain George, who was the mayor of Kerasounta, was located, was completely destroyed during the construction of the Kerasounta-Trebizounta coastal road.

Treasure hunters destroyed the historic church in Samsunta

Similar disasters are also recorded in Samsun in Pontus, but this time by treasure hunters. In the Tekkeköy area of Samsun, a Greek Orthodox church was looted by treasure hunters and vandals even wrote graffiti on its walls.

Local residents report that the church has recently been used by alcoholics who engage in acts of debauchery. The Greek Orthodox church, which is believed to have been built in the 17th century, has been ruined due to illegal excavations. The church was abandoned by the Greeks who were exchanged under the Treaty of Lausanne.

The prefect of the area has, however, called for the church to be restored and developed as a tourist destination.

Under protection Santa in Argyroupoli

Unlike Kerasounda and Samsounda, however, the ruins of Greek buildings in the village of Santa in Argyroupoli, an area known as «the hidden city near the sky», are now protected as heritage sites.

With a history dating back to the Middle Ages, the ruins in Santa consist of stone single-storey buildings and churches of Roman architecture. The Hurriyet newspaper, under the headline «Santa will now be guarded», reports that the decision was published in the Government Gazette and that the area will be redeveloped with a view to developing tourism.

The Cherries of Pontus

There are two versions of the origin of the name Kerasous. One is that it came from the abundant cultivation of cherry trees, while the other is that the peninsula where the city is built extends like a horn towards the sea. Until the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, Kerasounta was a city with a significant Greek population.

According to the Frenchman Cuinet, who visited Cherasunda in the late 1880s and conducted a survey for the General Debt Administration, then 1887 the city centre had 8,440 inhabitants, of whom 3,588 were Muslims, 3,906 were Romanians and 946 Armenians.

That is, at that date 46.2% of the city's population was made up of Greeks, while 57.4% was entirely non-Muslim. As a result of the massacres between 1914-1923, during World War I, there was a significant decrease in the Greek population.

According to the Diocese of Amaseia to which the Romans of Kerasunda belonged, A total of 134.78 Romanians were massacred in Amaseya, Samsun and Kerasunda. All the Greeks left behind were their mansions and churches.