Ottoman Greeks (
Greek: Οθωμανοί Έλληνες, ) were ethnic
Greeks who lived in the
Ottoman Empire (1453–1921), the
Republic of Turkey's predecessor. Ottoman Greeks, who were
Greek Orthodox Christians, belonged to the
Rum Millet (
Millet-i Rum). They were concentrated in what is today modern Greece and Greek Macedonia, western Asia Minor (especially in and around
Smyrni), central Anatolia (especially
Cappadocia), northeastern Anatolia (especially in
Erzurum vilayet, in and around
Trebizond and in the
Pontic Mountains (roughly corresponding to the medieval Greek kingdom of
Pontus, which was situated along the southeastern shores of the
Black Sea and the highlands of the interior). There were also sizeable Greek communities elsewhere in the Ottoman Balkans, Ottoman Armenia, and the Ottoman Caucasus, including in what, between 1878 and 1917, made up the Russian Caucasus province of
Kars Oblast, in which
Pontic Greeks, northeastern Anatolian Greeks, and
Caucasus Greeks who had collaborated with the
Russian Imperial Army in the
Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 were settled in over 70 villages, as part of official Russian policy to re-populate with Orthodox Christians an area that was traditionally made up of Ottoman Muslims and
Armenians.