The
Pontic Greeks, also known as
Pontian Greeks (,
Póntioi,
Ellinopóntioi; , ), are an ethnically
Greek group who traditionally lived in the region of
Pontus, on the shores of the
Black Sea and in the
Pontic Alps of northeastern
Anatolia. Many later migrated to other parts of
Eastern Anatolia, to the former Russian province of
Kars Oblast in the
Transcaucasus, and to
Georgia in various waves between the
Ottoman conquest of the
Empire of Trebizond in 1461 and the second
Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. Those from southern
Russia,
Ukraine, and
Crimea are often referred to as "Northern Pontic [Greeks]", in contrast to those from "South Pontus", which strictly speaking is Pontus proper. Those from Georgia, northeastern Anatolia, and the former Russian Caucasus are in contemporary Greek academic circles often referred to as "Eastern Pontic [Greeks]" or as
Caucasian Greeks, but also include the Greco-Turkic speaking
Urums.