Written statement submitted by the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples (LIDLIP), a non-government organization in special consultative status.
The US Secretary – General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 19996has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
Under this agenda item, the International League for Rights and Liberation of Peoples (LIDLIP) would like to bring before the Commission on Human Rights the case of the Pontians, living in the historic region of Pontos, from Sinope (Sinop) to Trapezous (Trabzon) now Turkey. Our concern is about the restrictions to their freedom of expression showing their cultural identity formed over thousands of years.
The presence of the Pontians is traced back in the 8th century B.C., before the emergence of the Pontian Kingdom in the North Coast of Asia Minor. Indeed, Pontian culture roots are to be found in their history, notably during the classical era (with philosophers and historians such as Diogenes, Strabon, etc.) of the Hellenistic period and then in the Byzantine epoch.
After the Ottoman conquest in the middle of the 15th century their living conditions, their unity and communal life as Christian people, were deeply affected by the system of the Ottoman power and administration, based on the distinction between Muslims and non-Mulims. In the 19th century, due to the Ottoman – Russian wars, the Pontians were subjected to several exoduses. The systematic elimination of the Christian Ponians through mass murder and ethnic cleansing took place in the first quarter of the 20th century.
The Pontians who could remain in Pontos had become Muslims or were compelled to islamization, thus escaping destruction and dispersion. It is known that the population exchange according to the Lausanne Treaty (1923) between Greece and Turkey was defined on the basis of religion and not on the basis of the ethnic identity of the population of both sides.