Music is like birds in flight, it is not constrained by borders. It is like the air we breathe, it is not owned by any nation. Ancient Greeks considered music to be an essential element of intellectual, artistic and social activity as well as of everyday life. They believed that it forms man's character and thus it is an ideal medium for bringing up the young (Hadziaslani 2012).
The Greek colony of Kerasous (modern Giresun), on the Black Sea coast in Pontos, north-eastern Anatolia, is 130 km west of Trabzon. It was established by Greeks from Sinope sometime after 630 BC, the approximate date when the Greek colony of Sinope was founded and well before 400 BC, when Xenophon and his Greek mercenaries visited the settlement.
Trebizond had one fine theatre for moving pictures, built for the purpose by the Trebizond Cinematographic Co.
Trabzon is a town with over 230,000 people (2009 census – it is currently believed to be over 300,000) on the northeast Turkish Black Sea coast at latitude 41°00′ north and longitude 39°45′ east (Figure 1). It is the second largest Turkish urban centre (after Samsun) on the Black Sea.
One of the most prominent surviving churches in Ordu is the Church of Hypapante (Gr: Ναός της Υπαπαντής του Χρηστού, Tr: Taşbaşı kilisesi) which stands above the sea in the western area of the town. It stands on a high walled terrace and is in the form of a basilica five bays long and 3 bays wide, with three apses.
Tokat (Gr: Τοκάτη) is a town and province in the western region of Pontus. It was also referred to as Tokation (Gr: Τοκάτιον). During the Byzantine era it was known as Evdokiada (Gr: Eυδοκιάδα). During Ottoman times the name Tokat was the name of the district and sanjak which the town was situated in. It was sometimes called Dokia (Gr: Δόκεια).
Santa (Gr: Σάντα, Tr: Dumanli) was a Greek town in Pontus in the province of Argyroupolis (Gümüşhane) situated 52km south east of Trabzon. Prior to 1923 it was made up of 7 settlements and was inhabited entirely by Greeks, approximately 6,000 in number.
Kotyora (Ordu in Turkish) is a seaside town which dates back to Ancient times. There is a reference in Homer's Iliad in which it is referred to as Kitoros. In ancient times and before the Persians. the town enjoyed it's own independence, as it did during the reign of the Kingdom of Pontus.
The crypto-Christians (also called cryphi, klosti, Stavriotes, Kromledes) were Christian Greeks who due to the Muslim persecution against Christians publicly declared themselves Muslims. However, in secret, they upheld their Greek language, customs and Christian religious practices.
