Countries That Almost Existed: Republic of Pontus
Countries that almost existed: The Republic of Pontus
1917 map of a proposed Republic of Pontus (Wikimedia Commons) After the end of World War I, American president Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that all the nationalities of the Turkish Empire had a right to autonomous development. This prompted the Pontic Greeks to call for independence. Ethnic Greeks had lived on the southern coast of the Black Sea for centuries, first under Byzantine, then under…