Pontic Greeks, Romeika & the Black Sea: Language, Music, Genocide and Survival | Nikos Michailidis

What does the survival of Romeika reveal about Pontic Greek identity and the enduring presence of Hellenism in the Black Sea?

Dr. Panagiota Pimenidou speaks with anthropologist and ethnographer Dr. Nikos Michailidis about Romeika, the Pontic Greek dialect still spoken around Trabzon, Pontic music and the lyra, cultural memory, the Pontic Greek genocide, and the survival of Black Sea Hellenism.

Drawing on his ethnographic research into the Soundscapes of Trabzon, Michailidis examines how music and language can preserve identity across centuries, but can also become contested terrain in processes of assimilation, appropriation and historical erasure.

The conversation explores the Amasya trials and the targeting of Pontic Greek intellectual and cultural leadership; the case for sustained international recognition of the Pontic Greek genocide; Turkey, historical memory and contemporary revisionism; Greek-Turkish relations and Eastern Mediterranean security; and why Black Sea Hellenism deserves a more central place in the story of the Greek world.

Finally, they turn to the future of Romeika: Can this remarkable Greek dialect remain a living language, and could education reconnect new generations in Greece, the diaspora and the Black Sea with their linguistic and cultural heritage?

A conversation about Pontic Greeks, Romeika, Trabzon, the Pontic lyra, genocide recognition, cultural survival, historical memory and the future of Hellenism in the Black Sea.

Guest: Dr. Nikos Michailidis - Anthropologist, Ethnographer & Scholar of Pontic Greek Culture and the Black Sea
Host: Dr. Panagiota Pimenidou
Podcast: Global Greek Influence

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

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