Topal Osman.Stories of a genocide
Topal Osman, the infamous boatman of Kerasunda, played a leading role for a decade in the extermination of the Greeks of Pontus.
On 30 October 1914 a ship, flying red flags, set sail early in the morning from the port of Trebizond for Kerasounta. Its passengers were officers, soldiers, civilians, all in great excitement, and at every encounter with another ship or caique, they would shout, “Yasasin Turki! The giaouris and the enemies of Islam will be burned“. Loud applause and countless shots in the air accompanied the chant, “Long live the war”.
Thus began the last chapter of the history of the Ottoman Empire and the last decade of the presence of Hellenism in Asia Minor.
