The cost of language
By Vahit Tursun
Freedom… A sense which is inexplicable. Nevertheless, every person tries to describe it without comprehending it deeply. It is like fire, which may warm you or burn you depending on its use. It is like a fan, whose middle part only performs its air blowing function, but its two ends are useless. Similarly with freedom, on its one end lies deprivation which causes frustration and on the other end lies its overuse, which is disastrous.
A Pontic Greek village slowly dies
In the Black Sea, a Pontic Greek village slowly dies out as its inhabitants abandon their homes
A native son says the exodus from Ocena, near Trebizond, is deserting an ancient civilization
The story of the Greek-speaking inhabitants of Ocena was told in Turkey’s Radikal.
By Vahit Tursun (1)
Ocena is a village near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, known to Greeks as the Pontus, in the mountains behind the town of Trebizond. It is in an idyllic setting of pine and fir trees near the mountain peaks, among valleys and crystal-clear springs.
The village’s original inhabitants were probably fugitives from Ottoman oppression who fled to the shelter of the wooded peaks. It is not known when they built the first houses that became a settlement. It seems that as soon as they built them, the Ottomans discovered them and demolished them.
