Pontic Greek genocide
Be that as it may, the largescale massacres and deportations began already in the spring, with the rural Greek communities. In the villages of Black Sea's Duzce (Kurtsuyu) kaza, "many old men and women [were] burnt alive". Turks also attacked swaths of villages around Alacam, Bafra, and Carsamba and in the interior as far as Havza and Visirkopru. They took paints to make sure that there were no American witnesses. Missionaries were not allowed out of Samsun, the regional missionary center. But survivors reached the town and told their stories. American naval officers reported that the campaign was "under strict control of the military", "directed by high authority - probably Angora [Ankara]",and carried out, at least in part, by soldiers. A purported eyewitness stated that villagers around Bafra were subjected to "incendiarism, shooting, slaying, hanging and outranging" and that the villages were "turned to heaps of ruins". The American officers quoted an American missionary to the effect that about a hundred Greek villages south of Bafra had been destroyed. Villagers were being killed and "the priests...crucified".