Pontic Greek genocide
The full-scale campaign in Pontus began in March 1921. It may have been precipitated by the launch of the large Greek spring offensive, which began on the 23th. The leader of the Turkish campaign was General Nurredin Pasha, a killer so ruthless that in January 1922 he was brought up by his own government on charges for "the mal-execution of his orders". Kemalists claimed that they were "eradicating rebellion", Greeks were massacring Turks, the Greek Black Sea fleet was periodically bombarding coastal towns, and Pontic Greeks had joined the Greek army. Western observers uniformly asserted that there was no Pontic "rebellion", either underway or in preparation. Turks and their defenders have also sought cover by pointing to the arrival in the Black Sea in summer 1921 of a Greek naval squadron, which stopped Turkish ships, took passengers prisoner, and later lightly shelled Inebolu. This may indeed have hastened the deportation process, but it wasn't the cause of the campaign, which was launched weeks before. As Count Schmeccia of the firm Lloyd Triestino in Samsun, and previously a representative of the Italian High Commission, said, the Inebolu bombardment, which produced no casualties, was merely a Turkish "excuse for the massacres".