Pontic Greek genocide
A few days after the war started, on May 19, M. Kemal Atatürk was ordered to go to Samsun, which is a city in  in the Pontus region, to create order there. Instead, he brought more Turkish nationalists together and strengthened his tactics against the Pontic Greeks. Even more Greeks were kidnapped, killed, and tortured. Three hundred villages were destroyed and people were burnt alive in their homes.