The Caucasus Greeks, also known as the Greeks of Transcaucasia and Russian Asia Minor, are the ethnic Greeks of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia in what is now southwestern Russia, Georgia, and northeastern Turkey. These specifically include the Pontic Greeks, though they today span a much wider region including the Russian north Caucasus, and the former Russian Caucasus provinces of the Batum Oblast' and the Kars Oblast', now in north-eastern Turkey and Adjara in Georgia.
Official Russian Empire coat of arms of Kars Oblast (1881-1899).
Caucasus Greek officer from Mouzarat (now Çakırüzüm köyü), Ardahan district, former Russian south Caucasus province of Kars Oblast
Caucasus Greek cleric and community leaders
Russian siege of Kars, 1828
The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with many Greek communities established around the world.
Mycenaean funeral mask known as "Mask of Agamemnon", 16th century BC
Alexander the Great, whose conquests led to the Hellenistic Age
Bust of Cleopatra VII (Altes Museum, Berlin), the last ruler of a Hellenistic kingdom (apart from the Indo-Greek Kingdom)
Emperor Basil II (11th century) is credited with reviving the Byzantine Empire.