The Turkish writer, Omar Asan was born in Trebizond, a city in Pontos where even today one can find many Greek speaking inhabitants. It is where an aging community still speaks the Pontian language.

Omer Asan, an economist turned writer, is a Greek-speaking Turk who was driven to write Pontos Kultura in 1996. He said, "I began to search for my identity because of the fact that the language my ancestors spoke was not Turkish ... At school they taught us that we were Turks ... but at home, in the village, everyone in the family spoke to each other in the language we called 'Romaiika'... By asking 'Who am I?' I plunged into the unknown. I had to find the answer ... I began, in amateur fashion, to collect Pontian words. I decided to focus my research on Erekioi, my village of Of, [in Trebizond ] and to study its living culture as an extant trace of Pontian culture."

“There are still people in Turkey today who speak and understand Pontian which is the oldest surviving Hellenic dialect. The members of this community come from Trebizond and are scattered throughout Turkey or have emigrated to other countries Pontian spoken in 60 villages in the Trebizond region, most of them in the Of area. At a conservative estimate. I would say this dialect is spoken by around 300000 people.”

  ”I began to search for my identity because of the fact that the language my ancestors spoke was not Turkish. Because in the village in town, at school, they taught us that we were Turks. In the neighborhood, at school, at work we spoke Turkish . But at home, in the village, my grandfather, my grandmother, everyone in the family spoke to each other in the language we called "Romaika" (which is what is also known as “Pontiaka”). So what were we, "Romioi" or Turks? Now we speak Turkish.”

In my village the old people speak Pontiaka, but they are the last to use the language. The coming generations will not be able to bear it and learn it. Let's say that we have agreed, as far as the present is concerned: We speak Turkish, therefore we are Turkish. But who were we until now, what happened to make us become Turks? By asking "Who am I?" I plunged into the unknown. I had to find the answer to this question at any cost. And that is how this adventure began.

Originally, Asan's book was published in Turkey where it met its fate by confiscation and condemnation and its author was condemned to imprisonment of possibly between 14 months to 4 years. Asan was accused of being a 'traitor', a 'friend of Greece ' and a supporter of those who wanted Orthodox Christianity restored.

 Omer Asan was acquitted in September 2003 as a result of the abolition of Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law. His book found a new life when it was published in Greece under its new title, The Civilization of the Pontos (Ο Πολιτισμός του Πόντου). It became one of the most important books sold in Greece .

Omer Asan described the traditions of his people from the north eastern part of Turkey known as Pontos. He vividly described the customs and "forbidden language" spoken only in the home-of traces of an ancient Greek culture that Mustafa Kemal 's new "democratic" military government prefers that the world should not know about. By now, Turkey had hoped that when the survivors are no longer with us that future generations would not know Turkey was originally inhabited by Greek, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, who were either massacred or forcibly converted into Muslims. Omer Asan comes from that background. He is indeed a Pontian like us.