Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. It is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the groups conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

The preamble to the CPPCG not only states that "genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world", but that "at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity".

The Pontic Greeks of the Pontians (Greek: Πόντιοι, Turkish: Pontus Rumları) are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea. They consist of Greek descendants and speak the Pontic Greek dialect, a distinct form of the standard Greek language which, due to the remoteness of Pontus, has had a process of linguistic evolution different from that of the rest of the Greek world.

Nowadays, due to extensive intermarriage (also with non-Pontic Greeks), the exact number of Greeks hailing from the Pontus, or people with Greek descent living there, is unknown. After 1988, Pontian Greeks in the Soviet Union started to migrate to Greece settling in and around Athens and Thessaloniki. They are known as "Russian Pontians" (Ρωσσοπόντιοι) by fellow Greeks. The largest communities of Pontian Greeks (or people of Pontian Greek descent) around the world are:

In Greek mythology the Black Sea region is the region where Jason and the Argonauts sailed to find the Golden Fleece.

Hirmis Aboona, (Syriac: ܗܪܡܙܕ‏ ܐܒܘܢܐ), was an Assyrian historian who was known for his publications concerning the history of the Assyrians in northern Iraq.

Hirmis Aboona was born in 1940 in Alqosh to Mushe Aboona and Meryam Asmar. After finishing his elementary school in his home town his family moved to Baghdad in 1952, there he graduated from the law faculty at the University of Baghdad in 1963. He worked at a number of governmental institutions in Baghdad and married Nani Isa Rashshoo where they had 4 children together. He moved with his family to London in 1982 where he pursuited higher education at the University of Exeter obtaining his history Ph.D for his thesis The Assyrian independent tribes in Tyari and Hakkari and their relationship with the Kurds and Turks.

In 1988 Aboona and his family emigrated to Toronto, Canada where he resided until his death due to a heart attack in 19 April 2009.

Hirmis Aboona dedicated a number of years writing his Book of 12 volumes The Assyrian After the Fall of Nineveh. He also participated in a number of Assyrian conferences in North America, Europe and Australia. He also lectured at a number of Universities including the University of Sydney, University of Cambridge, as well as various universities in Syria and Lebanon.