Topal Osman, the unknown boatman of Kerasounda, was a key figure in the extermination of the Greeks of Pontus for a decade. As an executive agent of a broader plan of ethnic cleansing, he became a harbinger of unspeakable suffering and death. Armed with rage and hatred, a cog in a movement based on exclusions, he engaged in atrocities and extreme violence under the cover of nationalist propaganda.

The book chronicles the extermination of a community, filled with shocking stories and testimonies—individual, family, communal—as reports from scenes of crimes not recorded in the grand History, yet deeply marking our collective psyche.

On October 30, 1914, a ship, adorned with red flags, set sail early in the morning from the port of Trebizond heading to Kerasounda. Its passengers were officers, soldiers, civilians, all in great excitement, and at every meeting with another ship or boat, they shouted, “Long live Turkey! The infidels and the enemies of Islam will burn.” Wild applause and countless shots fired into the air accompanied the cry, “Long live the War.” Thus began the last chapter in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the last decade of the Greek presence in Asia Minor.