The capital of Samsun province and the most important Turkish port on the Black Sea is the ancient Amisus founded (6th cent. B.C.) by Greek colonists. It became an important city of the kingdom of Pontus, and was much favored under the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages it was held by the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, the Genoese, and the empire of Trebizond before falling (14th cent.) to the Ottoman Turks. On May 19, 1919, Kemal Atatürk landed at Samsun to organize a nationalist movement in Turkey. A statue commemorates this event.
