By: Orhan Miroglu
I doubt we would have ever become aware of the Assyrians,
the native people of Turkey’s Turabdin region (the geographical and historical
designation of the Mardin-Midyat plateau), if it had not been for a court case
that was opened three years ago over the Mor Gabriel Monastery near Midyat. It
was as if we had discovered a new breed of people. Some, already annoyed by the
problems of the Kurds and the Armenians, asked: “And who are those Assyrians
now?”
***
A Syriac Christian monk walks up the steps at the ancient
monastery of Mor Gabriel, 15 km (9 miles) away from the town of Midyat, in
Mardin province of southeast Turkey, Jan. 13, 2009. (photo by REUTERS/Umit
Bektas )
By: Orhan Miroglu Translated from Star (Turkey).
ORİJİNAL YAZIYI TÜRKÇE OKUYABİLİRSİNİZ
I doubt we would have ever become aware of the Assyrians,
the native people of Turkey’s Turabdin region (the geographical and historical
designation of the Mardin-Midyat plateau), if it had not been for a court case
that was opened three years ago over the Mor Gabriel Monastery near Midyat. It
was as if we had discovered a new breed of people. Some, already annoyed by the
problems of the Kurds and the Armenians, asked: “And who are those Assyrians
now?”
About This Article
Summary :
A recent court case in Turkey involving the land holdings
of an Assyrian monastery has brought attention to this often neglected
minority, writes Orhan Miroglu.
Publisher: Star (Turkey)
Original Title:
Syriacs, the Ancient People of Turabdin
Author: Orhan Miroglu
First Published: March 17, 2013
Posted on: March 19 2013
Translated by: Sibel Utku Bila
Categories :
Turkey
Thankfully, we now know that the Assyrians are one of the
most ancient peoples of Mesopotamia. They speak the rich Syriac language, the
legacy of the Aramaic language Jesus Christ spoke. In Mardin and Midyat, they
have two historical monasteries and many churches that are waiting to be
rescued from a derelict state.
Great misfortunes befell them during and after the
creation of the Turkish Republic.
The Assyrians were so bullied and oppressed that when
former Turkish President Celal Bayar visited Mardin in 1956, the Syriac people
there greeted him with banners that read “How happy is the one who says ‘I am a
Turk.’”
Lesser numbers, deeper oblivion
Assyrian friends of mine say that Assyrians living in
Sweden are happy with President Abdullah Gul’s visit to that country.
The fact that the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the
Assyrians, Yusuf Cetin, accompanied Gul on the visit is seen as a significant
gesture of goodwill.
But more has to follow now. Assyrian demands should be
included more in the democratization and settlement process.
At the turn of the last century, the Assyrian population
in Turkey was estimated at 800,000. As the Ottoman Empire disintegrated, their
numbers decreased rapidly amid massacres, deportations and immigration waves.
The more their population shrank, the more they sank into oblivion.
In the course of a century, they dispersed from Turkey
and the Middle East to many countries across the world. The Assyrians’
misfortune is similar to the misfortune and solitude of other peoples that the
world has forgotten.
The members of this ancient Mesopotamian community, no
matter where they live on the globe, are known for the resolve they have shown
throughout history to not be wiped off the face of the earth and to preserve
their culture and traditions, and the Aramaic language in which they take pride
as the language of Jesus Christ.
Europe, the second motherland
Starting from the onset of the past century, the
Assyrians emigrated continuously to Europe and the United States, but their
eyes and ears remained focused on Turkey.
What the Assyrians went through in this region left deep
scars in their memory. The dwindled Assyrian population in their own homeland
is in itself an indication of the scale of their suffering.
The number of Assyrians who stayed in Turabdin, refusing
to leave despite all that happened, is about 3,000. But in one single district
in Sweden, Sodeterya, there are about 30,000 Assyrians.
Europe is today the place where Assyrians mostly earn
their livelihoods. There is an Assyrian diaspora in Europe, concentrated
largely in Sweden.
Traces of the past
The Assyrians based in Sweden are an extremely vibrant
community, active in all spheres of life. They are steadily building their
social, religious and cultural institutions, gaining new experiences and
building a new world for themselves far away from home.
The Assyrians are revisiting their collective memory,
facing up to the past and producing historical references, with all those
efforts made as part of their daily lives. In this context, they have a
different agenda from Europeans. History and the past occupy a large space in
their lives.
In Sweden, Assyrians have a notable presence in political
parties and in bureaucracy.
In the 1980s, the Assyrians hastily sold all that they
had and fled to Europe and the United States.
From 1987 to 1994, more than 50 Assyrians — among them
the only Assyrian to have served as a mayor in the region, several village
headmen and a doctor — became the victim of unresolved killings.
When the killings began, the Assyrians in Midyat were
faced with a difficult decision: Should they stay or go?
The choice the state offered was unequivocal: “Either you
go to the mountains and fight against us in the ranks of the PKK, or you become
[government-armed] village guards and fight the PKK in our ranks.”
The Assyrians chose neither of these options. They
abandoned their villages, where they had lived next to Kurds and Arabs, and
emigrated to Europe.
The reforms the government has enacted over the past five
years appear to have encouraged the Assyrians, since some families have
returned to Turkey.
The Mor Gabriel case
But then a court case was opened over the land of the Mor
Gabriel Monastery, known also as Deyrulumur, situated several kilometers from
Midyat, on the road to Idil. The sacred 1,600-year-old edifice is visited each
year by Assyrians scattered throughout the world.
The property became the subject of a court case in a
strange and suspicious way. The headmen of three neighboring villages claimed
that the monastery’s administration had deliberately invaded their land. They
applied to a court in Midyat and raised claims over the monastery’s lands.
Thanks to the case, Turkey and the world began to hear
more about the Assyrians. Local and foreign delegations visited Midyat, where
the lawsuit proceeded. The Assyrians won the case, however the appeals court
overturned the ruling, resulting in the case being taken to the European Court
of Human Rights.
The Mor Gabriel case has brought up also the Assyrians’
rights under the Treaty of Lausanne [the founding document of modern Turkey].
The demands of the Syriacs are not that difficult to
meet. The state owes to this ancient people, and it’s high time for it to pay
the debt.
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