A visit to Tur Abdin - Report 1997

The Reverend Stephen Griffith - Anglican Chaplain in Syria 

A report on a visit made between 23rd and 27th November 1997 to the monasteries of Deir Zafaran and Mor Gabriel, Mardin Province, S. E. Turkey

Purpose

The suggestion to visit Tur Abdin1 was made to me in March 1997 by the Reverend Robert Wilkes, Regional Secretary for the Middle East and Pakistan of the Church Mission Society in London. He is also on a committee concerned for the well-being of the Eastern Churches. There has been concern among the British Churches about the situation in Tur Abdin, and further interest has arisen since the publication of William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain2 which depicts his journey in the region in 1994 and has an alarming description of the situation in Tur Abdin.

My own role in Damascus as the Anglican Chaplain includes working with the Eastern Churches. I therefore spend some time with them, listening to their concerns. Among them the Syrian Orthodox Church has a special place  of honour within the Anglican communion.

Tur Abdin is the ancient heartland of the Syrian Orthodox Christians, and over the last century has seen a dramatic depletion in the number of Christians. This depletion included the Turkish pogroms in the first two decades of the century, which went alongside that of the Armenian Christians who lived close to the area. There have been several significant monasteries in the region of northern Mesopotamia.3

The British Embassy in Ankara said that it was not a safe area to visit, and I went with the knowledge but not the approval of the British Embassy in Damascus. I spoke in October 1997 to Archbishop Matta, the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of the Gezirah and the Euphrates who had recently visited Tur Abdin and said that it was safe. Obviously, with the Kurdish war against the Turkish government there would be the possibility of some danger, and I would listen to local advice.

In discussion some months earlier, I had spoken with the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch in Damascus about the possibility of my visiting Tur Abdin. I had told him that Dalrymple had blamed both the Turkish Government and the PKK for the crisis in the Tur which was leading to the abandonment of villages and so its depopulation. He had said that he had no problem with the Turkish Government, which was generally supportive of the Suriani people, and that the problem was with the Kurds. It was with this in mind that I set out, with a prejudice in favour of the Turkish Government and against the Kurdish guerrillas.

The journey

I flew on Saturday 21st November to Qamishly, a city on the northern border of Syria. I was met and driven to Archbishop Matta in Hassake, where I spent the night. Following the Sunday morning liturgy I was driven to Qamishly where I crossed the border and was met by a driver from Deir Zafaran, the Saffron Monastery, about 10 km. from Mardin and 40 minutes’ drive from the border town of Nuseibi, ancient Nisibis.

I spent two nights in Deir Zafaran, being driven by car on Tuesday afternoon to Midyat, about an hour’s drive to the east, and thence by school bus to the Monastery of Mor Gabriel, 25 km. away.

On the Wednesday I was driven by car to Deir Zafaran4, and after some hitches due to a shortage of transport at the monastery, to the border at Qamishly, where I was met by members of the local Syrian Orthodox church council, accommodated in the Bishop’s flat, fed and taken the next morning to the airport for the flight to Damascus.

In Turkey, there was some military presence, and we were once stopped at a check point, of which there were few, for an identity check.  We passed several military patrols of a truck with eight soldiers and cannon, as well as a couple of larger convoys.

Sunday	Hassake - Qamishly  then Deir Zafaran
Monday	Deir Zafaran - visiting the Churches of Mardin
Tuesday	Deir Zafaran to Midyat then Deir Mor Gabriel
Wednesday	Deir Mor Gabriel to Qamishly

 

The Syrian Orthodox Church

The ancient church of Antioch divided over the controversy surrounding the person of Christ. The “Greek” Orthodox Church holding to the definition of the Council of Chalcedon, and calling the “Syrian” Orthodox Church  (The West Syrian Church) “Monophysite” while the other “Syrian” Church (The East Syrian Church) followed the anathematized Patriarch Nestorius. In general the division between these traditions was developed partly because of the political and racial division of the near east, so that the area governed by Byzantium remained Greek Orthodox, and the areas further east divided into Syrian Orthodox in what was to become the Arabic speaking near east, and the Persian speaking regions were “Nestorian.” The Syrian Orthodox are closely related theologically with the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church, but they have lived much of their history in isolation from much of the Christian world. This did not prevent them establishing a dynamic Church in South India, where there is a large and important population of Syrian Orthodox Christians centred in Kerala.

Under early Islam, the Syrian Orthodox people often flourished at times.5 The greatest flowering of the Syrian Orthodox community was in the thirteenth century. With a hardening of Islamic attitudes under the Mongols and Turkic invaders, and having suffered serious destruction the situation deteriorated, with numbers down to about 150,000. There were also defections to the Roman fold, with small numbers converting in the early modern period, and then significant numbers, especially in Aleppo, in the nineteenth century.6 In the seventeenth century about 150 villages converted to Islam. These “Mhalmi” then learnt Arabic and continue to be a distinct people in the region.

Although there have been some Syrian Orthodox villages in Western Syria, its heart has for most of its history been in Northern Mesopotamia, and in particular Tur Abdin and the Monastery of Deir Zafaran in South East Turkey.
Only in the twentieth century has the Patriarchate been based in Syria, and in Damascus only since 1954. Persecution, along with their Armenian brethren, led to a mass movement from the Syrian Orthodox heartland to the Republic of Syria and abroad.

The genocide7 of which so much has been said concerning the Armenians also included the Suriani, and among the survivors there was a desperate scramble to escape from their homeland. This diaspora which has grown during the last few decades means that there are substantial Syrian Orthodox communities in Australia, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Sweden, as well as in a large number of other western countries. For them Tur Abdin is seen as the homeland, to which they return on pilgrimage and holiday, send their children to learn the language and about which they are deeply concerned.

The present situation

In my visit, I found at the two monasteries a busy community which was living a modern Syrian Orthodox life. The buildings at Deir Zafaran and Mor Gabriel are in excellent condition, well repaired and kept clean; the people there live purposeful lives devoted to education, prayer and hospitality.  The land is well farmed and productive of a variety of produce. The monasteries are busy, even in the winter, receiving visitors. The children go to local schools, and study Syriac in the monastery. The daily round of prayer (three times a day in church) gives a clear structure to all that goes on.

These monasteries are the heart of what is left of the Syrian Orthodox community in the region. They are a place for meeting, for encouragement and for support. The role of hospitality matters enormously. They are communities which look forward to new visitors, new students.

The students come from the region and abroad. Local boys and those from the Diaspora come for a year or more to study the language and liturgy, bringing life to the old buildings.

I spent a morning visiting the churches in Mardin, the town situated about 10 km. from the Saffron Monastery. I was guided by a teacher of Syriac who came here from a village near Midyat, but whose teaching of Syriac to children in the evenings is now illegal. There are over a dozen church buildings in Mardin, but there is now no Syrian Catholic priest for the large and spacious church. The Church of the Forty Martyrs holds about 40 people and is generally full on Sundays, but most of the other churches are now unused.

Over the recent years several villages have been abandoned. This has frequently been at the orders of the government on the grounds of the crisis in the war with the PKK. For instance the village of Derkube was finally abandoned in December 1995 after struggling for 15 years. The last 15 people were evacuated by force moved to Bakisyan hoping that it would be safe for them to return.8 The village was burnt in January 1997. The village of Kerboran was abandoned 20 years ago, and hardly anything is left, except a newly walled cemetery. It is clear that a village, once abandoned for reasons of safety with the intention of returning, will never be re-inhabited. There have been robberies of churches: Mor Sharbel Church in Midyat was robbed and desecrated in December 1996, and Mor Abrohom Monastery in Midyat also being plundered. The desecration of graveyards is commonplace.9

The diaspora has been particularly helpful in raising funds for villages, with the Church at Keferze newly restored, and new walls around the garden of the Monastery of Mor Yakub in Salah village being constructed.

The village of Basibrin in Tur Abdin had a population of 120 families. With 25 churches it was a village of significance. Now there are 22 families about 150 people, the rest having emigrated to Germany after Germany opened its doors to foreign workers and their families. In an interview10 the village Mukhtar expressed the problem, “We have to be careful about what we say, otherwise we get too much attention.” They suffered from tribal killings and robbery, and the local police were generally helpful

The picture is quite clear. Edessa, to the west, was a city with a Christian population from very early.11 With 300 monasteries in its region it was a centre of Christian life. Today there is not one church. There is rumoured to be one Christian family left. Mardin town, totally Christian at the beginning of the century now has maybe 200 Christians left out of a population of over 15,000.

Deir Mor Gabriel as the home of the Bishop is a prestigious place. With 20 students and the reputation for being the heart of the Syrian Orthodox world it has received support from overseas, a tractor from England, a school bus from Norway. As a result its people are better educated than in the surrounding villages, populated by peasant Kurds. Its significance both to the people of the Tur and the diaspora cannot be quantified, so any limiting of its undertakings strikes at the very soul of the community.

I spoke to a wide variety of people, from drivers and schoolchildren to emigrants and the children of emigrants who had come back to Tur Abdin for one reason or another. Naturally I spoke to the monks, priests and the Bishop, who are concerned not to be quoted directly. The picture they described of the situation is this:

Over the last three years 65 Suriani have been killed, mainly by the PKK (the main Kurdish anti-government organisation) and also by Hizbollah. A few days before I was there, Hizbollah had killed and man and his very heavily pregnant wife. There is a general feeling of fear, fear which includes a fear of government action.

The schools which the monasteries ran were closed in 1973, and one of the monks had been sentenced to imprisonment for 3 months for teaching Syriac. Unlike the Kurds, who are in open rebellion against the government, the Muslim extremists who frequently demonstrate after Friday Prayers against the government, the Suriani make no protests, and only seek to be loyal Turkish citizens.

Recently the Governor of Mardin Province, in which the Syrian Orthodox villages lie, has written forbidding

• any education
• the receiving of any visitors
• building works, whether renovation or new projects.

To do any of these things would require official permission, and the experience of the community is that permission would not be given. Recently building work at Deir Zafaran was stopped for no given reason.

This series of letters has struck at the very heart of the life of the Syrian Orthodox community.

Education is an integral reason for the monasteries to exist. To prevent the learning of Syriac (not only in the monasteries, but in any place) strikes at the very existence of the Suriani as a people. It would kill the monasteries very quickly.

Visitors are part of the monastic tradition. Whether local people seeking succour, members of the Diaspora concerned with their community’s wider well-being, or outsiders seeking the rich heritage of Syrian Orthodox prayer and worship, visitors have always come. To prevent them is a major blow to an already struggling people.

Building says that the monasteries are living places with a future. Through the centuries the churches of Tur Abdin have stood as a witness in an increasingly hostile world. They are signs that modern Turkey is a pluralist state. To prevent their repair or new work is a sign that the Turkish authorities wish to destroy an integral part of modern Turkey’s heritage.

Hopes for the future.

Talking to those in responsibility in Tur Abdin, and in the wider Syrian Orthodox Community I have discerned several wishes, as well as some pressing needs.

Immediate needs

The Governor of Mardin must allow

• teaching to take place within the Church Community;
• visitors to be allowed to come and stay freely
• the buildings to be maintained and developed

Long term needs

The Turkish authorities must abide by the Treaty of Lausanne which allows for religious freedom. At present the government will say to its Western allies that it respects human rights, but within Turkey it says that Turkey (which by its constitution is secular) is “an Islamic country.”

The Churches in Europe and the West in general need to be aware of what is happening. Turkish Muslim migrants are rightly allowed to build Mosques in Christian countries, Turkish Christians should be allowed to build and care for Church buildings in their homeland.

The continuing links with the diaspora should be encouraged. One student has just returned from studying at London and Oxford, and there have been students from many countries who have learnt Syriac in Tur Abdin.

The links between the Mountain and the European diaspora will become important if Turkey seriously seeks to become a member of the European Community. At present Turkey’s human rights record is a clear block towards membership.

Summary

The Syrian Orthodox people of Tur Abdin, who are loyal citizens of Turkey, have been subjected to genocide and more subtle methods of ethnic cleansing throughout this century by the Turkish authorities. Many have left. Today they are being prevented from living their traditional lifestyle. They are subject to murder from Kurds, both the PKK and Hizbollah. It is clear that the government is not willing to support them. The Turkish government is in breach of treaty while claiming to be a democratic state seeking membership of the EU.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Metropolitan Mar Eustathios Matta Rouhm, Archbishop of the Euphrates and the Gezira for his encouragement and arranging the visit. His help was of an exceptionally high quality. To the communities at Deir Zafaran and Deir Gabriel I extend my deepest gratitude for allowing me to share with them in worship and their hopes to be a holy people.