Tur Abdin—2004

Background

I have been reporting on Tur Abdin   since 1997 for the Middle East Forum of CTBI (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland). This visit was partly funded by the Church Mission Society and Lambeth Palace. Most of my previous reports are available on the Syriac Orthodox Resources website.

This visit was made from 1st to 10th May 2004. I stayed at the monasteries of Deir Zafaran and Deir Mor Gabriel and visited the area from there.  I am grateful to the Archbishops of  Mardin and Tur Abdin and their staff for their welcome and kindness during my time with them.

It may be helpful to be reminded of the situation I found when I first visited the region in November 1997. At that point the arebeen in the midst of a Kurdish separatist uprising led by the PKK. Most of the Syriac Christians had fled, either to other parts of Turkey, or abroad. Their main destinations had been Istanbul, Germany and Sweden. Over a period of around twenty years the population had dropped from about 20,000 to about 2,000. As well as physical attacks, murder, robbery and seizure of land, the Christian community had been subject to negative discrimination from the government’s agents in the area. A French journalist visiting in the 1970s, asking about the presence of the Syriac monasteries, had been told by local officials that there were none and, at the time of my first visit, the churches were forbidden

• to teach their language or religion,
• to host guests in their monasteries and
• to do any renovation or new building work on any of their buildings.

There was a massive military presence, many roads were closed at dusk, and on every road there were checkpoints, tanks, and other military vehicles. In the towns many soldiers patrolled.
Kurdish separatist propaganda at the time was offering the Christian minority an equal position in a secular state should Kurdistan be created, and this was very attractive to some leading Christians.

When William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain was published it pictured a desperate situation, and unhesitatingly showed a photograph of ‘the last two monks at the Monastery of Salah, Tur Abdin.’ I myself reported the evacuation of villages and a sense of doom.

Today

As my last report said, there are concrete signs that villagers were returning. I saw at least eight houses being built in Kafro Tachtayto (Turkish: Elbeğendi) and new and restored ones at Mor Bobo (Günyurdu) which is now already a fully functioning village, with its Mukhtar, its public services, and a flourishing agricultural sector. On the roads there were virtually no soldiers, and the only time I needed to deal with the army was when visiting the ancient monastery of Mor Awgen, as the area had previously been planted with mines and the army had some concern that some might still be present. In all the monasteries  there has been considerable renovation, and new building work, and there are now six functioning monasteries: in the Monastery of Mor Yaqub at Salah (pace Dalrymple) there are three monks leading the community, with ten boys living there and travelling to school in Midyat from there each day. Many churches in villages with totally Kurdish populations have been restored, with the aim that they will be centres for families of the emigrants to stay on pilgrimage and holiday.

There is a high birthrate, with many villages having a quarter of the population under 25 years old.

The area in the south of Tur Abdin, Mount Izlo, has almost no Kurdish presence: there are only two or three Kurdish families living in Mor Bobo. This area is now being resettled, with new buildings in a variety of villages from Kafro Tachtayto (Elbeğendi) to Mor Bobo (Günyurdu). Some of the families returning there have children, although it seems that the general pattern is for older migrants to return to their home villages for retirement.

The main two monasteries of Deir Zafaran and Deir Mor Gabriel welcome large numbers of Turkish visitors every day and especially at the weekend: at Deir Zafaran it can be as many as 1,500 a day, and even 600 a day at the more remote Deir Mor Gabriel. Many Turks are showing interest in this part of their national heritage, and no longer seeing the ancient Christian minority as alien.

Locally, the Governor of Mardin continues to receive high praise. He has encouraged co-operation between the Deir Zafaran Foundation and government agencies in developing the tourist potential, and shows creativity and insight. In a country where until very recently the use of minority languages was severely frowned upon, he has his official letters to the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch translated and sent in the Syriac language. Immediately after my visit, the Patriarch, HH Zakka I Iwas, made a visit to the are as part of an academic symposium, at the invitation of the Governor.

Bishop Saliba is working on developing Deir Zafaran as a centre for Syriac studies. There is interest from the University of Şanlıurfa (Urfa) but there may be a problem: the establishment of a Syriac course may encourage demands for the Kurmanji (Kurdish) language also to be taught in the university which (like that of Diyarbakr) is notorious for its Kurdish political activism. In any case, Bishop Saliba’s academic contacts throughout Turkey are interested in developing Deir Zafaran’s potential as a centre for wider educational activities.

In churches and monasteries, children learn their language and religion, without fear; and many people are welcomed as guests at the monasteries.

In village, church and monastery, this is a time of great hope and expectation.

The Emigrant Community

An important part of the Syrian Orthodox community in Mardin and Tur Abdin is now the large and increasingly wealthy number of emigrants who wish to maintain links with their traditional home. Since the first mass emigrations to Syria in the uncertainties of the1920s the Syrian Orthodox emigrants have remembered their home villages with deep affection and religious commitment. For many the changing circumstances of the area evince complex reactions. More recent migrants in particular return to their villages to discover that members of their larger family have remained throughout a grim time, while they themselves fled and avoided the worst. Some groups in western Europe have developed a political aggression towards Turkey for which their cousins in Tur Abdin have no comprehension. Most of the Syrian Orthodox people in Turkey simply want to be Turkish citizens with the same rights as anyone else. For their migrated cousins to be stirring up hatred against the Turkish Republic is unhelpful: the Syrian Orthodox residents of Tur Abdin find it both dangerous and unintelligible.

Happily, many of the emigrants and their descendants now see the situation as a time of hope. They are coming in increasing numbers back to their villages on regular visits, building up relationships, and making serious financial contributions. Because their religious and emotional ties tend to be with the church of their baptism, they have frequently worked for the protection and beautification of those churches. This can mean that a church is maintained in a village which will never (in the foreseeable future) have a Christian presence. This has meant that churches in Midyat town like Mor Ahukhsnoyo now have facilities to welcome visitors. But there are wider views than this. The Istanbul community has set up the Deir Zafaran Foundation, and this will have considerable effect on the visibility of the community within the wider Turkish population, as nearby Mardin is a well publicised World Heritage Site and has had of late mass publicity throughout the country. The planned Visitors’ Centre and ideas for academic developments by Bishop Saliba Özmen are being funded by committed people who are able to visit the area frequently and for whom their continued presence in Turkey is an important factor.

Areas of concern

Although there is optimism, and the excellent work of the regional government is bearing fruit, there are areas of concern for the long term. Much of this relates to Turkey’s complex social and political development. Like many places at this stage of development, the area in which law is implemented is ambiguous and inconsistent. For instance, in Mardin province Syrian Orthodox villagers are able to return to their lands, and squatters will be removed. In Şirnak various levels of government are uncooperative or hostile, and resettlement of villages has been hindered as a result. Sarı village was due to be returned to the owners over a year ago, but the local authorities have failed to act and in one instance police clearly refused to implement the law.

Kurds are often ruled by an Agha, who has an almost absolute power over the people with no democratic or legal restrictions. Although some aghas have been supportive of the Christian minority (Chelabi Agha is referred to by Gertrude Bell from her time in the region and still remembered with deep respect by the Syrian Orthodox) in general the Kurds despise the Christians, who still live in fear of a return to the massacres which Kurds have perpetrated over the centuries. There are varieties of attitudes towards the majority Kurdish population: in general the younger people get on well with them, and most Christians have Kurdish, Arab and Turk friends, among the wider population there is fear and often deep hatred, remembering that in the terrible years at the end of the Ottoman period it was the Kurds who killed Christians.

Many Christians speak of the discrimination which they face in both public and private sectors of employment. There seems plenty of evidence of this, but Christians are a tiny minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, and statistically one would not expect many to reach high positions. However, when well qualified men are told to their face that they will not get a job simply because they are Christian, it is easy to see why many are frustrated. This needs to be put into a context in which most good jobs are a matter of patronage, and most Turks feel frustrated that they do not have access to the right level of patronage. Furthermore, to maintain patronage, it is necessary for people to ignore what might be considered corrupt practices.

The level of the effectiveness of the law is a matter of concern, as it lays the Syrian Orthodox community open to threats in the future. At present the constitution allows the teaching of Syriac and religion, but only when the syllabus has been authorised. The Church is uncertain how to go through this process, and could be threatened with legal action. A change of governor, or even less cooperative police could also hinder the progress which is being made.

The return of migrants is bringing much hope to the local community: many come with capital and western expertise. I am concerned that the majority are older parents, whose adult children remain in western Europe. If a sustained regeneration is to happen, this will mean younger families also returning. There seems to be insufficient creativity among those returning: schools, clinics and other facilities need to be provided alongside the required infrastructure of water and electricity.

Without wishing to dampen the enthusiasm among the Syrian Orthodox in Tur Abdin, I do not believe that there will be many who return from Europe, or even from Istanbul. The area is remote and backward, with very poor facilities. To return from Germany or Sweden, for example, would be a very costly act. There are those who will return, of course, and some have done, but my feeling is that the expatriate Syrian Orthodox community should focus on investing in development work in the area, so that better schools and hospitals may be built and funded, and business enterprises developed to keep the many educated and dynamic young people in the area.

There is no doubt that the community in south east Turkey is becoming dependent on the generosity of external donors. Dependency of this sort can be a problem, and people there need to become more creative and dynamic using their contacts to build up an economy which will flourish over the coming decades.

A time of opportunity

There are many people involved in the current discussions about the future of the Syrian Orthodox community in Mardin and Tur Abdin, and it was stimulating to hear many ideas coming from people living in the area.
The Turkish authorities must be congratulated on having made significant changes in their policies. It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of the state over the ‘deep state’ which is inhibiting the development of civil society, and this can only be done by Turkish society itself changing. If skilled migrants and their children are to return to the area, it is necessary for the Turkish government to help with the registration of children born abroad and to deal with the difficult problem of military service, exemption from which is very costly.

Entrepreneurs from the area have many ideas about possibilities for development. The basis of the economy is agriculture, and the return to abandoned lands, especially in the Mount Izlo region is to be welcomed. It would help if the wealthy parts of the migrant community in western Europe and Istanbul could establish funding to invest in the agricultural sector. There are other areas which need development. Medical care in the area is poor, and people from as far as Şirnak need to travel to Diarbakr for hospital treatment. A Christian hospital in Midyat would build upon a tradition, for previously a Christian physician was revered by all communities there, and some of the younger and well educated local people are keen to see such enterprises happen.

Conclusion

Many and various are the causes of the renaissance which is happening in Tur Abdin, and hopes are running high both in the area and among those who have its future as a matter of concern. Much has been done by the Turkish Government, by expatriates, and the Syrian Orthodox community; lobby groups have played their part. Now it is necessary to see how Turkey and Mardin province can try to alter the subtle attitudes which go to create the ‘deep state’ which can withstand the creativity and openness necessary for the Syrian Orthodox to flourish there.

It is necessary also for the Syrian Orthodox people themselves to take control of their own destiny, so that as part of modern Turkey they may contribute to its well-being as people of an equal and valued community.