Diyarbekir and the Armenian Crisis of 1895—The Fate of the Countryside1

ANNEX B

Diyarbekir and the Armenian Crisis of 1895—The fate of the countryside1

Jelle Verheij

Like other major conflicts in the autumn of 1895, the crisis in Diyarbekir had a profound influence on the situation elsewhere in the eastern prov- inces, triggering new shockwaves of anxiety.2 The effect in Diyarbekir province itself was immediate. Directly after the massacre in the city, the countryside around the urban centre, until then relatively calm, was also gripped by violence. This Section attempts to give a summary of events in the other towns and rural areas of Diyarbekir Vilayet. This is pioneering work and should not be assumed to be definitive. Certainly more sources need to be unearthed and much more research is required. It is likely that various local factors were at work, at district and even village level, each of which need to be analyzed thoroughly in order to ascertain the full picture of events in the province as a whole. That will not be done here. A closer look is taken at one case, however, the events in Diyarbekir’s most northerly district of Palu. Information on the situation in the countryside is available in both Ottoman and foreign sources, but identifying places is particularly com- plicated because of the lack of detailed maps and the Turkification of place names around 1960, when all non-Turkish traditional names were abolished.3

1 For the sources of this Annex see the references of my article “Diyarbekir and the Armenian Crisis of 1895” in this volume. 2 In the town of Muş (in the neighboring province of Bitlis), for example, news of the violence in Diyarbekir caused immediate tension (PP96-2, Nr. 246 p. 124). 3 See Annex A for an attempt to list all non-Muslim settlements in the Diyarbekir Vilayet, with their old and new names. 334 annex b

The Central Sub-Province (Merkez Sancak) of Diyarbekir

The Central District (Merkez Kaza) of Diyarbekir Most of the forty plus Christian villages in the central district of Diyar- bekir were situated to the east of the Tigris river. The majority of these were Syriac or mixed Armenian–Syriac.4 During the massacre in Diyar- bekir city, groups of Kurds started to attack these villages. Apparently, the first attack was on the Protestant village of Kıtırbıl, by an ağa of the Tirkan tribe, north of Diyarbekir.5 The beleaguered inhabitants held out for two days. Very few of the local men seem to have survived. The village was pillaged and burned.6 Other villages in the same area, notably Kabi (currently Bağıvar)7 and Karabaş,8 saw the same fate. In Satıköy, many people were said to have perished when the church in which they had taken refuge was set on fire.9 Few villages seem to have escaped attack, although information on villages at a greater distance from the capital is scarce.10 Initial estimates of the number of victims in the area ran as high as 3,000.11 Some months later, the British Consul in Diyarbekir estimated that between 800 and 900 Christians had lost their lives.12

Lice The town of Lice had a sizeable Armenian population. About one-quarter of the villages in the district was Armenian.13 The reports of the foreign

4 Of the 297 villages in the central district as listed in the Osmanlı atlası (OA, p. 83), 21 were Syrian, 14 mixed Syrian-Armenian, and 6 Armenian. See Annex A. 5 FO 195/1930 Nrs. 24, 62; BOA A.MKT.MHM 637-32. Another source claims that nomadic (göçer) Kurds from Sasun were involved in the attack (ABC reel 695, 25.11.1895). 6 FO 195/1930 Nrs. 49, 62. More than 70 women and children were kidnapped. 7 This village was ‘thoroughly pillaged and destroyed’ on 3 November 1895 (ABC, reel 695, 25.11.1895). When American missionaries Rendel and Helen Harris passed through Kabi in July 1896, they found the village in ruins and hardly populated (Harris & Harris 1897: 125). 8 This mixed Armenian-Syriac village was attacked by Kurds on 2–3 November 1895. There were possibly 20 victims and approximately 100 houses burned (ABC, Letter from Missionary Andrus, Mardin, 25.11.1895). 9 Gaunt 2006: 250. Gaunt reports that this ‘pogrom’ took place on 1 October 1895, which seems quite unlikely. Should probably be November 1. 10 MY Nrs. 63, 66, 94. According to Hallward, of the 770 Christian houses in these villages, 500 were burned down (FO 195/1930 Nr. 18). 11 MY Nr. 63. 12 FO 195/1930 Nr. 18. 13 There were 133 villages in Lice (OA p. 83); 30 or more had a (partly) Christian population (see Annex A).