SAYFO 1915: THE CASE OF MANSURIEH VILLAGE Ephrem(Aboud) ISHAC The goal of this paper is not to talk about the case of Sayfo 1915 comprehen¬ sively; rather it attempts is to choose a specific case in the Syafo1; of one certain village which is here Mansurieh2, where my family had to leave in 1915. There are twofold reasons for choosing this topic; firstly, for a personal purpose since I grew up as a third-generation of Sayfo survivals, suffering sometimes from a genocide trauma. Secondly, is to follow a different approach in dealing with the question of Sayfo by focusing on the small case studies rather than the general ones. This might lead us towards an accurate image of the Sayfo genocide. The methodology adopted in this paper is to discuss the inherited oral tradition and to compare it with the written records, then reaching to an integral image of Say¬ fo in Mansurieh with its influence on the present. 1 This paper is my presentation at the international academic conference on Sayfo genocide: “An International Conference on the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans during the First World War, 24-28 June 2015” organized by Prof. Shabo Talay, at Freie Universität Berlin. A revised version of this paper will be published in the proceedings of Sayfo Conference. 2 I am talking in this paper about the village of Manusireh (today it is called Yalım of Mar¬ din), which is located 3 kilometres north of old Mardin city and about 10 kilometres north east from Deyrulzafaran [Zaʿfaran Monastery] (which was the shelter for the villagers many times when the problems happened in Mansurieh in 1895 and in 1915). Worth mentioning, there are other villages have the same name since it is a common proper place name in Syria, Turkey and Iraq. 194 Ephrem (Aboud) ISHAC What Happened Really in Mansurieh? Since the days of my early childhood, I could remember many oral traditions about the brutal catastrophes happened in our village: Mansurieh. When I grew up, it was hard for me to sort out what were true stories from what could be add¬ ed later as oral fables. The main question, which I have been looking for an an¬ swer, is whether these stories were authentic or parts of a legendary genre. Our family tree tells us that the Kurds killed two members of the family ‘Yaʿqub and Malko’ in 1916 [sic.] Moreover, there is a clear statement at the bottom of our family tree saying that ‘the origin of the family is from Ma nsurieh since 1650 until 1916 [sic.], when they had to leave because of the massacres against Chris¬ tians’. Therefore, at least, there is a fact for a forced moving from the village mixed with some murdering actions in 1915s. There was an intended killing against Christians in this village. Therefore, we have at least some facts of orga¬ nized criminality and exile against those Mansurieh Christians. When I grew up inspired by the stories of my big family from both sides (my mother’s family is also from Mansrurieh); they used to tell us similar sad stories. One of the perplexed feelings, (when the big family used to meet and talk about what they called the: ‘Seferberlik3’ tragedies), was the simplicity of the Man¬ surieh Christians. I remember well when my aunt Ḥusneh, who used to tell us about those days in her village, that when the Muslim tribes (most of them from the same village4) announced‘Jihad’, the Christians in the village gathered in¬ side the Church of Mar Esia5. Afterwards, the Muslims knocked the doors of the church asking Christians to open the doors, telling them that they should not be afraid rather they should trust them. Therefore, they opened the doors and then an Ottoman word possibly derived from Arabic: safar [to :(سفربرلك Seferberlik (or in Arabic 3 travel] and barr [land] with the Ottoman suffix lik. It was used during Sayfo with a context of “forced moving from homelands”. It means also “the preparation to war time”. 4 Later in this paper, we will see that they belonged to the Dashiye tribe. 5 Today it is a mosque called: ‘Muhammet Hakim Mansuri Camii’. Sayfo 1915: The Case of Mansurieh Village 195 the big murdering started inside the Church. My aunt Ḥusneh mentioned some stories like this one (my aunt said it as if she was reporting to us): ‘there was one young gentleman; they promised him to save his life if he would convert to Is¬ lam’. He said: ‘life is beautiful, but there is more beauty to remain faithful to Je¬ sus. I am staying with Jesus and will never betray him! ’ then they threw him from the roof of the church, killing him. They left only the old women of Man¬ surieh alive, who could flee later to Mardin. The oral tradition of my family talks about the suspicious feelings that some¬ thing wrong might happen just few weeks before the Jihad murdering started. Thus, many of them like my grandfather could move to Mardin, which was only a few kilometres far away but a safe city. Therefore, the family could survive from the tragedy in 1915. However, they lost their houses and properties in Mansurieh. Another narrative of the Mansurieh case in my family was the story of my fa¬ ther’s uncle (from his mother side) Mr. Mussa Badro, who was a little child and could survive under the dead bodies in the church of Mar Esia. In the night of the massacre, he could run away finding himself later at the Syrian border town (which became later the target town for my family): Derbassieh6. Some good people found the little child (who could not speak a word) and took care of him. Later when my family moved from Mardin to Derbassieh in 1930s, they could know that he was alive. To conclude, at least there was a big murdering in Mansurieh against Christians without any reason and without any kind of resistance. They were very innocent and idealists; they preferred to die rather to betray their faith (it seems that they 6 Derbassieh: it is a town located at the Turkish-Syrian border, in the Southwest direction from Mardin. This new town which was built by the Syriac immigrants coming mostly from Mardin and its neighboring villages, such as Mansurieh. Most Mansurieh Christians moved to Derbassieh and built the new Syriac Orthodox Church of Mar Esia to revive the memory of their old Church in Mansurieh. 196 Ephrem (Aboud) ISHAC could have the option to convert). There was also complains about their weak¬ ness by the later generations for not defending themselves. However, we cannot judge them since they had their extreme difficulties. Oral Sources & Recordings Trying to collect as much as possible of oral narrative materials from the old aged people of Mansurieh, I could successfully record some stories of two old men they were born in 1914-1915. The first person was born in Mansurieh(Mr. ʿAbdul Massiḥ Nejmeh†2015), who was helping my grandfather while he was a child. The conversation with him was recorded in 2005, when he was 90 years old. While I asked him about his birthday, it was interesting to hear his answer since he had linked the date of his birthday with the Sayfo year. Quoting him: ‘I am not sure if I was born in 1914 or 1915. I always say that it was Seferberlik and who would register me in those [difficult] days? Yes, Seferberlik was an¬ nounced in 1914, then it really happened in 1915. ’ Therefore, the confusion about Mr. Nejmeh’s birthday date was because of the ‘Seferberlik’, since every¬ thing was in mess. He was less than a year old when the tragedies happened in Mansurieh. His family took him to Mardin, where he lived until he decided to move to Syria - Derbassieh in 1940s, after finishing his military service in Tur¬ 7 key. He knew well the story of the Mar Esia Church, and how it was changed to ‘Muḥammad Al- ḥakim’ mosque of Mansurieh8. He was very close to my grand¬ father Muqsi Ishaq(born in 1872, Mansurieh). In the recording, he told me some stories about how my grandfather suffered so much from the sorrow of losing 7 ‘Mor Osio’ in Syriac ܐܝܣܐ ܝܪܡ. I am using in this paper the spelling as: ‘Mar Esia’, to be close to the Arabic pronunciation of the Mansurieh people, who add always the word ḥakim .مار أسيا الحكيم :to this Saint name 8 Some oral traditions mention that the Church was changed to a stable for horses. One day, a horse inside the church killed the Mansurieh Agh’s son. Therefore, they considered that it was the divine punishment for not respecting the house of God. Therefore, they converted it to a mosque. Sayfo 1915: The Case of Mansurieh Village 197 his properties in Mansurieh then ending up in Derbassieh selling vegetables: ‘shout loudly to sell tomato, shout… this is what we have reached at the end of our life’. Mr. Nejmeh, knew well many eyewitnesses and the first generation of the Sayfo 1915 in Mansurieh, so he could memorize their stories. The second eyewitness person is Deacon Shafiq ʿAbd Al-Nour (†2014) from Mardin but he grew up in the same neighbourhood of the Mansurieh survivals (close to the Syriac Orthodox Church of Forty Martyrs, Mardin). I could prepare many recordings during our private conversations since 2005 until 2010; some¬ times, I repeated my questions to make sure that the answers were similar.