Üçköy, Nusaybin

Üçköy (; ) is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Nusaybin, Mardin Province in Turkey. The village is populated by Syriacs. It had a population of 465 in 2024. It is located in the region of Beth Rishe in Tur Abdin.

In the village, there is the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephraim and Mor Theodorus.

History

Arkaḥ (today called Üçköy) is mentioned in the ''Life of Malke'', in which it is noted that Mor Malke resided near the village, where he performed several miracles and gained Šlémūn bar Wahbūn as a disciple. The Mor Malke Monastery was founded near the village about the sixth century and is believed to have hosted a Zoroastrian cult. Arkaḥ was inhabited by adherents of the Church of the East until it was abandoned and lost its name. It became known as Harabalé ("ruins"), but was eventually resettled by Syriac Orthodox Christians in the 1830s and the Church of Mor Ephraim and Mor Theodorus was rebuilt. In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had 40 households, who paid 63 dues, and was served by the Church of Morī Tawodoros and two priests. The Church of Mor Ephraim and Mor Theodorus was in ruins when the village was visited by Gertrude Bell in 1909.

The Syriac Catholic bishop Gabriel Tappouni recorded that the village was populated by 400 Syriac Orthodox Christians in 80 families and were served by one priest in 1913. In 1914, Arkaḥ was inhabited by 300 or 400 Syriacs, according to the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. Amidst the Sayfo, the village's population took refuge at the Mor Malke Monastery. The population of the village was 743 in 1960. There were 950 Turoyo-speaking Christians in 120 families in 1966. In the late 20th century, a number of villagers emigrated to Germany. The village had a priest in 1979. In 1981, the village had a school.

Arkaḥ was the only village in the region of Beth Rishe that was not evacuated in the 1990s due to the activities of the PKK. Less than 100 people in 25 families remained in the village. By 1999, the village had a priest, but did not have a school or a physician. As a consequence of the Turkish government's appeal to Syriacs to return to their homeland in 2001, 6 families from Istanbul and abroad subsequently returned to the village. In the early 2000s, a football field was established in the village whilst the streets were widened and cleared to be made accessible for cars in the mid-2000s. The Church of Mor Ephraim and Mor Theodorus was repaired between 2009 and 2011. A new village hall was constructed at Arkaḥ in 2014–2019. By 2019, it was inhabited by 270 people in 68 families.

On 9 January 2020, Sefer (Aho) Bileçen, a monk at the Mor Yakub Monastery, the village headman Jozef Yar, and a villager were arrested by the Turkish Gendarmerie at Arkaḥ. Bileçen was charged with joining the People's Defense Forces of the PKK the following month, and in 2021 was sentenced to two years and one month in prison. In August 2023, the Governor of Mardin declared Arkaḥ, alongside eight other villages, as a "special security zone" in the event of military operations. The village would receive this status once again for a 15-day period the following year. To help revive the local economy, a number of Syriacs have returned to Arkah from the diaspora and have opened businesses as recently as 2023. In recent years, the village has become well known for its pizza making, alongside Elbeğendi. The village's water infrastructure was repaired in January 2025.

Demography

Families

The following is a list of the number of Syriac families that have inhabited Arkaḥ per year stated. Unless otherwise stated, all figures are from the list provided in ''The Syrian Orthodox Christians in the Late Ottoman Period and Beyond: Crisis then Revival'', as noted in the bibliography below.

*1915: 70
*1966: 120
*1978: 103
*1979: 92
*1981: 88
*1987: 70
*1995: 38
*1999: 25
*2013: 45
*2019: 68

Population

References

Notes

Citations

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{{Nusaybin District

Neighbourhoods in Nusaybin District
Assyrian communities in Turkey
Tur Abdin
Places of the Sayfo