İzbırak, Midyat

İzbırak (; ; ) is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Midyat, Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey. The village is populated by Syriacs and by Kurds of the Elîkan tribe had a population of 32 in 2021. It is located in the historic region of Tur Abdin.

In the village, there is the Mor Dimet Church and Church of Mort Shmuni.

History

Zāz (today called İzbırak) is identified as the settlement of Zazabukha, where Ashurnasirpal II made camp whilst on campaign against Nairi and received tribute from Khabkhi in 879 BC. Arches on the north side of the Church of Mor Dimet suggest pre-Christian buildings originally stood on the site. Mor Gabriel of Beth Qustan () is said to have resurrected a man from Zāz. The Church of Mor Dimet was constructed by 932, from which year a funerary inscription survives. Mar Yab, the priest of Zāz, is named amongst those who were killed in the Cave of Ibn Siqi by the soldiers of Timur in 1394 ( AG 1605). In 1454 ( AG 1765), many men from the village were suffocated to death by smoke by Turks of the clan of Hasan Beg, as per the account of the priest Addai of Basibrina in appended to the ''Chronography'' of Bar Hebraeus.

Rabban Aziz of Zāz is attested at the Monastery of Mar Malke in 1476. Basilius Mas’ud of Zāz, metropolitan of Zarjal, Arzen, Se’ert, and Hisn Kifa in 1481–1491/1492, was ordained by Patriarch Ignatius Sobo of Arbo. Masʿūd II of Ṭur ʿAbdin, patriarch of Tur Abdin (), was from the village. Basilus Yeshu’ II of Zāz, metropolitan of Zarjal in 1492/1493–1515/1516, was ordained by Patriarch Masʿūd II and became patriarch of Tur Abdin as Ignatius Yeshu’ III (). Philoxenus Aziz of Zāz, of the Monastery of Mar Malke, was bishop of the Monastery of the Cross. The deacon-monk Rabban Serjis of Zāz is attested at the Monastery of Mar Malke in 1560. The Church of Mor Dimet at Zāz was struck by lightning in 1571 ( AG 1882). Dionysius Iliyya, son of priest Mansur of Zāz, was bishop of the Monastery of the Cross and Hah in 1583–1608. Basilius Yeshu’ III of Zāz, metropolitan of Zarjal in 1590–1602, was ordained by Patriarch Ignatius David II Shah.

Bishop Jirjis of Zāz was ordained by Patriarch Habib before 1706. In 1714, five men were killed at Zāz by an amir called Bidayn and his men, who also destroyed the Church of Mor Dimet, according to a Syriac ''memro'' (metrical ode) written by the priest Yuhanna of Basibrina from the Qardash family. Dionysius Saliba of Zaz, metropolitan of Hah and the Monastery of the Cross in 1725/1726–1756, was ordained by Patriarch Denha. Dionysius Saliba of Zaz was bishop of Hah in 1797–. Dionysius Barsoum of Zāz was metropolitan of Zāz in 1813–1828 and Dionyius Saliba of Zāz was metropolitan of Zāz in 1817–1828. In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had 64 households, who paid 140 dues, and was served by the Church of Morī Dīmiṭ and four priests.

In 1914, it was populated by 700 Syriacs, according to the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. They adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church. Amidst the Sayfo, the village was attacked by Kurds in August 1915, and the villagers took refuge in the Church of Mor Dimet and two large houses. After receiving assurances the villagers wouldn't be harmed, 365/366 Syriacs left the buildings, but were taken by the Kurds to a hill named Perbume between Zāz and Heştrek where they were slaughtered and shot and their bodies were later burned. A survivor of the massacre at Perbume returned to Zāz and warned the villagers, who subsequently held out for a month. Some survivors fled to Ayn Wardo. An Ottoman official arrived at the village and assured the villagers of their safety, only to separate the young, who were given to Kurds from neighbouring villages, and split the remaining Syriacs in two groups. One group was sent to Kerboran, and the other was sent to Midyat, where they were forced to collect and bury the corpses of Syriacs who had been killed in the streets of those places, as well as pick up animal faeces. Those who did not die of hunger or thirst were killed once the corpses were buried.

Some villagers who had survived the genocide were helped to return to Zāz in 1920 by Çelebi, '' agha'' (chief) of the Heverkan clan. A portico was added to the Church of Mor Dimet in 1924. The Church of the Mother of God at Zāz was built about 1960. The population was 416 in 1960. In 1966, there were 515 Turoyo-speaking Christians in 73 families at Zāz who were served by one priest. The villagers began to emigrate in 1975. By 1978, the Church of Mor Gabriel at Zāz was in ruins. The village had a priest in 1979. In 1981, there was a school in the village.

In the early 1990s, there were skirmishes between village guards, the Turkish military, and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants near the village as part of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. Village guards and their relatives extorted 20 million Turkish lira from the villagers on 18 February 1992 on threat of killing the ''mukhtar'' Gevriye Akyol. The Syriac villagers were forced to flee to Midyat in April 1993 upon receiving death threats from village guards, and they remained there in the hope the situation would improve, but again received death threats on returning to Zāz in the summer. The four Kurdish families were allowed to remain, whereas the Syriacs emigrated to Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, and France. The majority of Syriacs from Zāz eventually settled at Hamburg in Germany.

The Church of Mor Dimet was restored in the late 1990s by Syriacs in the diaspora and a monk and nun took up residence in the church in 2001. It was reported that Kurds from neighbouring villages had seized the Syriacs' houses and land, damaged the church by pouring sewage into it, and verbally and physically abused the monk and nun. The village was occupied by the village guards until 2005.

Demography

The following is a list of the number of Syriac families that have inhabited Zāz 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: 200
*1966: 73/75
*1978: 69
*1979: 62
*1981: 53
*1987: 25

References

Notes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Izbirak, Midyat
Neighbourhoods in Midyat District
Assyrian communities in Turkey
Tur Abdin
Places of the Sayfo
Populated places in ancient Upper Mesopotamia
Kurdish settlements in Mardin Province