Dereiçi, Savur

Dereiçi (; ) is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Savur, Mardin Province in Turkey.Mahalle
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023. In 2023, the population was 187. It is populated by Assyrians who speak the Mardin dialect of Arabic. It is located by Mount Qoros in the historic region of Tur Abdin.

In the village, there is a church of Mor Yuhannon, a Syriac Catholic church of the Mother of God, and a Syriac Protestant church. The ruins of the monasteries of Mor Abay, Mor Theodotus, and Mor Dimet are also located near the village.

History

The Monastery of Mor Abay at Qeleth (today called Dereiçi) was founded in either AD 370 or in the sixth century. The village is believed to have been destroyed in AD 577/578 by the Persians and subsequently repopulated by adherents of the Church of the East with a small community of Syriac Orthodox Christians. The village was returned to Roman control in 591. In the seventh century, the village belonged to the Roman diocese of Dara. The Church of Mor Yuhannon at Qeleth was constructed in the eighth century. The village was under the jurisdiction of the Syriac Orthodox Maphrian of the East from 1042 onwards, according to the ''Chronicle of 1234''. By 1481, there were monasteries of Mor Abai, Mor Theodotus, Mor Shabai, Mor Dimeṭ, and a hermitage of Mor Barṣawmo at the village.

Qeleth was the only village in the Mhallami tract that remained Christian and did not convert to Islam. It was part of the Syriac Orthodox diocese of the Monastery of Mor Abay until the death of its last bishop Isḥoq Ṣaliba in 1730, upon which the diocese was subsumed into the diocese of Mardin. There were 120 Syriac Orthodox families at the village when it was visited by Reverend George Percy Badger in 1850. Badger noted that they mostly spoke Arabic, as well as Kurdish and vernacular Syriac, and that the priests were illiterate. The Church of the Mother of God at Qeleth was opened in 1857. In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had one hundred and six households, who paid one hundred and seventy-six dues, and it was served by the churches of Morī Šem'ūn Qonunoyō, Yūḥanun Delamoyō, and Yūldaṯ Alohō, four priests, and the monasteries of Morī Abay, Morī Tāwodotā, Morī Dīmiṭ, and Morī Šabay. Qeleth was attacked by Kurds in early November 1895 during the Hamidian massacres.

In 1914, 2500 Assyrians inhabited the village, as per the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. Two-thirds of the village's population adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church whilst one third was Syriac Protestant. There was also Syriac Catholics. Amidst the Sayfo, on 3 June 1915, Kurds arrived at the village and 25 militiamen came under the pretence of having received orders to keep guard there. The village headmen Benjamin and his son were murdered as they returned to the village after having been taken to Diyarbakır. On 10 June, the villagers barricaded themselves inside large buildings, and some with guns were able to defend their homes, but most were killed. The Syriac Orthodox Christians who took refuge in their church were burned alive there. The women and children were abducted, over 200 homes were completely devastated, and over 2000 people were believed to have been slaughtered. The Syriac Orthodox priests Ibrahîm, Thomas, and Massud, and a monk named Abdallah were also amongst the dead.

Qeleth was inhabited by 871 people in 1960, including 600 Syriac Orthodox Christians, and were served by one priest and one church. The village's population declined in the 1970s due to emigration. Villagers historically emigrated to Latin America but have more recently moved to Germany and Sweden. In 1974, 20 Syriac Protestant families inhabited Qeleth. The Church of Mor Yuhannon was renovated in 2006 and reopened for worship on 23 July 2006. By 2013, 14–15 Assyrians in 5–6 families populated the village. There were only a few families remaining at Qeleth by 2022.

Demography

The following is a list of the number of Syriac Orthodox families that have inhabited Qeleth 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:
*1978: 62
*1979: 58
*1995: 7

In popular culture

Qeleth was used as a filming location for the Turkish-language film Kapı (2019), which features an Assyrian family who return to the village after 25 years.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dereici, Savur
Neighbourhoods in Savur District
Tur Abdin
Assyrian communities in Turkey
Places of the Sayfo
Populated places in ancient Upper Mesopotamia
Places of the Hamidian massacres