Yamanlar (; ) is a village in the

Gercüş District Gercüş District is a district of Batman Province in Turkey. The town of Gercüş is the seat and the district had a population of 19,304 in 2021.

Batman Province Batman Province (, ; ) is a province in Turkey. It was created in May 1990 with the Law No. 3647 taking some parts from the eastern Province of Siirt and some from the southern Province of Mardin. Its area is 4,477 km2, and its population i ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The village is populated by

Syriacs Syriac may refer to: * Suret, a Neo-Aramaic language * Syriac alphabet, a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Syriac Christianity, a branch of Eastern Christianity * Syriac lan ...

and

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

of the Arnas tribe and had a population of 224 in 2021. It is located in the historic region of

Tur Abdin Tur Abdin (; ; ; or ) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria and famed since Late Antiquity for ...

. In the village, there is a church of Mor Aho.

History

Yardo (today called Yamanlar) was historically inhabited by

Syriac Orthodox Christians The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination, denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The ch ...

. In the

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had 12 households, who paid 38 dues, and did not have a church or a priest. In 1914, it was inhabited by 250 Syriacs, according to the list presented to the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. It was located in the ''

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

'' of

Midyat Midyat (, , , ) is a municipality and district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,241 km2, and its population is 120,069 (2022). In the modern era, the town is populated by Kurds, Mhallami Arabs and Assyrians. The old Estel neighborho ...

. There were 70 Syriac families and 30 Kurdish families in 1915. Amidst the

Sayfo The Sayfo (, ), also known as the Seyfo or the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian people, Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan province by Ottoman Army ...

, the local Kurdish chiefs Osman Tammero and Sleyman Shamdin conspired to deceive the Syriacs at Yardo with a mutual agreement to not harm each other and subsequently one day they lured some of them out of the village under the guise of tackling cattle thieves. However, after they had reached some distance from the village, the Syriac village headman, Malke Khatun, saw the Kurds enter Yardo and realised their intention to ambush the Syriacs upon their return and thus they took refuge at a nearby ruined fortress and demanded the release of the Syriac villagers who the Kurds had taken captive. The villagers were released and joined the others at the ruined fortress, but the Syriacs were then attacked by the Kurds as they all proceeded to ‘Ayn-Wardo and only forty women and children survived who were taken captive to be kept as slaves in Muslim households. The population was 507 in 1960. There were 110 Kurdish-speaking Christians in thirty families in 1960. Syriacs from Yardo emigrated to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and other European countries in the late 20th century. In 2013, there were two Syriacs at Yardo in one family.

Demography

The following is a list of the number of Syriac families that have inhabited Yardo 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: 30 *1966: 30 *1978: 33 *1979: 31 *1981: 27 *1987: 16 *1999: 1 *2013: 1

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * {{Gercüş District Villages in Gercüş District Kurdish settlements in Batman Province Places of the Sayfo Assyrian communities in Turkey Tur Abdin