Başakköy (, ) is a village in the

İdil District İdil District is a district of the Şırnak Province of Turkey. The seat of the district is the town of İdil and the population was 77,105 in 2021. Its area is 1,148 km2. The district was formed in 1937. The western part of the district ...

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt Province, Siirt, Hakkâri Province, Hakkâri and Mardin ...

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

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 Domanan tribe and had a population of 124 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 ...

History

Bēth Isḥaq (today called Başakköy) 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 1394/1395, it was attacked by Amiran-shah, son of

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

, following the destruction of

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is ...

, and the villagers took refuge in the village's citadel, according to the account of the priest Addai of Beth Sbirino in appended to the ''Chronography'' of

Bar Hebraeus Gregory Bar Hebraeus (, b. 1226 - d. 30 July 1286), known by his Syriac ancestral surname as Barebraya or Barebroyo, in Arabic sources by his kunya Abu'l-Faraj, and his Latinized name Abulpharagius in the Latin West, was a Maphrian (region ...

. The citadel was seized, however, after its southern wall was undermined and destroyed and the men were killed whilst the women and children were taken captive. It was later also attacked by Bakhti Kurds in 1453 alongside the neighbouring villages of Beth Sbirino, Midun, and

Araban Araban () is a municipality and district of Gaziantep Province, Turkey. Its area is 592 km2, and its population is 32,933 (2022). The district was established in 1957. History The city was historically known as Raban. In October/November 958 ...

. The Bakhti Kurds attacked Bēth Isḥaq, in addition to the villages of Midun and Araban, again in 1457 and settled there. Yuhanna Murad, Syriac Orthodox

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

of Qartmin, () was from Bēth Isḥaq. It was resettled by Christians in and was wholly inhabited by Christians in the late nineteenth century. In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had 10 households, who paid 27 dues, and it was served by the Church or Morī Aday and one priest. In 1914, there were 120 Syriacs, as per 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 ...

'' (district) 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 ...

. 20 Syriac families inhabited Bēth Isḥaq 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 ...

, a number of villagers sought protection at Beth Sbirino and Midun whilst Bēth Isḥaq itself was destroyed. The Church of Mar Addai was converted into a barn by 1978. By 1987, there were no remaining Syriacs.

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{İdil District Villages in İdil District Kurdish settlements in Şırnak Province Historic Assyrian communities in Şırnak Province Tur Abdin Places of the Sayfo