Kovankaya () is an unpopulated village in the

Beytüşşebap District Beytüşşebap District is a district of the Şırnak Province of Turkey. In 2023, the district had a population of 16,056. The seat of the district is the town of Beytüşşebap. Its area is 1,647 km2. Settlements Beytüşşebap Distric ...

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 ...

. It is located by the river Hezil in the district of

Beytüşşebap Beytüşşebap () is a town and seat of Beytüşşebap District of Şırnak Province in Turkey. The town had a population of 6,367 in 2023. It is populated by Kurds of the Ertoşî, Geravî, Jirkî, Mamxûran and Pinyanîşî Kurdish tribes. The m ...

. In the village, there were

Chaldean Catholic The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular church ('' sui iuris'') in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is headed by the Chaldean Patriarchate. Employing in its liturgy the East Syri ...

churches of

Mart Mart may refer to: * Mart, or marketplace, a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods * Mart (broadcaster), a local broadcasting station in Amsterdam * Mart (given name) * ''Mart ...

Shmuni and Mart Maryam. A church of Mar Isha'ya was located nearby. The

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Ayrım (, ), Üçkardeş and Yassıtaş are attached to Kovankaya.

Etymology

The Turkish name of the village is derived from "kovan" ("beehive" in Turkish) and "kaya" ("cliff" in Turkish), and thus Kovankaya translates to "beehive cliff" in Turkish.

History

The church of Mart Shmuni was originally constructed as a monastery in 320 AD, which housed 600 monks at its height. Meer was formerly exclusively inhabited by

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

known as ''Meeryayé''. The villagers practised pastoral farming and beekeeping. In 1913, Meer and the neighbouring village of Hoz were inhabited by 500 Chaldean Catholics, and were served by one priest and one functioning church as part of the diocese of Gazarta. Meer was destroyed in 1915 during the

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

in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and its population fled. The village had a population of over 1000 people until mass emigration from Meer and other Assyrian villages in Turkey began in 1975 and persisted for the next two decades due to Turkish and Kurdish discrimination, and eventually over 700 people moved to

Sarcelles Sarcelles () is a Communes of France, commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero#France, centre of Paris. Sarcelles is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise Departments of Franc ...

, 500 to

Clichy-sous-Bois Clichy-sous-Bois () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris. It is located from central Paris.Montluçon Montluçon (; ) is a commune in central France on the river Cher. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's prefecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as ''Montluçonna ...

. An estimated 570 people populated Meer in 1980. Meer was officially renamed to Kovankaya in 1986 as part of the Turkish government's policy of

Turkification Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization () describes a shift whereby populations or places receive or adopt Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly applied to mean specif ...

, but was destroyed, and its population of 16-20 families forcibly expelled in 1989 by Turkish forces. A number of villagers returned and partially rebuilt Meer in 1992, only for the village to be destroyed by Turkish forces again in June 1994, forcing the remaining seven families to flee to Gaznakh. Two families returned in 2010. On 11 January 2020, two villagers were abducted, allegedly by

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

militants; the body of one was found on 20 March.

Population

Population history of the village from 1965 to 1997:

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * Historic Assyrian communities in Şırnak Province Places of the Sayfo Villages in Beytüşşebap District Former populated places in Turkey {{Şırnak-geo-stub