Badir Khan Massacres 1842 - 1846

The Events of Badir Khan Massacres 

1842-1846

The nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire was characterized by significant administrative changes and shifts in regional power dynamics within the eastern provinces. The central government initiated a series of reforms known as the Tanzimat to reassert authority over peripheral regions that had functioned under semi-autonomous Kurdish emirates for centuries. This process of centralization involved the appointment of provincial governors with extraordinary powers, such as Resid Mehmed Pasha, who was assigned to Diyarbekir in 1834 to eliminate the influence of local ayan families. Between 1834 and 1836, Resid Mehmed Pasha conducted military operations against the Milli confederation, the Yezidi populations of Sinjar and Ridvan, and the tribes of Garzan. His campaigns resulted in the deaths of approximately three-quarters of the Yezidis in Sinjar, while those in Ridvan were nearly annihilated. Following the death of Resid Mehmed Pasha in 1836, his successor, Cerkes Hafiz Mehmed, continued these campaigns, targeting the Bahdinan area and the Turcoman of Tel Afar. These early military incursions established a precedent for mass violence as a tool for state-led demographic and political restructuring in the region.

The emergence of significant mass violence specifically targeting Church of the East Christians (Nestorian) in the 1840s was linked to the rise of Badr Khan Bey, the Emir of Bohtan, and Nurallah, the Emir of Hakkari. Badr Khan Bey, based in his capital of Jezire-ibn-Omar (Cizre), managed to expand his sphere of influence through a coalition of Kurdish tribes, creating a state that reportedly stretched from the Persian border to Mesopotamia and might have reached parts of Mosul Vilayet close to the city of Mosul. The neighboring Emirate of Hakkari faced internal turmoil over a disputed succession to leadership, which caused a breach between the Kurdish rulers and the Nestorian tribes led by the Church of the East Patriarch Mar Shimun. Traditionally, the Mar Shimun had served as the second in command to the Emir of Hakkari, ruling in his absence. However, the Nestorian tribes began to display increasing independence, a trend exacerbated by the arrival of American and British missionaries such as George Percy Badger and Asahel Grant. Kurdish leadership viewed the activities of these foreign missionaries with suspicion, perceiving them as agents of European interference in local politics.

In May 1843, the missionary George Percy Badger received letters from Mar Shimun indicating that Badr Khan Bey and the Hakkari Emir were massing forces to attack the Nestorians. The Kurdish alliance, which included Ismael Pasha, Tatar Khan Agha, and the chief of the Artushi Kurds, launched an invasion during the Feast of Ascension in 1843. The campaign specifically targeted the Nestorian mountain people in the Tiyari districts. Reports from European observers and diplomats at the time estimated that nearly 10,000 Nestorians were killed in cold blood during this invasion. The slaughter was accompanied by the destruction of villages and the capture of a large number of girls and children who were sold into slavery. One account describes how approximately 1,000 men, women, and children attempted to take refuge in a mountain fastness only to be surrounded and forced to surrender their arms and property after three days of deprivation. After the surrender, the captives were reportedly slaughtered, and the survivors were thrown from rocks into the Zab River.

The violence in the Tiyari district was characterized by specific acts of mutilation and targeted killing of community leaders. The mother of the Patriarch Mar Shimun was captured, her body was reportedly cut into two parts, and the remains were thrown into the Zab River with a message sent to the Patriarch that a similar fate awaited him. Large numbers of people were slaughtered, and the survivors fled into the mountains or toward Mosul (Yonan, 1996, p. 33). The British diplomat and archeologist, Austen Henry Layard, who visited the region shortly after the events, noted that the Lizan valley was a primary scene of the carnage. The survivors who reached Mosul were often in a destitute condition, having lost all their property and livestock. The scale of the destruction prompted the British ambassador in Constantinople, Lord Stratford Canning, to lobby the Ottoman government for sanctions and a punitive expedition against the Kurdish emirs.

The violence continued into 1846, when Badr Khan Bey launched a second major invasion, this time targeting the Tkhuma region. Despite attempts by Tahyar Pasha of Mosul to avert the conflict, Kurdish forces marched through the Tiyari mountains to reach Tkhuma. The inhabitants of Tkhuma attempted resistance under their Meleks but were quickly overwhelmed by superior numbers. An indiscriminate massacre followed in which women and children were killed in cold blood. Approximately 300 women and children who were fleeing toward Baz were reportedly killed in a mountain pass. The principal villages of the region were destroyed, their gardens were laid waste, and churches were pulled down. This second invasion resulted in the deaths of several thousand additional Nestorians, including learned clergy such as Kasha Bodaca and Kasha Auraham. Reports indicate that nearly half the population of Tkhuma fell victim to this campaign.

The activities of Badir Khan Bey also impacted the Syriac Orthodox communities in the Tur-'Abdin region, to the west of Hakkari. Between 1839 and 1841, prior to the major Hakkari invasions, Badr Khan reportedly committed massacres against Christians in Tur Abdin that remain less documented in historical literature. One specific victim was Bishop Gorgis of Azakh, who was murdered along with a priest and eight congregants in 1847. The insecurity caused by these raids led the Syriac leaders in Midyat to seek protection through a mercenary agreement with certain Kurdish clans. The Syriacs agreed to pay a local defense tax known as the khafirti to Kurdish aghas in exchange for settling their clans in Midyat to provide a buffer against the emirs. Despite these local arrangements, the general region remained in a state of chronic conflict as Kurdish chieftains vied for territorial dominance.

The international outcry following the massacres of 1843 and 1846 forced the Ottoman Porte to intervene. The European powers, particularly Great Britain and Russia, pressured the Sultan to stop the activities of Badir Khan Bey. In response, the government organized a punitive expedition under the command of Osman Pasha in 1847. The Kurdish emirs were signal-ly defeated in two engagements by Ottoman regular troops. Badr Khan Bey eventually surrendered and was banished to Crete, while Nurallah was also exiled. The dominance of the autonomous Kurdish emirates came to an end, and central government officials took over the administration of the restructured districts. A new province named Hakkari was established, with its administrative center at Bashkale.

The aftermath of these events left the Nestorian population in a severely weakened state. Those who survived the massacres were often subjected to oppressive taxation by the newly installed Ottoman authorities, who demanded arrears despite the total loss of livestock and seeds. The Patriarch Mar Shimun lived for many years as a refugee in Urmia, Persia, having fled from Mosul in 1847. The legal status of the Nestorian community remained insecure, and they continued to suffer from cattle rustling, looting, and abductions at the hands of Kurdish tribes that the central government failed to fully control. The total number of highland Nestorians was estimated at approximately 16,000 families following these massacres.

The massacres committed by Badir Khan Bey and his allies are regarded as a defining moment in the history of the Nestorians and are still part of the collective memory of Syrian Christians in Tur-’Abdin. The violence demonstrated the fragility of the status of non-Muslims in the region during the transition to a centralized state. The patterns of exclusion and the use of irregular forces to suppress local populations that were established in the 1840s are seen by some historians as precursors to the mass violence that occurred later in the century, including the Hamidian massacres and the genocide of 1915. The demographic loss was significant, with estimates of the total number of Christians killed during this specific period of 1842 to 1846 reaching as high as 12,000 individuals. The destruction of churches, monasteries, and Service books that had been kept for generations signaled a major cultural loss for the Church of the East.

The socio-political landscape of the Hakkari mountains and the plains toward Mosul was permanently altered. The autonomous legal status that the Nestorian tribes had traditionally enjoyed as ashiret clans was severely undermined. While some tribes managed to retain a degree of independence, many districts were reduced to raya status, bringing them under more direct government control. The persistent state of low-intensity conflict and the periodic eruption of mass violence became a characteristic of life in the borderlands of southeast Turkey. This environment fostered a culture of violence in which both the state and local communities were habitually prepared to use lethal force to resolve social and economic tensions.