Sayfo; Village of Zargel

Village of Zargel

The village of Zargel is located within Beşiri (Bcheriyye) district of the Batman province in southeastern Turkey, positioned along the western part of the ancient province of Arzun.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Zargel served as the administrative and religious center of its own episcopal diocese. Historical records identify that this seat was governed by several high-ranking religious leaders, such as Basilius Shaba of Arbo, who acted as the metropolitan of Zarjal from 1463 until his death in 1481. Within the specific period starting in 1500, Basilius Yeshu of Zaz served as the metropolitan of Zarjal from 1590 to 1602 after being ordained by Patriarch Dawud Shah. The settlement functioned as a focal point for the Syriac community in the region before administrative shifts occurred in the subsequent century. 

In the eighteenth century, the ecclesiastical designation for the area surrounding Zargel transitioned in record-keeping to the name Bseriyyah. This district encompassed settlements across the western portion of the ancient Arzun province and included territory on both sides of the Batman and Arzun rivers. During this era, the region was often subject to the authority of local Kurdish cheiftains who were known for extracting protection fees from travelers and caravans.

Although specific archival details regarding individual killings within Zargel during the Bedir Khan massacres are less documented than in larger centers, the village was situated within the broader geographic scope of the Kurdish Bakhti rulers' raids. The alliance of Kurdish amirs led by Bedir Khan Beg and Mire Kor Ahmad resulted in widespread plundering and the destruction of Christian symbols throughout the Tur Abdin region, including attacks on neighboring monasteries such as Dayro d’Mor Gabriel.

The status of the Syriac Orthodox community in Zargel during the late nineteenth century, Zargel was listed as a village within the Bseriyyah district under the province of Diyarbakir, but its population had significantly diminished. There was only one Syriac Orthodox household or dues-paying entity remaining in the village, reflecting a major demographic decline from its earlier status as a diocesan center.

During the period of the Hamidian massacres, the Beşiri district and its associated villages like Zargel were impacted by the systemic violence directed at Armenian and Syriac Christians by Kurdish tribes and the Ottoman state. These attacks often involved the destruction of property and the targeting of rural Christian centers throughout the Diyarbakir vilayet

In the era of the Syriac genocide, Zargel, also identified in Ottoman and Syriac records as Zerdjili, was categorized as a village with a mixed population of Armenian and Syriac Orthodox Christians. The presence of the Syriac community in the Batman area shrunk dramatically at the end of the Ottoman period as a direct consequence of the genocidal program initiated in 1915. The regional violence, which involved the coordinated efforts of Ottoman regular soldiers and local Kurdish irregulars, forced the abandonment of rural settlements as inhabitants were either killed or sought refuge in better-defended villages such as Azakh and Ayn Wardo. The Syriac community in the Batman province believes that the final presence of community members in the specific area surrounding Zargel persisted only until the 1950s. Following the large-scale atrocities of the early twentieth century, many of the villages in the Mardin and Batman regions were subjected to a state-sponsored program of geographical name changes, leading to the replacement of traditional Syriac and Armenian titles with new Turkish names.