Sayfo; City of Bitlis

Bitlis and Surrounding Areas massacres 1895-1915

In October 1895, the Hamidian massacres started in the Bitlis when massacres of Christians, including Syriac Orthodox, occurred in the Bitlis vilayet. The massacre in the city of Bitlis on October 25, 1895, was specifically noted as the first of its kind. During this period, "numberless villages in the districts of Sassoun, Dalvorik, Moush, Siirt, Yerum, Chirvan, Guzel Dere, Seghjerd, Cindj and Djabagh, inhabited not only by Armenians, but also by Syriacs and Chaldeans, were plundered by armed bands of Moslem fanatics. The inhabitants of these villages were wiped out on the orders of the Turkish Government. The Hamidian massacres are part of a long continuum of extreme violence that began in the 1890s.

The city of Siirt (Sa’irt), located in the Bitlis vilayet, experienced a massacre of Christians in the town and its surroundings, resulting in the deaths of approximately 4,000 faithful. Among those who perished in Siirt was Father Ephrem, a Syriac monk from the monastery of Mar Ephrem in Mardin. In many cases, hostile Kurd groups attacked without differentiation between Syriac Orthodox and Armenian victims. In many other areas, the Syriac Orthodox formed the great majority of victims. Ottoman authorities are noted to have incited unruly mobs and Kurdish regiments to carry out the massacres. These forces may have been unable or uninterested in differentiating between adherents of different churches.

During Sayfo in World War I, Bitlis and surrounding areas witnessed the annihilation of Syriacs , indicating that most victims were killed during massacres. The Ottoman provinces of Van and Bitlis saw Syriacs become victims of military and civilian revenge killings. In these provinces, Syriacs were described as "independent political and military players to a certain degree, challenging the Ottoman government with a declaration of war and their pro-Russian alliance." During these events Turkish troops and irregular brigades systematically killed the Christians of Bitlis and Seert starting in June 1915 that almost completely wiped out about 150,000 Armenians of Bitlis, Moush and Sassoun.

The Syriac archbishop of Syria, Severius Aphrem Barsoum, reported losses for the Syriac Orthodox Church dioceses, including Bitlis with 8,510 dead.

The Chaldeans who lived in Bitlis, particularly in or around Siirt and Jizre, were subject to great cruelty and had little chance of survival unless they had been able to flee beforehand. Among the victims Bishop Addai Sher, a known Chaldean scholar