Sayfo; Kulp kaza

Kulp kaza

Village of Pasur: Was situated in the Kulp district and is located within the mountainous Sasun region between the major cities of Muş and Bitlis. It had a mix of Syriac and other Christians at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the year 1894, the district of Kulp, where Pasur is located, was a central site of political and military conflict. The resistance of villagers in the Kulp area against the tax collection efforts and arrest attempts of the local sub-governor (Kaymakam) of Kulp served as a primary precipitating factor for the subsequent large-scale massacres in the Sasun mountains. Following this resistance, Ottoman regular soldiers were dispatched to the region, where they systematically burned villages and murdered between one and two thousand Armenian and other Christian villagers over the course of several weeks. During the Sayfo or Syriac Genocide (1915–1924), the settlement of Pasur was the site of targeted state violence against local leadership. In May 1915, the Mayor of Pasur was arrested by Ottoman authorities on the false pretext that he was responsible for killing soldiers who passed through the village. He was subsequently transported to Lice, where he was subjected to torture and execution; he was hung by his feet with his head positioned downwards in the lavatory of the Governor's house and left there until he perished. During this same period, the dwellings and properties of the Syriac community in the wider region were subjected to similar measures of arrest, plunder, and forced displacement.