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Nisibin kaza
Village of Aznawur: Is positioned in the eastern plains of Nisibis near the modern border between Turkey and Syria. The village served as a significant site for the Syriac Christian community, being characterized as a strictly Syriac Orthodox village by the late 1800s. While there are no specific records of any atrocities in this village, it was affected by Kurdish tribal attacks on the population and properties in this area. Historical records derived from the travels of the German orientalist Eduard Sachau in 1880 indicate a demographic shift in the region. While the area surrounding Aznawur had previously consisted of approximately forty Syriac villages mixed with Kurdish, Arabic, and Yezidi populations, Sachau found that the majority of these villages had been abandoned due to continuous Kurdish raids. By 1880, Aznawur itself had become an exclusively Syriac Orthodox settlement, serving as a point of consolidation for the Syriac population fleeing violence in the surrounding countryside, and the chief of the area at that time reportedly resided within Aznawur.
Village of Bazar: There were about ten Syriac families living in this village. Before the attacks, their leader, Malke, the son of Hanna Haydo, led them to Beth Sbirino but they did not return after the persecutions.
Village of Benodeke: It was part of the Nisibin kaza and was a Syriac Orthodox Christian village with a population of 200 people immediately preceding the 1915 genocide. The village was part of the fifty Christian settlements in the Nisibin district that were subjected to systematic atrocities. The perpetrators identified in the coordination of these regional massacres included Qaddur Bey and the local Nisibin militia, acting in alliance with several Kurdish tribal confederations. These Kurdish groups included the Hajo, Ali Batte, Doman, Chumaran, Dayre, Surgechi, Bunusra, Omaran, and Alike tribes. There are no separate reports about human casualties or destruction in this specific village.
Village of Birgüriye: It was a Syriac village located about 40 km to the east of the city of Nisibin. Before the onset of the general massacre, the population of Birgüriye consisted of five Syriac Orthodox families, and all members of these families were murdered during the Syriac Genocide of 1915. The perpetrators of these killings were specifically identified as Kurdish groups from the neighboring area of Kfar-Gawze. The village serves as an example of the total destruction of small, unprotected Syriac agricultural families during the Ottoman terror campaigns of 1915.
Village of Derhab: This village only had a single Syriac family, whose head was Odom. He was killed together with his family.
Village of Gerdahul: About 10 Syriac families lived in this village in 1915, the other inhabitants were Kurds. The Syriac families fled during one night. When the Kurds noticed that they had gone, they went after them. Then there was a fight between the two parties, but the Kurds could not succeed in the fight and the Syriac families went to live in Tur-'Abdin.
Village of Gerkeshamo: The village of Germayerk is located approximately 20 kilometers northeast of the city of Nisibis. Before the Sayfo genocide started in 1915, the number of Syriac families living in this village was estimated by some sources to be about 70 families, while other records note that approximately 35 Syriac families used to live there, most of whom were from Hbob (Ehwo). At the start of the genocide, the village population consisted of these Syriac Orthodox families alongside 10 Kurdish families. The village leader was Aziz Habib from the Mushil Quryo family. Despite the instability in the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there are no recorded atrocities in this village. All this changed with the start of World War I in 1914. As the regional massacres organized by the Ottoman administration and Kurdish irregulars progressed, the Syriac inhabitants of Germayrek became aware of the imminent threat. Consequently, when the attackers arrived, the people left the village with anything they could carry and managed to flee the settlement in time to avoid the general slaughter that decimated other villages on the Nisibis plain. The Syriac families went to the Mor Bobo monastery, and from there they climbed the mountain to Hbob. Because they evacuated before the arrival of the perpetrators, the records do not list casualties, forced conversions, or the names of specific clerical victims for this settlement during 1915.
Village of Germayrek: Is located approximately 20 kilometers northeast of the city of Nisibis. Before the Sayfo genocide started in 1915, the number of Syriac families living in this village was estimated by some sources to be about 70 families, while other records note that approximately 35 Syriac families used to live there, most of whom were from Hbob (Ehwo). At the start of the genocide, the village population consisted of these Syriac Orthodox families alongside 10 Kurdish families. The village leader was Aziz Habib from the Mushil Quryo family. Despite the instability in the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there are no recorded atrocities in this village. All this changed with the start of World War I in 1914. As the regional massacres organized by the Ottoman administration and Kurdish irregulars progressed, the Syriac inhabitants of Germayrek became aware of the imminent threat. Consequently, when the attackers arrived, the people left the village with anything they could carry and managed to flee the settlement in time to avoid the general slaughter that decimated other villages on the Nisibis plain. The Syriac families went to the Mor Bobo monastery, and from there they climbed the mountain to Hbob. Because they evacuated before the arrival of the perpetrators, the records do not list casualties, forced conversions, or the names of specific clerical victims for this settlement during 1915.
Village of Grebya: About 10 Syriac families lived in this village and all of whom had fled to the mountains before their attackers came.
Village of Harabali: At the time of the Hamidian massacres from 1895 to 1897, Harabali was a mixed Armenian and Syriac Orthodox village that suffered a targeted assault. On November 2 and 3, 1895, the village was attacked by Kurdish tribes. The violence resulted in approximately 20 casualties among the Christian inhabitants and the destruction of properties, including the burning of approximately 100 houses. When the Sayfo genocide between 1915 and 1924 started, Harabali was documented as being inhabited by 80 Syriac Orthodox families, which comprised a population of approximately 400 people. The village was under the spiritual leadership of a priest named Dimeter and contained the Church of Mor Tadrūs (Theodore) and Mor Afrem (Ephrem). While regional reports confirm that the entire Nisibin district and its surrounding Christian villages were subjected to systematic annihilation and destruction by the Ottoman army and Kurdish tribal forces, specific casualty lists for Harabali are not detailed in the available archival fragments beyond the general context of the regional extermination. Post-genocide accounts mention that the lectionaries and ancient manuscripts of the region often suffered damage or theft during the periods of conflict, with many being relocated to monasteries like Dayro d-Zafaran for preservation.
Village of Kafro Tahtayto: In this village there lived about 30 Syriac families. Some of them fled to the Mor Malke Monastery, others to the Mor Eliyo Monastery in Hbob and the villagers stayed in these places until the end of the persecutions, when they returned back to their village.
Village of Laylan: About 15 Syriac families lived in this village in 1915. They were attacked by the so-called Kurdish Haskan clan, whose leader was Ahmed Yousif. The murderers took all men, women and children to a place between Sihah and Helwa, and killed them there. There were no survivors.
Village of Mharkan: About 15 Syriac families lived in this village and it had two leaders from the Shamosho Aho family. Both leaders were drafted to serve in the Ottoman army in WWI but they fled to the village of Hbob (Ehwo) where they found refuge in the mountains. After the Kurds and the Turks had massacred the inhabitants of Helwa and Duger, they came to Mharkan and killed anyone that crossed their path. As it was at night time, some people managed to hide in the bushes around the village and in haystacks. After the murderers left, the survivors fled to Tur-'Abdin.
Village of Qowal: This village used to be inhabited by about 20 Syriac families .They were all massacred together.
Village of Sarug: This village belonged to Lahdo Barsaumo from Hbob (Ehwo), and it had some 30 Syriac families living in it and Malke was the priest in the church. The people in this village were not killed because all had fled before the murderers came. They were assisted by about fifty armed Syriac men from Tur-'Abdin, led by Habsuno Arsan and Malke Sune, who took them from the village of Sarug to Hbob in the mountains.
Village of Sederi: The village of Sederi (Saydari in Syriac) was administratively part of the Nisibin kaza. The village was home to 14 Syriac families at the end of the nineteenth century and had one church dedicated to Mori Ya’koub. While the broader Tur Abdin region was subject to administrative changes under Ottoman rule and the expansion of Kurdish tribal influence during the sixteenth century and the nineteenth-century emirate of Badr Khan, no specific destruction of property or individual clergy targeting was documented in this village during those earlier periods. Significant atrocities are documented during the Sayfo or Syriac Genocide between 1915 and 1924. In the summer of 1915, the Syriac Orthodox population of Sederi was forced to abandon the settlement to escape imminent annihilation. Fearing the same fate as the residents of Midyat and neighboring villages who were being massacred by regular Ottoman troops and Kurdish tribes such as the Omariyan, the survivors of Sederi fled their homes. The inhabitants of Sederi sought sanctuary at the Mor Malke monastery, which served as a defensive refuge for Christians from the southeastern Tur Abdin region during the height of the killing. The evacuation of the village resulted in the total displacement of the community and the cessation of its formal ecclesiastical functions as a distinct settlement. The fate of the church of Mori Yaqub and other community buildings followed the regional pattern of destruction or abandonment typical of villages where the original Syriac Christian inhabitants were uprooted or relocated. Survivors who were not killed or sold into slavery were largely dispersed, with some remaining in the protected zones of monasteries while others eventually emigrated to Syria or other regions outside the newly formed Turkish Republic.
Village of Siha: The village of Siha (or Sabha) is a Syriac Christian village located in Northern Mesopotamia within the Nisibin kaza. During the Sayfo atrocities, Siha was subjected to total annihilation. The atrocities in this region were characterized by a systematic gathering of the rural Christian population by local Kurdish forces. Historical accounts specify that a Kurdish agha named Slaymane Abbas initiated a coordinated effort to round up the inhabitants of several villages, including Siha, Bayaze, Ger-Sheran, Mharka, Tel-Jihan, Qwetla, and Helwa. These families were initially brought to Slaymane Abbas’s village of Dagra before being transported to an execution site at a body of water known as Lake Qiro. At Lake Qiro, the Syriac victims were tied together, shot, and their bodies were thrown into the water. The primary perpetrators identified in the destruction of the Siha community were local Kurdish tribal leaders and their adherents. Ahmed Yusef, the owner of Siha, is cited as an instigator who participated in the summoning of regional Kurdish aghas to organize the removal and destruction of the Syriac Christian inhabitants of the Nisibin kaza. The population of Siha was effectively liquidated during these events, and the sources do not record any Syriac families returning to the village after the genocide stopped, as the village ceased to exist as a Syriac Christian entity following the 1915 genocide.
Village of Tell Hassan: About Fifteen Syriac families used to live here and all of them were killed. The village leader, Amar Osman, slaughtered seven widows, offered them as sacrifice and bathed in their blood in order to attain perfection.
Village of Tell Jihan: All the Syriac families there, about 15, fled from this village to Tur='Abdin before the attackers arrived.
Village of Tell Manar: Ten Syriac families used to live here in 1915. They moved to M'are and tragically sought shelter from the massacre with the evil Yousif Khasho. There, they were killed together with the Syriac refugees from M'are.
Village of Tell Sefan: The village of Tell Sefan is situated on the slope of Mount Izlo (Izla), overlooking the eastern plains of Nisibis, and had a few Syriac Orthodox families at the beginning of the Sayfo. Tell Sefan was among the villages subjected to the atrocities during this time, and the original Syriac Christian population was largely displaced or killed as part of the regional ethnic cleansing. However, there are no specific numbers about the casualties and destruction in this village.
Village of Tell Sha’ir: Ten Syriac families used to live in this village. Many fled to Tur-'Abdin and were safe there, the others were killed.
Village of Tell Ya'koub: There were about 10 Syriac families living in this village and all of them were also killed in M'are.
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