Sayfo; Village of Azakh

Azakh: Christian Resistance During the Sayfo Genocide

The village of Azakh (known as İdil in modern Turkish), located 60 kilometers east of Midyat and near the Turkish-Syrian border, played a significant role during the Sayfo Syriac Genocide, or "Year of the Sword," representing a notable instance of Christian resistance against the massacres

Azakh was a large Syriac Orthodox village with about a thousand inhabitants. Even before the Sayfo of 1915, the region around Azakh had experienced violence. In 1834, the village was ravaged by Kurds who kidnapped women and children. During this earlier period, inhabitants of Azakh reportedly vowed to convert to Catholicism if prisoners of war were returned. In one incident before Sayfo, Christians from the nearby village of Bafayya, including the brother of a priest, killed an imam and seven Kurds for occupying a church, which led to their flight to Azakh and other areas.

Just before the 1915 massacres intensified, several hundred Syriac families from surrounding villages sought shelter in Azakh, swelling its population. The headmen of Azakh, under the leadership of Syrian Bishop Mor Behnam Aqrawi (who had fled from nearby Jizire), gathered to select a leader by lottery. Yesua Hanna Gawriye was chosen as the leader, and he selected adjutants to help him. They built fortifications and secret tunnels and manufactured bullets for flintlock rifles. The villagers swore to uphold a traditional motto: "We all have to die sometime, do not die in shame and humiliation". In mid-May, the kaymakam of Jezire and the highest military officer inspected Azakh and demanded that the tallest buildings be handed over to Turkish soldiers for defense against a supposed Kurdish attack. The Azakh villagers later collected a large sum of money to pay off besieging tribes, but these tribes merely moved on to attack other Syriac villages. When authorities demanded that Azakh turn over all Catholics and Protestants among the refugees, the villagers refused, asserting that all residents were Syriacs and related. This was not entirely true, as Azakh was also sheltering Armenian refugees and escapees from deportation caravans

The confrontation quickly took on a religious character. Azakh leaders organized their defense, forming committees, and listening to sermons from their priests.. A suicide group of fifty volunteers called "fedais of Jesus" was formed. The anticipated attack was delayed out of respect for Ramadan but resumed immediately after the month concluded.

News of the genocide reached Azakh Christians, prompting them to fortify their houses. An investigator, Gabro Khaddo, tried to reassure them that the Sayfo was primarily directed against Armenians and that Syriacs would be spared, urging the suspect to come to Jezire. The people of Azakh thanked him but asked for arms and fighters instead. On July 6, a large detachment of Turkish soldiers arrived from Midyat, demanding to be billeted in Azakh, claiming they were ordered to defend it. The villagers refused entry but allowed them to camp outside. On July 9, Al-Khamsin militia arrived from Jezire. The attack on Azakh began after seven days, with the Turkish army using heavy artillery to bombard the village until it was in ruins. When the Syriac Christians did not surrender, the commander ordered foot soldiers to enter. An officer leading the troops on horseback was killed by a bullet from Azakh, negatively impacting the soldiers' morale.  After initial clashes, the Turkish army retreated to a place called Kherbe, and the people of Azakh pursued them to collect rifles from the dead soldiers. The commander had to request reinforcements from Diyarbekir.

The Syriac Orthodox Archbishop in Mosul at that time Mor Iwanius Elias (later elected Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Elias III) along with Chaldean Patriarch Emanuel Thomas II, petitioned Shawkat Pasha, the Turkish vali in Mosul, asserting Azakh's loyalty and absence of Armenians, Shawkat Pasha then ordered the Turkish commander in Azakh to withdraw

Ömer Naji Bey, commander of the Iran expedition force, laid siege to Azakh and he initially doubted that the rebellious villagers were Armenian, knowing they were Syriacs. Naji, fluent in Arabic, met with Azakh's headmen, first amicably and then with hostility, demanding they surrender weapons and submit to deportation. The villagers deceptively claimed there were only Syriacs, no Armenians, in the village. Naji's first attempt to storm Azakh on November 7 and 8 failed, with casualties on the Turkish side. The Azakh villagers retaliated with a counterthrust through tunnels on November 24, 25, and 26, routing the besieging forces. After that  Enver Pasha (the Ottoman Minister of Defence), angered by Naji's failure, ordered the "complete destruction" of the village and its "immediate" suppression with "utmost severity" and he requested reinforcements from the 4th and 6th Armies for the Azakh operation. Despite Enver's orders, Naji ultimately agreed to lift the siege and allow the Syriacs to keep their weapons and remain in their homes, as he could not win the battles and the siege delayed his more important mission. This outcome was seen as an embarrassing setback by Kamil Pasha and Enver Pasha. The siege lasted 40 days according to one account, or 52/60 days in total in the Midyat region more broadly

After the ceasefire, Turkish and German officers visited Azakh. When a Turkish officer demanded the "cannon" used by Azakh, the villagers were confused as they had none. A German officer, after inspecting the spot from which artillery-like fire had come, concluded it was a "heavenly intervention," possibly the Virgin Mary protecting the people, noting an open Bible and a burning candle at the site.

Azakh held out until the end of the war and remained a Christian village until 1926 when it was forced to surrender its arms for a promise of protection from Mustafa Kemal. Many villages surrounding Azakh suffered immensely, with Christians killed or forced to convert to Islam and their names were changed to sound Kurdish, leading to a rapid loss of cultural, historical, and religious identity. The memory of the Sayfo in Azakh has been preserved through oral histories and written accounts, such as the diary of Syriac Catholic priest and schoolteacher Gabriyel Qas Tuma Hendo. Azakh's resistance is highlighted as a rare instance where inhabitants revolted and held their ground against superior attacking forces and its story could be an "epic" akin to "The Forty Days of Azakh." After all these events, many Syriac Orthodox Christians from Azakh were displaced and eventually emigrated to Syria, settling in Malkiya, where their memory of Sayfo helps them construct their new ethnic and religious identities.

Suggested Readings:

• de Courtois, Sébastien (2013), The forgotten genocide : eastern Christians, the last Arameans, translated by Vincent Aurora

• Gaunt, David (2006), Massacres, Resistance, Protectors; Muslim–Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I

• Shabo, Talay & Barthoma, Soner O (2015), Sayfo 1915. An Anthology of Essays on the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans during the First World War