Sayfo; Village of Karburan

Karburan: A Syriac Resistance Overwhelmed by Sayfo Atrocities

During the Sayfo, Karburan (also known as Kfar-Boran or Dargeçit), a significant and prosperous village located 46 kilometers northeast of Midyat, faced severe attacks. It was a sizable settlement, more akin to a small town, serving as a commercial and craftwork center due to its abundant streams and water mills. Before the massacres, it was home to 500 Christian families (including Armenian, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, and Syriac Protestant denominations) and 60 Muslim families. The Syriac Orthodox bishop, Mor Antimos Ya’qub, resided there with twelve Syriac priests and a monk.

News of massacres in surrounding villages and atrocities elsewhere in Anatolia spread to Karburan via refugees. The local administrator informed Kurdish aghas that Karburan was "ready to be taken". The chief of the Rama Kurdish tribe, Ali Rammo, who had previously imposed taxes on Christians, instructed his sons Mustafa and Khalil to punish the Christians after they refused to pay further taxes to him.

The Rama tribe, led by Mustafa Agha, attacked Kfar-Boran on a Saturday in July. The Christians, despite speaking Kurdish like some of the perpetrators, were caught unprepared in their residential quarters which lacked natural defenses. They sought refuge in seven large building complexes, famously known as the “seven palaces”.

The Turkish mudir (local government official) initially convinced some Syriacs to leave the palaces under false promises of safety. These individuals were then taken to the town hall and killed. When other groups refused to leave, a full-scale assault began, turning into a week-long battle. The Syriacs, having had no time to gather supplies, soon ran out of ammunition. The attacking forces stormed the buildings piecemeal, executing captives in front of the remaining defenders.

The Syriac Orthodox Bishop Mor Antimos Ya’qub, was reportedly tortured on a roof before being killed. His body and others were later collected and burned. The total destruction of Karburan by burning houses and slaughtering inhabitants predated the destruction of Midyat in mid-July. Of the hundreds of Syriacs, only about 100 survived. Some escaped by being outside the village, others fled to Hah, a small village, and a number of children were taken as servants by Muslim families. Many women and children were abducted and forced into conversion or servitude.

A pardon was eventually issued by the government, allowing the dispersed Christians to return. A new kaymakam facilitated the return of displaced families. However, the loyalties of some local officials were questionable; for instance, a Kurdish religious shaykh had exhorted aghas to "eradicate the Christians" based on an alleged government decree. The local official responsible for Hasno, Jalal Rumi, was noted for mercilessly killing Christians there.

Although Karburan was one of the few major places of Syriac resistance during the Sayfo, its defense only lasted about four days before it was overwhelmed. In one instance, a Kurdish agha, Yusuf Hasan Shamdin, who initially promised help, instead seized and murdered male villagers. The Syriac Orthodox leader Brahim Sham’un was hidden by a local official in the town hall, but his hiding place was revealed by a fanatic Kurd, leading to the agha demanding his surrender.