Sayfo; Village of Qatrabal

Village of Qatrabal

On April 1, 1915, an officer named Tharwat bin Othman and about 50 soldiers from the Fiftieth Army (Kurdish militia) went to Qatrabal to collect weapons, claiming it was by the governor's order. The village's headman, Kashu (Baran), told them the villagers had no weapons and invited them to search the homes. During the search, the soldiers found a single hunting rifle. Outraged, the officer arrested the headman and four other village notables, sending them to the court in Kharput.

A few days later, on the 10th of April, another officer, Yahya bin Yasin, arrived with about 50 soldiers. They captured 23 men and transported them to Diyarbakir. The men were imprisoned and tortured for four days in a place called the Musafirkhana (guest house). They were then taken at night to a hill called Kandala (Sur), the Red Hill, where they were stripped of their clothes and killed.

The women and children of Qatrabal fled across the Tigris River to Diyarbakir to escape the violence. This village was the birthplace of the famous poet, Priest Yaqub al-Qatrabali in 1784