Sayfo; Village of Qrytho D'ito

Village of Qrytho D'ito (Village of the Church)

This village belonged to the Malke Gawriye family, and Gawriye Malke was the leader of the village. There was a church, a priest and some 50 Syriac families, most of them originally from Hbob living in the village. Even before the wave of persecution reached the Christians of the villages of the plain on Easter Monday of 1915, a Turkish officer, with fifteen soldiers visited them. They pretended to be looking for people to join the army, but they beat and harassed the villagers. Outright fighting developed between the soldiers and the villagers. Beatings from both sides developed into a small battle in which the officer was killed and the rest of the soldiers were chased out of the village. The Syriac people sent word about this to their brethren in the faith in Tur Abdin. These sent armed men to help them carry anything movable into the mountains. They settled in Hbob, until the unrest and persecutions were over, especially around Tur- 'Abdin. Then they returned to their village where they have been living until today.