Sayfo; Village of Semsem

Village of Semsem

The village historically known as Semsem is identified across multilingual and archival records by several phonetic variants, including Chemchem, Shim-Shim, and Chim-Chim, while its contemporary official Turkish designation is Ormankaya. The village is located within the administrative district of Lije or Hazro, positioned to the northwest of the major provincial city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Anatolia. Ecclesiastical documentation from the nineteenth century confirms that the village was a center of Syriac Orthodox worship, housing two specific religious structures: the Church of Mor Agripus and the Church of Mart Shmuni. It maintained a significant Syriac presence within the rural agrarian framework of the Diyarbakir province.

During the Sayfo genocide occurring between 1915 and 1924, this village was totally destroyed. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Semsem was estimated to have a population of approximately 800 inhabitants. Organized massacres reached the village before the middle of July 1915. The primary perpetrators of these atrocities were identified as irregular Ottoman brigand units and local Kurdish tribesmen. Eyewitness accounts state that these forces surrounded the village and arrested all male Christians, including those of the Armenian and Syriac Orthodox denominations. These men were bound and forcibly marched to nearby ravines and caverns where their throats were cut. Following the execution of the male population, the perpetrators carried out a systematic plunder of the village houses and property, resulting in the total cessation of the centuries-old Syriac Orthodox community in the village.