Sayfo; Village of Shalhumiye

Village of Shalhumiye

In this village there lived about 50 Syriac families and most of them were from Tur-'Abdin. The village leader was a Muslim Kurd. When they heard about the massacres, the men of the village gathered around this leader and asked him to go to Helwa to inquire what had happened because they had heard that the Muslims had killed the Syriac people in the surrounding villages. He then mounted his horse and rode to Helwa. One hour before sunset, he returned. The villagers gathered around him to hear what had happened in Helwa. He told them everything according to the truth, saying: "At the moment they are stabbing the Syriacs in Helwa and Duger. And they wanted me not to tell you the truth, but to encourage you so that you would not flee your villages before they come. But I tell you: Quickly flee to the mountain because they might be here any moment!”

The Syriac families left and took everything they could carry with them. The rest of their properties had to be left behind in the village. When they reached the village of Tezkharab, the bandits, with the bloodthirsty and mean Qedur Bey, found Shalhumiye had been abandoned a short while ago by all the Syriacs. Also Hassan climbed the roof of his house and started shooting at the fleeing Syriac people, just to show that they had left the village against his will. Qedur Bey asked him where all the Syriacs had gone. Hassan answered he had not been able to stop them from leaving, lest they would have killed him and if Qedur Bey wished so, he, Hassan, would go after them with him but they did not do so.

The Syriac people spent the night in the village of Grebyah, whose inhabitants were also Syriacs. The next morning, they fled to Tur Abdin, together with the people from Grebyah. On the way, they were attacked by Yezidis and robbed of their possessions, but none of them were killed. From there they reached Hbob, where they stayed till the end of the persecution.