City of Siirt

Siirt and the surrounding areas during the Hamidian Massacres (1895) and Sayfo (1915)

In 1895, massacres of Christians, including Syriac Orthodox, occurred in the city of Siirt and Bitlis. The French Dominican, Hyacinthe Simon's manuscript, which documents events up to June 1916 and includes chronological lists of massacres, states that in Siirt, located in the Bitlis vilayet, approximately 4,000 Christians were massacred in the town and its surroundings. Among those who perished in Siirt was Father Ephrem, a Syriac monk from the monastery of Mar Ephrem in Mardin. While some chroniclers suggested Syriac communities were less affected in 1895, it is noted that massacres were widespread in Eastern Anatolia during 1895–96

Siirt was among the regions in Diyarbekir province that were annihilated due to "systematic and organized massacres. The Syriac Orthodox population in the Siirt district was estimated at 20,000 people.

In May 1915, Christian notables and religious leaders from Siirt and its surrounding villages, including Syriac Orthodox leaders and priests, were arrested. They were then led outside the city and massacred by soldiers and Kurds. On June 18, 1915, Rafael de Nogales, serving in the Ottoman army, witnessed the massacre in Siirt, describing "thousands of half-nude and still bleeding corpses" killed by "bullets and yatagans," with some still alive being "pecked at by vultures" and "struck by scavenger dogs". This was part of a "general massacre" unleashed by Vali Jevdet Bey.

The government in Siirt began by gathering Christian men, who were subsequently killed. Killings became open, and Christian women and children were expelled in groups by Kurds. A survivor from Siirt, who was ten years old at the time, recounted that Kurds took 20,000 to 30,000 books from the Church of Dayr-Salib, stacked them in the churchyard, set them on fire, and threw children into the flames. Those who attempted to escape were shot. When bullets ran out, daggers were used until the perpetrators were too tired to continue. After the massacres, women and children were deported to Mardin and Mosul. Only about a tenth of them reached their destinations; the weakest died from hunger and fatigue along the way, while others were sold to the Kurds. In the city of Siirt about 650 Syriac Orthodox people and 2 priests died and one church destroyed