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AN OUTPOST OF ARAMAIC SPEAKERS: THE BATTLE FOR MOR GABRIEL
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/20128/an-outpost-of-aramaic-speakers-the-battle-for-mor-gabriel.html
23:33, November 1, 2012
When the Young Turks enlisted Kurdish tribesmen to take part in the
mass slaughter of the Armenians in 1915, Muslim clerics spurred on
their flocks: those who slew Christians would be blessed with wealth
and beautiful girls and their places in heaven assured. Although the
deaths of around 1m Ottoman Armenians are well documented, little is
known about the tens of thousands of Syriacs, one the world's oldest
Christian communities, who fell with them.
>From Stockholm to Sydney, an increasingly vocal Syriac diaspora is
lobbying for international recognition of the killings as genocide.
Home to a large population of Syriacs, Sweden already has. As
the centenary of the 1915 tragedy looms Turkey is waging a counter
campaign and an ancient monastery in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east
is feeling the heat. Perched on a barren hilltop near the town of
Midyat, the monastery called Mor Gabriel, is at the centre of a land
dispute pitting Kurdish villagers backed by Turkey's mildly Islamist
government against Timotheos Samuel Aktas, the combative crimson-robed
bishop. His ever-shrinking flock speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus
Christ. Monks at the monastery are struggling to pass it down.
The Syriacs' latest troubles started when Kurds from surrounding
villages began claiming land in and around Mor Gabriel just as a
steady trickle of Syriacs began returning from Europe. Many were
encouraged by the ruling Justice and Development party's embrace of
minorities after it shot to single rule in 2002. But as the Syriacs
began rebuilding their homes, the Kurds grew hostile. And in a stream
of complaints to the local prosecutor they claimed that "strangers"
gathered "secretly" for "illegal activities" at the monastery which
itself had been erected on top of a mosque. "Never mind that Mor
Gabriel existed 174 years before the birth of the prophet Mohammed,"
huffed the bishop on a recent afternoon.
Until recently the bishop and his entourage viewed their travails as
greed robed in Islamic piety. That was until the Treasury intervened
in 2009 and began claiming the monastery's land as well. At a recent
hearing, a local court ruled in favour of the Treasury even though
the monastery had presented documents proving its ownership of the
contested properties and that it had been paying their taxes for
decades. The prosecution claimed it had no record of these. As news
of these legal tangles has spread, the Syriacs have stopped returning.
Separate audiences with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister,
and Abdullah Gul, the president, held last year failed to make a
difference And both leaders appeared to allude to the Syriacs' campaign
for recognition of the 1915 massacres as a genocide. "Your community
abroad is talking," they complained to Mr Aktas. The monastery has
appealed to a higher court. True justice, says the bishop, will be
delivered by God.
The Economist; November 1, 2012
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/20128/an-outpost-of-aramaic-speakers-the-battle-for-mor-gabriel.html
23:33, November 1, 2012
When the Young Turks enlisted Kurdish tribesmen to take part in the
mass slaughter of the Armenians in 1915, Muslim clerics spurred on
their flocks: those who slew Christians would be blessed with wealth
and beautiful girls and their places in heaven assured. Although the
deaths of around 1m Ottoman Armenians are well documented, little is
known about the tens of thousands of Syriacs, one the world's oldest
Christian communities, who fell with them.
>From Stockholm to Sydney, an increasingly vocal Syriac diaspora is
lobbying for international recognition of the killings as genocide.
Home to a large population of Syriacs, Sweden already has. As
the centenary of the 1915 tragedy looms Turkey is waging a counter
campaign and an ancient monastery in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east
is feeling the heat. Perched on a barren hilltop near the town of
Midyat, the monastery called Mor Gabriel, is at the centre of a land
dispute pitting Kurdish villagers backed by Turkey's mildly Islamist
government against Timotheos Samuel Aktas, the combative crimson-robed
bishop. His ever-shrinking flock speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus
Christ. Monks at the monastery are struggling to pass it down.
The Syriacs' latest troubles started when Kurds from surrounding
villages began claiming land in and around Mor Gabriel just as a
steady trickle of Syriacs began returning from Europe. Many were
encouraged by the ruling Justice and Development party's embrace of
minorities after it shot to single rule in 2002. But as the Syriacs
began rebuilding their homes, the Kurds grew hostile. And in a stream
of complaints to the local prosecutor they claimed that "strangers"
gathered "secretly" for "illegal activities" at the monastery which
itself had been erected on top of a mosque. "Never mind that Mor
Gabriel existed 174 years before the birth of the prophet Mohammed,"
huffed the bishop on a recent afternoon.
Until recently the bishop and his entourage viewed their travails as
greed robed in Islamic piety. That was until the Treasury intervened
in 2009 and began claiming the monastery's land as well. At a recent
hearing, a local court ruled in favour of the Treasury even though
the monastery had presented documents proving its ownership of the
contested properties and that it had been paying their taxes for
decades. The prosecution claimed it had no record of these. As news
of these legal tangles has spread, the Syriacs have stopped returning.
Separate audiences with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister,
and Abdullah Gul, the president, held last year failed to make a
difference And both leaders appeared to allude to the Syriacs' campaign
for recognition of the 1915 massacres as a genocide. "Your community
abroad is talking," they complained to Mr Aktas. The monastery has
appealed to a higher court. True justice, says the bishop, will be
delivered by God.
The Economist; November 1, 2012