Nowadays when people talk about Southeast Anatolia and the city of Diyarbakir, the first thing that comes to their mind is the very well-publicised ongoing political and armed struggles between Turkey's Kurdish minorities and the Turkish government. The 'Kurdish Question' has been such a dominant issue in the last 50 years that when it comes to Diyarbakir, it seems people simply cannot come to think of the city in any other way apart from its association with Kurdish miitants and its reputation as the hotbed of Kurdish nationalism.
The fact that most people would equate Diyarbakir right away with Kurds and Kurdish conflicts reflects just how successful the Turkish state's efforts to erase the past from the present have been. How many of us still remember that Diyarbakir was once home to a sizeable Christian popuation prior to the genocide in the late 19th and early 20th century, and that a quarter of all civil populations in today's eastern Anatolian provinces of Erzurum, Elazig (formerly Harput), Erzincan, Diyarbakir, Bingol, Bitlis, Sivas, Tunceli etc. was Christians of various ethnic groups and denominations?
If you look at the old archival photos of the city of Diyarbakir and other villages in the neighbouring countryside taken before 1915, you will not fail to realise the presence of a sizeable, vibrant Armenian community in this part of the country. Yet less than one century later, most of the buildings and monument related to the presence of Armenians in this part of Southeast Anatolia were largely wiped out: destroyed, confisticated by the state and turn into other uses, or are in such a dilapidated state that one coud hardly recognise what they were. In addition to neglect or destruction of Christian places of worship and public buildings, even the site where an entire Armenian village once had stood on the outskirt of the city on the other side of the Tigris river was completely demolished before being turn into the new campus of Diyarbakir's Dicle University. Nowadays the only thing that could give a hint to Diyarbakir's Christian past was the ruins of some Armenian and other Christian churches scattered around the old town of Diyarbakir and some regional towns.
According to one estimate, there were at least a dozen Armenian, Assyrian and other Christian churches in pre-1915 Diyarbakir. This number would certainly be higher if one includes the churches located in the smaller towns and villages in the administrative boundary of modern day Diyarbakir province. Towns such as Cungus, Ergani, Maden were all once home to large numbers of Armenians. The clock towers and belfries of the Christian churches used to be a prominent features of Diyarbakir's skyline in the pre-1915 years. Nowdays, with a few exceptions, most of these churches had either been destroyed, fallen into disuse, converted into mosques or other buildings, or simply left to rot in the open. As of November 2011, if one includes the recently restored Surp Giragos Armenian Orthodox Church, only three churches from the pre-1915 period are still intact and in active or partially-active service in Diyarbakir.
One of the churches in Diyarbakir which has escaped the fate of plunder and destruction, and is still used as a place of worship, is the Mar Peytun Chaldean Catholic Church. Built in the 17th century, this church served as the Chaldean Patriarchate of the Eastern Assyrian Christians until recently, and is still open for worship on certain occasions. Located very close to the recently restored Surp Giragos Armenian Orthodox Church and the Four-footed minaret, the entrance to this church is in a small side alley about 50m away from the Four-footed minaret. Once inside, the church is flanked on one side by a small courtyard and the partial ruins of the adjoining building. The interior of the church is very simple, with an altar, a few painting of saints on the wall and the arches, and a small table with some candles and souvenirs for sale, where visitors can donate a small sums and lit a candle and pray for their loved ones.
As these surviving churches in Turkey do not receive any financial helps or subsidies from the Turkish state, and the resources available from the Christian community in Diyarbakir are extremely limited due to the small size of this community living the city, this church could rely only on donations from diasporas and visitors for their upkeep and maintainence. Any donations, regardless of the amount, from visitors to the church to enable the continued presence of their culture and heritage in their traditional homeland, is a gesture of good will and would be deeply appreciated.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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