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Elbeğendi
Neighbourhood
ElbeğendiLocation in Turkey
Coordinates: 37°16′59″N 41°24′29″E / 37.283°N 41.408°E / 37.283; 41.408
Country	Turkey
Province	Mardin
District	Midyat
Population	46
Time zone	UTC+3 (TRT)

Elbeğendi (Kurdish: Xerabê Kefrê; Syriac: Kafro Tahtoyo) is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Midyat, Mardin Province in Turkey. The village is populated by Assyrians and had a population of 46 in 2021. It is located atop Mount Izla in the historic region of Tur Abdin.

In the village, there is a church of Mor Jacob.

History

In 1914, Kafro Tahtoyo (today called Elbeğendi) was inhabited by 250 Assyrians, according to the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. They belonged to the Syriac Orthodox Church. It was located in the kaza of Habab (attached to the kaza of Nusaybin). Amidst the Sayfo, the village was attacked and some survivors took refuge at the nearby Monastery of Mor Malke whilst others went to ‘Ayn-Wardo. Several hundred Christians at the Mor Malke Monastery, mostly refugees from Kafro Tahtoyo, retaliated and attacked Sheweske on 21 August.

There were 274 residents in 1960. By 1966, 310 Turoyo-speaking Christians in 37 families inhabited Kafro Tahtoyo. The village was forcibly evacuated by the Turkish army in 1995. The villagers emigrated abroad to Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden. In 2006, 17 Assyrian families returned to the village from Augsburg and Göppingen in Germany, and Trüllikon and Zürich in Switzerland. An Assyrian from Kafro Tahtoyo was shot by Kurdish shepherds in 2008 after he had instructed them to take their herds off his land. In late July 2019, Assyrian properties in Kafro Tahtoyo were struck by suspected arson attacks.

Demography

The following is a list of the number of Assyrian families that have inhabited Kafro Tahtoyo per year stated. Unless otherwise stated, all figures are from the list provided in Eastern Christianity, Theological Reflection on Religion, Culture, and Politics in the Holy Land and Christian Encounter with Islam and the Muslim World, as noted in the bibliography below.

• 1915: 30
• 1966: 37
• 1978: 44
• 1979: 37
• 1981: 23
• 1987: 15
• 1995: 0
• 1997: 0
• 2013: 12

Notable people

• Iskender Alptekin (1961–2010), Assyrian politician

References

Notes

1. Also spelt as Harabkefri, Harapkefri, Haraba Kefri, Kharaba Kafra, Kharaba Kefri, Keferi, or Xırabê Käfrê.
2. Alternatively transliterated as Käfro taḥtäito, Kafro Tachtayto, Kafro-Tahtayo, Kafro Tahtayto, or Kafro Tahtoyto. Also called Lower Kafro or simply Kafro, in contrast with Upper Kafro (Kafro Elayto). Nisba: Käfrōyo.
3. The size of a single family varies between five and ten persons.

Citations

1. ^ "31 ARALIK 2021 TARİHLİ ADRESE DAYALI NÜFUS KAYIT SİSTEMİ (ADNKS) SONUÇLARI" (XLS). TÜİK (in Turkish). Retrieved 16 December 2022.
2. Jongerden & Verheij (2012), p. 325; Sinclair (1989), p. 325; Barsoum (2008), p. 15; Ritter (1967), p. 14.
3. Biner (2019), p. x.
4. Courtois (2004), p. 226; Courtois (2013), p. 146; Gaunt (2006), p. 232; Güsten (2016), p. 11; Ritter (1967), p. 14.
5. Jongerden & Verheij (2012), p. 325; Palmer (1990), p. xx; Gaunt (2006), pp. 231–232.
6. ^ Ritter (1967), p. 14.
7. "Türkiye Mülki İdare Bölümleri Envanteri". T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı (in Turkish). Retrieved 19 December 2022.
8. Andrews & Benninghaus (1989), p. 206.
9. Barsoum (2008), p. 15; Birol (2017), p. 175.
10. "Threatened or destroyed churches and monasteries in the Tur Abdin". Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch Archdiocese of the Western United States. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
11. Gaunt (2006), pp. 232, 425.
12. Jongerden & Verheij (2012), p. 325.
13. Gaunt (2006), p. 425.
14. Gaunt (2006), pp. 202, 232.
15. Gaunt (2006), p. 241.
16. Brock (2021), p. 168; Güsten (2016), p. 11.
17. ^ Courtois (2013), p. 146.
18. Çaglar (2013), p. 122; Güsten (2016), p. 11.
19. Güsten (2016), p. 30.
20. "Küllerinden doğan Süryani halkını, yangınlarla korkutamazsınız". Assyrian Genocide Research Centre (in Turkish). 5 August 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
21. Brock (2021), p. 168.
22. Brock (2021), p. 167.
23. Courtois (2004), p. 226.

Bibliography

• Andrews, Peter Alford; Benninghaus, Rüdiger, eds. (1989). Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey.
• Barsoum, Aphrem (2008). The History of Tur Abdin. Translated by Matti Moosa. Gorgias Press. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
• Biner, Zerrin Ozlem (2019). States of Dispossession: Violence and Precarious Coexistence in Southeast Turkey. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Birol, Simon (2017). "Interpretation of the 'Sayfo' in Gallo Shabo's Poem". In David Gaunt; Naures Atto; Soner O. Barthoma (eds.). Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide against the Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire (PDF). pp. 157–177. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
• Brock, Sebastian (2021). "The Syrian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century". Eastern Christianity, Theological Reflection on Religion, Culture, and Politics in the Holy Land and Christian Encounter with Islam and the Muslim World (PDF). Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust. pp. 155–181. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
• Çaglar, Ayşe (2013). "Rescaling cities, cultural diversity, and transnationalism: Migrants of Mardin and Essen". In Steven Vertovec (ed.). Anthropology of Migration and Multiculturalism: New Directions. Routledge. pp. 113–138.
• Courtois, Sébastien de (2004). The Forgotten Genocide: Eastern Christians, The Last Arameans. Translated by Vincent Aurora. Gorgias Press. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
• Courtois, Sébastien de (2013). "Tur Abdin : Réflexions sur l'état présent descommunautés syriaques du Sud-Est de la Turquie,mémoire, exils, retours". Cahier du Gremmamo (in French). 21: 113–150.
• Gaunt, David (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Gorgias Press. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
• Güsten, Susanne (2016). A Farewell to Tur Abdin (PDF). Retrieved 18 October 2024.
• Jongerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle, eds. (2012). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Brill. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
• Palmer, Andrew (1990). Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Tur Abdin. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
• Ritter, Hellmut (1967). Turoyo: Die Volkssprache der Syrischen Christen des Tur 'Abdin (in German). Vol. 1. Franz Steiner Verlag.
• Sinclair, T.A. (1989). Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey. Vol. III. Pindar Press. ISBN 9780907132349.

• Assyrian communities in Turkey
• Tur Abdin
• Neighbourhoods in Midyat District
• Places of the Assyrian genocide
• Forcibly depopulated communities