Beth Kustan, Midyat

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Beth Kustan
Beth Kustan is located in Turkey
Beth Kustan
Beth Kustan
Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 37°29′42″N 41°37′34″E / 37.495°N 41.626°E / 37.495; 41.626
Country Turkey
ProvinceMardin Province
DistrictMidyat
Population
 (2019)[1]
 • Total167
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)

Beth Kustan (Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܩܣܝܢܐ,[2][nb 1] Turkish: Alagöz) is a village in Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey. It is located in the district of Midyat and the historical region of Tur Abdin.

In the village, there is a church of Mor Eliyo.[5]

Etymology

The Syriac name of the village is derived from "beth" ("house" in Syriac) and "Kustan" ("Constantine" in Syriac), thus Beth Kustan translates to "house of Constantine".[5]

History

The Church of Mor Eliyo was constructed in 343 AD.[6] It is suggested that the village was founded by a member of the Roman limitanei (frontier militia) named Constans in the 4th century AD.[7]

In 1900, Beth Kustan was inhabited by an estimated 200 Assyrian families.[8] At the onset of the Assyrian genocide, in 1915, Haco, agha (chief) of the Kurtak clan, warned the villagers of an impending attack by Turkish and Kurdish soldiers.[9] Despite initial hesitation, upon receiving news of the massacre of Assyrians at Zaz, all but two villagers fled to Hah.[9] Beth Kustan was subsequently ransacked by Kurdish soldiers, and the two remaining villagers were killed.[9] The villagers resisted Kurdish and Turkish attacks at Hah until a truce was negotiated by Haco, but were not able to leave until Çelebi, agha of the Heverkan clan, helped them to return to Beth Kustan in 1922.[3][9]

The village was officially named Alagöz in the 1930s as a result of the state's turkification policy.[8][10] In the 1960s,[10] most of the village's population emigrated abroad to the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.[11] In 1993, it was alleged that seven villagers were detained and tortured by Turkish paramilitaries.[12] As of 2013, 15-23 Assyrian families inhabit Beth Kustan.[11] On 12 February 2015, Beth Kustan was restored as the official name of the village.[10] The inhabitants speak Turoyo, a dialect of Neo-Aramaic.[8]

Notable people

  • Saint Gabriel of Beth Qustan (573/574-648), Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Tur Abdin
  • Timotheos Samuel Aktaş (b. 1945), Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Tur Abdin

References

Notes

  1. ^ Alternatively transliterated as Beth Qustan,[2] Boqusyono,[3] or Bekusyone.[4]

Citations

  1. ^ "BETHKUSTAN MAHALLESİ NÜFUSU MİDYAT MARDİN". Türkiye Nüfusu (in Turkish). Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b Carlson, Thomas A. (9 December 2016). "Beth Qustan". The Syriac Gazetteer. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  3. ^ a b Gaunt (2012), p. 264.
  4. ^ "Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas". Malankara Syriac Christian Resources. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  5. ^ a b Takahashi (2011), p. 163.
  6. ^ Sofuoglu, Murat (5 September 2017). "Assyrians return to Turkey from Europe to save their culture". TRT World. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  7. ^ Palmer (1990), p. 55.
  8. ^ a b c Oez, Mikael (2017). "Documentation of the Beth Qustan Dialect of the Central Neo-Aramaic language, Turoyo". SOAS, Endangered Languages Archive, ELAR. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d Gaunt (2006), p. 223.
  10. ^ a b c Vardar, Nilay (12 February 2015). "Assyrian Village Name Returned For 1st Time in Turkey". Bianet. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  11. ^ a b Courtois (2013), p. 149.
  12. ^ "U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1993 - Turkey". United States Department of State. 30 January 1994. Retrieved 11 January 2020.

Bibliography

  • 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, vol. 21 (in French): 113–150.
  • Gaunt, Gaunt (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Gorgias Press.
  • Gaunt, Gaunt (2012). "Relations between Kurds and Syriacs and Assyrians in Late Ottoman Diyarbekir". Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915, ed. Joost Jongerden, Jelle Verheij. Brill. pp. 241–267.
  • Palmer, Andrew (1990). Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Tur Abdin. Cambridge University Press.
  • Takahashi, Hidemi (2011). "Also via Istanbul to New Haven- Mss. Yale Syriac 7-12". Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Dimitri Gutas, ed. Felicitas Opwis, David Reisman. Brill. pp. 157–179.
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