Under Ottoman rule, Şirvan was a kaza of the sancak of Siirt in the Bitlis Vilayet, and the village of Küfre (‘village’ in Syriac, today called Şirvan) served as its administrative center.
Population
The county of Şirvan was largely inhabited by Muslim Kurds. Christians – Syriacs and Armenians – constituted roughly 20% of the total population of the kaza. Of the total 200-odd settlements in the canton, 28 were Christian, most of which were predominantly inhabited by Syriac Orthodox Christians.
As a consequence of the removal of local Kurdish overlords as part of the Ottoman policy of centralization in the 1830s and 1840s, rural areas in the county were made vulnerable to oppression and exploitation by Kurdish tribes. Christians were also the victims of religious persecution, that led many Christians to emigrate, as well as a small number of Kurds due to economic hardship, and resulted in the gradual demographic Kurdification of this kaza.
By 1895, Küfre was populated by Syriacs and Kurds, with some Armenian families. In the same year, amidst the Hamidian massacres, the village was attacked by Kurdish nomads, allegedly with the permission of the acting kaymakam (county governor), Fatha Bey. It was reported that all Christian houses were looted, and 25 Syriacs and Armenians were killed. As well as this, almost every Christian village in the district was attacked in October–November 1895. James Henry Monahan, British vice-consul of Bitlis, reported that 179 Christians (151 men and 18 women) were killed, however it is suggested that this figure may under-represent the total figure.
In order to avoid future attacks, almost all Syriacs and Armenians ostensibly converted to Islam on the suggestion of sedentary Kurds. The large majority of converts privately reconverted to Christianity within several years after the massacres of 1895, and only three converted villages in the district remained Muslim when visited by Monahan. Oppression of Christians worsened considerably in the aftermath of the massacres, thereby increasing Christian emigration; of 22 villages in the county, over half of the population left. Despite this, a number of crypto-Christian villages have endured into the 21st century.
At the eve of the First World War there lived 2,853 Armenians in 19 localities of the kaza, maintaining eleven churches and two schools for 60 students.[1]
History
A Şirvan Emirate (Kurdish: Mîrektiya Şêrwanê) existed from 1264-1840s. It was a Kurdish beylik centered around Şirvan after the fall of the Ayyubid dynasty in 1264. The emirate ultimately lost its autonomy due to the Ottoman centralization policies in the mid-1840s, when its Kurdish leaders were driven out. At its peak, the emirate included much of the area from Bitlis to Hakkâri including Kurtalan (Ğarzan, Kharzan) and its rulers were loyal to Bohtan Emirate to the south and its leader Bedir Khan Beg.
When Timur swept the region in 1394, he also captured Şirvan which he handed over to Qara Osman of the Aq Qoyunlu in 1402. After shortly being under Kara Koyunlu reign, Uzun Hasan recaptured the region for the Aq Qoyunlu again in 1468. The region was captured by the Ismail I 1508. After the Ottoman victory in the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 and the supportive stance among the local Kurds, Selim I chose to let Idris Bitlisi and Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha administer the area until Constatinople centralized its power in the mid 1840s. Although removed from power, the descendants of the former Kurdish rulers of Şirvan still commanded respect in the area towards the end of the 19th century.
Destruction
Similar to the kaza Hizan, Şirvan’s Christian population was reduced as the region became increasingly Kurdish in the late 19th century: through massacres, forced Islamization, and flight. “Nobody knows what became of the (…) 2,853 Armenians from the villages and towns of the kaza of Şirvan / Shirvan”, stated the French Armenian historian Raymond Kévorkian for the events during the First World War .[2]
Jelle Verheij: “The year of the firman:” The 1895 massacres in Hizan and Şirvan (Bitlis vilayet)
“There were four clusters of Christian habitation: 1) the district center of Küfre; 2) a north-western group, in an area presently in the district of Baykan; 3) a southern group, on the north side of the Bohtan Valley, bordering on Pervari; 4) the valley and sub-district (nahiye) of İrun (now Cevizli sub-district), to which is added the isolated village of Maden, to the south.
Küfre (Şirvan)
Although it was the administrative center of the kaza, Küfre was nothing more than a village. It had a mixed population of Kurds, Syrian Orthodox and some Armenian families. It was attacked by nomads of the ‘Mahometan’ and ‘Strugan’ tribes, reportedly allowed by Fatha Bey, a local notable and acting kaymakam. All the Christian houses were reported as plundered, with 25 Armenians and Syriacs killed.
North-western cluster
Kondudizan (Suludere): a Syrian-orthodox village attacked by Kurds of the ‘Demli’ tribe in November 1895, with local Kurds partaking in the plunder. According to an Armenian report, half of the population was massacred, and the headman burned alive; Monahan, however, says 12 were killed, including the village priest, and three families died from hunger or disease after the massacre; the rest of the population converted to Islam, but reconverted in the summer of 1896.
Derzin (Adakale): a collective name for three settlements, only one Armenian populated. The place was probably attacked by Motki and ‘Atmangli’ Kurds; all villagers converted to Islam, but after their migration to Bitlis, reconverted in 1897. There were no casualties reported. According to Raymond Kévorkian, the Armenian population disappeared in 1895, which would mean they never returned from Bitlis.
Minar (Dilektepe): another village named Armenian in Armenian sources, but Syrian-orthodox by others. According to one source it was completely ruined, and no inhabitants were left because of massacre, plundering, and kidnappings. Kévorkian and Paboudjian assert that the village lost its population in 1895. Monahan heard that the inhabitants were not molested, but he could not speak with them when passing the village.
Kiğan (İkizler): an Armenian village where it is claimed that a massacre took place, with half of the population killed. According to [British vice-consul James Henry] Monahan, who visited the village, it was attacked and plundered by Kurds from Motki (possibly the Atmangli tribe, since they continued to harass the village afterwards), but no lives were lost and no-one converted. Four men from the village, who worked as muleteers, were killed elsewhere, however, and 10 of 30 households left the village after 1895.
The serious character of the disturbances according to the letter from the Bitlis correspondent was not confirmed by Monahan, who gives a total of 16 victims in this sector.
Southern cluster
Gili (Durankaya): a small Armenian village of six houses that was protected by Kurds. No plunder or conversion. Monahan found the community relatively prosperous during his visit in 1898.
Birki (Yatağan, a hamlet [mezra] linked to Taşlı village): Armenian village of 14 households, pillaged by the followers of a sheikh from Siirt. All Armenians converted to Islam but reconverted a year later. Eight families left the village.
Dirik (Ayram, mezra of Taşlı village): a small Armenian village of four households, but reportedly formerly much larger, attacked, pillaged, and destroyed, with two people killed. The survivors converted to Islam, and in 1898 were still nominally Muslim. The attackers are not mentioned.
Hendek (İncecik, mezra of Belençay village): an Armenian village, attacked, but no details available. The inhabitants converted to Islam and were still Muslim in 1898.
Simhor (Sarıdana): described as the largest Christian village in the region, with 50 houses. Not attacked in 1895, due to a hired Kurdish guard.
Kevijan (Yolbaşı): formerly, a larger Armenian village of 20 houses, included in a Bitlis correspondent list of villages where half of the population was killed. According to Monahan there were no victims, only the church was pillaged and the population survived by converting to Islam but reconverted a year later.
Nibin (Turgutlu, mezra of Nallıkaya village): a relatively large Armenian village of 40 households. Scene of a terrible massacre, killing 33 people. Many of the survivors (38 households) fled to Bitlis, two remaining families converted to Islam. The Ottoman authorities sent the refugees back, but evidently they fled again, since in 1898 the village only counted seven households. The attackers were Kurds, without specification.
Kosih (İncesırt): a Syrian-Orthodox village. The villagers lost all their cattle, but were “protected” by an agha of a neighboring village, who demanded that the population convert to Islam. They reconverted in 1896.
Merç (Suluyazı): Syrian-Orthodox village. Two people killed, all 9 families converted to Islam, 7 families fled, 2 remained and were still Muslim in 1898. Some Kurdish families settled here.
With the exception of the massacre in Nibin, relatively little bloodshed occurred here. Total number of victims: 39 (including four killed in 1897).
The İrun (Cevizlik) sub-district
A secluded valley in the north-eastern corner of Şirvan, on the border with Hizan, this district had a majority Christian population. According to Monahan, 11 of the 16-17 villages here were Syrian-Orthodox, two Armenian and three or four Kurdish. Armenian sources mention at least four Armenian villages. One night in November, all the villages suffered a combined attack from three Kurdish tribes, comprising the Atmangli together with the ‘Modeki’ [Motki] and ‘Demli’. Reportedly, the local Kurdish inhabitants did not take part in the plunder and tried in many cases to protect their Christian neighbors. According to Monahan a total of 73 people were killed. The anonymous correspondent from Bitlis states that massacres took place, without supplying victim numbers, but adding that after the massacres, 23 people died from hunger in the village of Zınzık (Oya). It is unclear whether Monahan took note of that. Reportedly nearly all the survivors fled, but 18 families who stayed behind converted to Islam. They reconverted in April 1896, with the exception of the inhabitants of one small village, Direk (not the village of the same name in the south of Şirvan listed above)
Maden (Madenköy): a Syrian-Orthodox village south of the İrun sub-district; it was attacked by ‘Demli’ Kurds, plundered and burned, and 20 inhabitants were killed. Ten of the twenty families migrated to Bitlis, the rest stayed in houses rebuilt by the authorities.
The total number of victims in this area was at least 92, though it is unclear whether mortality due to hunger and illness, explicitly mentioned by one of the sources, should be included in this figure.”
Excerpted from: Verheij, Jelle: “The year of the firman:” The 1895 massacres in Hizan and Şirvan (Bitlis vilayet). “Études Arméniennes Contemporaines“, March 2018, 10(10), https://journals.openedition.org/eac/1495