Two Documents on the 1895 Massacres of Syriacs in the Province of Diyarbekir: A Discussion

The massacres of 1895-1896 targeted mainly Armenians, but many Assyrians of various religious denominations were also caught up in the violence and plundering. This presentation is based on several hitherto unused sources which focus on the Assyrian experience. One is the narrative of Makdisi Habib Jarwe who was a Syriac Catholic priest serving in Mardin and who died in 1915. The second source comes from a diary-like notebook composed by the American missionary Alpheus Andrus, based in Mardin. The towns and villages covered are those in which the American missionaries brought some help to Syriac communities such as the towns of Mardin and Siirt as well as the Beshiri region.