Arıca, Gercüş

Arıca (Kurdish: Kefri;^[1][a] Syriac: Kafro Elayto)^[1][b] is a village in the district of Gercüş, Batman Province in Turkey. It is populated by Syriacs and by Kurds of the Kercoz tribe.^[6] In 2021, the population was 344.^[7] It is located in the historic region of Tur Abdin.^[8]

Arıca
Village
Arıca Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 37.509°N 41.444°E / 37.509; 41.444
Country	Turkey
Province	Batman
District	Gercüş
Population  (2021)	344
Time zone	UTC+3 (TRT)

In the village, there are churches of Mor Aho and Mor Dimet, Mor Ya’qub, and of Mor Barsaumo.^[9][10] The ruins of the Monastery of Mor Barsaumo are located nearby.^[11]

Etymology

The Syriac name of the village is derived from "kefr" ("village" in Syriac).^[12]

History

In 1454 (AG 1765), many men from Kafro Eloyto (today called Arıca) were suffocated to death by smoke by Turks of the clan of Hasan Beg, according to the account of the priest Addai of Basibrina in c. 1500 appended to the Chronography of Bar Hebraeus.^[13] Iyawannis Qufar, son of Benjamin of Kafra, was ordained as the Syriac Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Gargar between 1492 and 1494.^[14] Philoxenus Abd al-Ahad Massi, abbot and bishop of Mor Gabriel Monastery (r. 1913–1915), was from Kafro Eloyto.^[15]

In 1914, 400 Syriacs inhabited Kafro Elayto, as per the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation.^[16] There were 80 Syriac families and 30 Kurdish families in 1915.^[17] The Syriacs adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[18] Amidst the Sayfo, the village was surrounded by Kurds led by Yusuf Agha, son of Hasan Shamdin, the owner of Kfar-Gawze, and the Syriacs barricaded themselves in the Church of Mor Ya’qub.^[19] As they were unprepared, the Syriacs left the church after five days upon receiving assurances from Yusuf Agha, who subsequently killed their leaders and destroyed the houses in the village.^[19]

The village was inhabited by 507 people in 1960.^[5] In 1966, there were 720 Turoyo-speaking Christians in 72 families and were served by one priest.^[5] It was entirely populated by Syriacs in 1978.^[20] By 1987, there were 25 Syriac families.^[21] There may have been Syriacs at Kafro Elayto in 1999, but there were no remaining Syriacs in the village by 2012/2013.^[22]

Notable people

• Mor Julius Yeshu Cicek (1942–2005), Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Central Europe
• Mehmet Şimşek (b. 1967), Turkish politician