Ormankaya, Hazro

Ormankaya (Kurdish: Şimşim; Syriac: Šemšem)^[1][a] is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Hazro, Diyarbakır Province in Turkey.^[3][4] It is populated by Kurds and had a population of 870 in 2022.^[5][6] It is located atop the Mountain of Takh.^[7]

Ormankaya
Neighbourhood
Ormankaya Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 38°18′N 40°46′E
Country	Turkey
Province	Diyarbakır
District	Hazro
Population  (2022)	870
Time zone	UTC+3 (TRT)

History

Šemšem (today called Ormankaya) was historically inhabited by Syriac Orthodox Christians and Armenians.^[8] The village belonged to the Syriac Orthodox diocese of Hattack.^[9] In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had eighty-four households, who paid one hundred and twenty-eight dues, and it did not have a priest.^[1] There were Syriac Orthodox churches of Morī Agrīpūs and Mortī Šmūnī.^[1] In 1880, there were forty-four Armenian hearths.^[10] There was an Armenian church of Surb Hovhannes.^[10] In 1914, it was populated by 800 Syriacs, according to the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation.^[11] It was located in the kaza of Lice.^[11] The village's population was massacred before mid-July 1915 amidst the Sayfo by gangs of çetes.^[12]