Beth Kustan
Neighbourhood
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
CountryTurkey
ProvinceMardin
DistrictMidyat
Population
 (2022)[1]
154
Time zoneTRT (UTC+3)

Beth Kustan (Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܩܘܣܛܢ,[2][3][nb 1] Turkish: Alagöz or Bethkustan)[1] is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Midyat, Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey.[6] It is located in the historical region of Tur Abdin. Beth Kustan is inhabited by Assyrians who belong to the Syriac Orthodox Church and speak Turoyo, a dialect of Neo-Aramaic.[7][8]

In the village, there are churches of Mor Dimet and Mor Eliyo.[9][10]

The village had a population of 154 in 2022.[1]

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".[9]

History

The church of Mor Eliyo was constructed in 343 AD.[11] It is suggested that the village was founded by a member of the Roman limitanei (frontier militia) named Constans in the 4th century AD.[12]

At the onset of the Assyrian genocide, in 1915, Haco, agha (chief) of the Kurtak tribe, warned the villagers of an impending attack by Turkish and Kurdish soldiers.[13] Despite initial hesitation, upon receiving news of the massacre of Assyrians at Zaz, all but two villagers fled to the neighbouring village of Hah.[13] Beth Kustan was subsequently ransacked by Kurdish soldiers, and the two remaining villagers were killed.[13] The Assyrians 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 tribe, helped them to return to Beth Kustan in 1922.[14]

The village was officially named Alagöz in the 1930s as a result of the state's turkification policy.[8][15] Most of the village's population were forced to leave in the 1960s and 1970s due to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict and emigrated abroad to the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.[10][15][16] In 1993, it was alleged that seven villagers were detained and tortured by Turkish paramilitaries.[17] On 12 February 2015, Beth Kustan was restored as the official name of the village.[15]

Demography

The following is a list of the number of families that have inhabited Beth Kustan per year stated. Unless otherwise stated, all figures are from the list provided in Eastern Christianity, Theological Reflection on Religion, Culture, and Politics in the Holy Land and Christian Encounter with Islam and the Muslim World, as noted in the bibliography below.[7][nb 2]

  • 1900: c. 200[8]
  • 1966: 155
  • 1978: 73
  • 1979: 62
  • 1981: 63
  • 1987: 30
  • 1995: 15
  • 1997: 17
  • 2013: 15–23[16]
  • 2021: 15[10]
Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1985279—    
1990150−11.67%
199794−6.46%
2007115+2.04%
2012145+4.75%
2017164+2.49%
2022154−1.25%
Source: 1985 census,[18] 1990 census,[19] 1997 census[20] and TÜIK (2007-2022)[1]

Notable people

  • Gabriel of Beth Qustan (573/574–648), Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Tur Abdin
  • Timotheos Samuel Aktaş (b. 1945), Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Tur Abdin.[5]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Alternatively transliterated as Beth Qustan,[2] Boqusyono,[4] or Bekusyone.[5]
  2. ↑ The size of a single family varies between five and ten persons.[7]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Population Of Municipalities, Villages And Quarters". TÜIK. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  2. 1 2 Carlson, Thomas A. (9 December 2016). "Beth Qustan". The Syriac Gazetteer. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "Bethkustan.de". Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  4. ↑ Gaunt (2012), p. 264.
  5. 1 2 "Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas". Malankara Syriac Christian Resources. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  6. ↑ "Türkiye Mülki İdare Bölümleri Envanteri". T.C. İçişleri Bakanlığı (in Turkish). Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Brock (2021), p. 167.
  8. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 Takahashi (2011), p. 163.
  10. 1 2 3 Mehmed Salih Bedirxan (4 March 2021). "A life in service of Assyrian culture". Inside Turkey. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  11. ↑ Sofuoglu, Murat (5 September 2017). "Assyrians return to Turkey from Europe to save their culture". TRT World. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  12. ↑ Palmer (1990), p. 55.
  13. 1 2 3 Gaunt (2006), p. 223.
  14. ↑ Gaunt 2006, p. 223; Gaunt 2012, p. 264.
  15. 1 2 3 Vardar, Nilay (12 February 2015). "Assyrian Village Name Returned For 1st Time in Turkey". Bianet. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  16. 1 2 Courtois (2013), p. 149.
  17. ↑ "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.
  18. ↑ "1985 General Census" (PDF) (in Turkish). Turkish Statistical Institute. 1986. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 May 2021.
  19. ↑ "1990 General Census" (PDF) (in Turkish). Turkish Statistical Institute. 1991. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 August 2021.
  20. ↑ "1997 Population Count" (PDF) (in Turkish). Turkish Statistical Institute. 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 October 2022.

Bibliography

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