WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.060 Welcome everyone, and especially a massive welcome 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:06.000 to you, our listener, for joining us today on 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.679 another custom tailored deep dive. We've got 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:11.949 a... well... a pretty heavy stack of source material 00:00:11.949 --> 00:00:14.570 in front of us today. We really do. It's meticulously 00:00:14.570 --> 00:00:17.410 detailed. Lots of historical archives, demographic 00:00:17.410 --> 00:00:19.910 records, geopolitical data. Yeah. And we're going 00:00:19.910 --> 00:00:21.910 to use all of that to extract the most critical 00:00:21.910 --> 00:00:25.750 insights from a deeply complex, incredibly dark, 00:00:26.010 --> 00:00:28.149 and honestly often overlooked period of early 00:00:28.149 --> 00:00:30.660 20th century history. Right. The paramount piece 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:33.520 of global history. We are focusing our lens on 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.399 the shifting volatile geopolitical forces during 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:39.140 the First World War, specifically the era from 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:42.859 1914 to roughly 1924. Which violently redrew 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:45.460 the map of the Middle East. Yeah. And an unimaginable 00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:47.920 human cost. Absolutely. So our specific topic 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:51.000 today is the safe foe or seafo. And just for 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.640 context, that is a neo -aramaic word that translates 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.880 literally to sword. But since the 10th century, 00:00:57.020 --> 00:00:58.920 it's carried a much heavier cultural weight. 00:00:59.259 --> 00:01:01.320 Right. Taking on the meaning of extermination 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:04.299 or extinction. And today, that term refers specifically 00:01:04.299 --> 00:01:07.439 to the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:10.219 and Syriac Christians in the Ottoman Empire and 00:01:10.219 --> 00:01:12.719 Persia during World War One. Our mission for 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:15.859 this deep dive is to really untangle the incredibly 00:01:15.859 --> 00:01:18.840 complicated roots of this history. We want to 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.519 understand the overarching imperial ambitions 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:23.900 that led to it. The big picture stuff. Exactly. 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:26.700 But also examine the highly localized nature 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:29.579 of the violence on the ground. And we want to 00:01:29.579 --> 00:01:33.079 explore a profound historical paradox. Why this 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:35.459 massive event, which completely decimated an 00:01:35.459 --> 00:01:38.140 ancient population, remains so much less known 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:40.700 globally than the concurrent Armenian genocide. 00:01:41.019 --> 00:01:42.640 Yeah, that's a huge question we'll get into. 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:45.599 But before we step into 1914, a quick note for 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:49.349 you as we dive into this material. Very. The 00:01:49.349 --> 00:01:51.290 historical records here, especially regarding 00:01:51.290 --> 00:01:53.450 the international recognition and the subsequent 00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:55.569 denial of these events, are deeply politically 00:01:55.569 --> 00:01:58.430 charged. Very heavily debated today. Right. So 00:01:58.430 --> 00:02:01.069 our mission today is not to take sides. We aren't 00:02:01.069 --> 00:02:03.450 endorsing any specific political viewpoint here. 00:02:03.870 --> 00:02:06.450 We are strictly and impartially serving as your 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:08.879 guides through the source material. We're just 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:11.340 laying out the historical accounts, the international 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:14.039 lobbying efforts, and the modern -day Turkish 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:16.219 government's official denials exactly as they 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:19.020 are documented in the provided text. Exactly. 00:02:19.539 --> 00:02:22.360 Our goal is simply to convey the ideas, facts, 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.620 and conflicting narratives contained in that 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:27.800 original material. Nothing more. Our role is 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:30.219 to examine the provided information objectively, 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:32.419 helping you understand both what happened on 00:02:32.419 --> 00:02:34.819 the ground and how the legacy of those events 00:02:34.819 --> 00:02:37.900 is fiercely contested a century later. Okay, 00:02:37.939 --> 00:02:39.639 let's unpack this because to really understand 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:41.780 the SIFO, we can't just look at the dates of 00:02:41.780 --> 00:02:44.340 World War I. We have to start by setting the 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:46.300 physical and cultural scene. We have to go to 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:49.099 the mountains. Yes, I want you to imagine living 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:51.900 in the Hakari Mountains. These aren't just rolling 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:53.840 picturesque hills we're talking about. We are 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:57.840 talking about jagged, imposing peaks reaching 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:01.900 up to 13 ,000 feet into the sky, separated by 00:03:01.900 --> 00:03:05.030 incredibly steep, treacherous gorges. In many 00:03:05.030 --> 00:03:07.629 of these areas, there are absolutely no roads. 00:03:08.069 --> 00:03:11.050 Right. The only way in or out is by navigating 00:03:11.050 --> 00:03:15.250 narrow footpaths literally carved into the sheer 00:03:15.250 --> 00:03:19.069 sides of the mountains. It is an extreme, almost 00:03:19.069 --> 00:03:22.719 unfathomable level of remote isolation. If we 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.379 connect this to the bigger picture, that mountainous 00:03:25.379 --> 00:03:28.280 tapestry shaped the very identity of the people 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.199 living there. How so? Well, to understand why 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:33.439 that matters, we have to look at how the Ottoman 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.020 Empire was structured administratively at the 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:38.979 time. The empire didn't organize its populations 00:03:38.979 --> 00:03:41.539 by ethnicity. Right, it was by religion. Exactly. 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:44.020 They organized them by religion. This framework 00:03:44.020 --> 00:03:46.560 was known as the Millet System. So an Ottoman 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.319 official isn't looking at these Highlanders and 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:52.319 categorizing them as ethnic Assyrians. Far from 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:54.900 it. The source actually notes that even speaking 00:03:54.900 --> 00:03:57.139 of an Assyrian genocide during this specific 00:03:57.139 --> 00:03:59.759 time period is a bit anachronistic. Because they 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:01.580 didn't see themselves that way yet. Right. The 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:03.960 Assyrians weren't a unified cohesive nation. 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:06.539 They were divided into different and frequently 00:04:06.539 --> 00:04:09.180 mutually antagonistic religious denominations. 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:11.560 You had the Syriac Orthodox Church? The Assyrian 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:13.800 Church of the East. The Chaldean Catholic Church. 00:04:13.939 --> 00:04:17.490 Exactly. When asked who they were, their primary 00:04:17.490 --> 00:04:20.009 loyalty and identity lay with their specific 00:04:20.009 --> 00:04:23.310 church, not a broader ethnic umbrella. And because 00:04:23.310 --> 00:04:26.389 they lived in these incredibly remote, high -altitude 00:04:26.389 --> 00:04:30.470 regions of Hakari, they were effectively stateless 00:04:30.470 --> 00:04:33.110 for generations. I mean, they settled in those 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:35.310 mountains specifically to avoid the reach of 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:37.290 imperial state control. Which ended up being 00:04:37.290 --> 00:04:40.310 a massive double -edged sword. Yeah. On one hand, 00:04:40.589 --> 00:04:42.569 living up in the clouds helped them avoid paying 00:04:42.569 --> 00:04:44.959 taxes to the Ottoman Empire. Right. And it kept 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.180 their young men from being conscripted into the 00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:49.500 Imperial Army. But the flip side is tragic. It 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:52.000 cemented their internal differences. Right. It 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.240 completely prevented them from forming a unified 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.180 national identity or a cohesive political movement, 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:00.040 which is a stark contrast to the Armenian national 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:02.279 movement that was rapidly developing at the exact 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:04.279 same time. And then you add the shifting dynamics 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:06.420 of the 19th and early 20th centuries to that 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:08.480 mix. Right. The Ottoman Empire was desperately 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:11.420 trying to modernize, to centralize its power. 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:14.079 The state wanted to assert control over these 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:16.839 historically stateless, rebellious mountain regions. 00:05:17.579 --> 00:05:20.660 And compounding this pressure was a massive demographic 00:05:20.660 --> 00:05:23.319 shift. After the Ottoman Empire lost significant 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:26.500 territory in the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913, 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:29.980 a huge influx of Muslim refugees poured into 00:05:29.980 --> 00:05:32.720 eastern Anatolia. And the government had to put 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:35.480 them somewhere. Exactly. They decided to resettle 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.019 these refugees on land confiscated from populations 00:05:38.019 --> 00:05:41.189 they deemed disloyal or problematic. So you take 00:05:41.189 --> 00:05:44.170 an incredibly isolated, fractured region. You 00:05:44.170 --> 00:05:46.750 introduce centralizing state troops. And you 00:05:46.750 --> 00:05:49.170 flood the area with displaced refugees competing 00:05:49.170 --> 00:05:51.870 for scarce land and resources. It turned the 00:05:51.870 --> 00:05:54.670 entire mountainous region into a powder keg of 00:05:54.670 --> 00:05:57.269 tension. Which brings us right to the brink of 00:05:57.269 --> 00:06:00.290 World War I. The geopolitical chess match is 00:06:00.290 --> 00:06:02.649 in full swing. The Ottomans and the Russians 00:06:02.649 --> 00:06:05.189 are preparing for a massive clash. And they are 00:06:05.189 --> 00:06:07.209 both actively courting the populations living 00:06:07.209 --> 00:06:09.850 behind each other's lines. Hoping to spark guerrilla 00:06:09.850 --> 00:06:12.889 warfare. internal sabotage. It was an impossibly 00:06:12.889 --> 00:06:15.050 dangerous position for the Assyrians. The Russians 00:06:15.050 --> 00:06:16.930 are looking across the border at the Armenians, 00:06:17.110 --> 00:06:18.949 Kurds, and Assyrians living within the Ottoman 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:21.610 Empire trying to secure their support. Meanwhile, 00:06:21.709 --> 00:06:23.689 the Ottomans are doing the exact same thing in 00:06:23.689 --> 00:06:26.769 reverse. Right, trying to enlist Caucasian Muslims, 00:06:27.029 --> 00:06:29.649 Armenians, and Assyrians living in Persian territory. 00:06:29.889 --> 00:06:31.629 So the Assyrians just find themselves caught 00:06:31.769 --> 00:06:34.529 directly in the crossfire of two massive paranoid 00:06:34.529 --> 00:06:37.790 empires preparing for total war. Total war. The 00:06:37.790 --> 00:06:40.350 war kicks off and the paranoia reaches a boiling 00:06:40.350 --> 00:06:44.189 point. But what is the actual spark? What turns 00:06:44.189 --> 00:06:47.649 this from simmering geopolitical tension into 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:51.050 active state sanctioned deportation? The directive 00:06:51.050 --> 00:06:53.310 comes from the very top of the Ottoman government. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.180 Specifically from the Committee of Union and 00:06:56.180 --> 00:06:59.199 Progress, or the CUP. The ultra -nationalist 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:01.879 ruling party at the time. Yes. On October 26, 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:04.959 1914, just before the Ottoman Empire officially 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:07.720 entered the war, the Ottoman Interior Minister, 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:10.220 Talat Pasha, sent a telegram to the governor 00:07:10.220 --> 00:07:12.980 of Van Province. And this telegram is key. It 00:07:12.980 --> 00:07:16.029 is. In this dispatch, Talat actively doubts the 00:07:16.029 --> 00:07:18.870 loyalty of the Haqqari Assyrians and explicitly 00:07:18.870 --> 00:07:21.649 orders their deportation. And the specific parameters 00:07:21.649 --> 00:07:23.910 of that deportation order are just staggering. 00:07:24.129 --> 00:07:26.750 What's fascinating and horrifying here is the 00:07:26.750 --> 00:07:29.089 calculated bureaucratic nature of that order. 00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:31.810 The directive stated that the Assyrians were 00:07:31.810 --> 00:07:34.589 to be resettled among Muslims further west. But 00:07:34.589 --> 00:07:37.589 it included a strict condition. A non -negotiable 00:07:37.589 --> 00:07:40.410 condition. No more than 20 Assyrians could reside 00:07:40.410 --> 00:07:42.889 in any one place. Let's just pause and think 00:07:42.889 --> 00:07:47.170 about that. 20 people. That is barely a few extended 00:07:47.170 --> 00:07:50.209 families. How does a community, let alone an 00:07:50.209 --> 00:07:53.639 ancient culture, survive being atomized like 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:55.779 that. It doesn't. And that was the entire point. 00:07:55.860 --> 00:07:58.319 Yeah. When you cap a forced resettlement at 20 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:00.439 people, you aren't just moving a population for 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:03.600 military security. You are executing a deliberate 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.620 administrative strategy to completely destroy 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:08.800 their culture, their language, and their traditional 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:11.639 way of life. By scattering them so thinly across 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:14.160 the empire, they could never maintain their community 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.250 structures. or the religious practices. Exactly. 00:08:17.610 --> 00:08:19.589 The source material notes that historian David 00:08:19.589 --> 00:08:22.149 Gaunt cites this specific telegram and its Rule 00:08:22.149 --> 00:08:24.689 of 20 as the definitive beginning of the SAFO. 00:08:25.009 --> 00:08:27.310 From there, the sheer scale of the conflict that 00:08:27.310 --> 00:08:30.490 follows is horrific. Initially, local Ottoman 00:08:30.490 --> 00:08:33.850 forces, Kurdish volunteers, and irregular militias 00:08:33.850 --> 00:08:36.509 couldn't mount successful attacks on the heavily 00:08:36.509 --> 00:08:39.070 -armed Highland Assyrian tribes. The terrain 00:08:39.070 --> 00:08:41.110 was just too tough. The tribes were too well 00:08:41.110 --> 00:08:43.889 defended up there. So the forces targeted the 00:08:43.889 --> 00:08:47.429 poorly armed, vulnerable Christian villages down 00:08:47.429 --> 00:08:50.549 in the plains. Entire lowland populations were 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:53.090 massacred or forced to flee into neighboring 00:08:53.090 --> 00:08:56.110 Persia. But the Highlanders up in the peaks didn't 00:08:56.110 --> 00:08:58.309 just sit and wait for the army to arrive. No, 00:08:58.350 --> 00:09:02.419 they took unprecedented action. In May 1915, 00:09:02.539 --> 00:09:05.120 the disparate Assyrian highland tribes actually 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:07.179 held a meeting and declared war. They announced 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:09.460 a general mobilization against the Ottoman Empire. 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:11.539 They attempted a coordinated military defense, 00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:14.039 even sending their women and children to the 00:09:14.039 --> 00:09:16.299 highest, most inaccessible mountain areas to 00:09:16.299 --> 00:09:18.539 protect them while the men fought below. But 00:09:18.539 --> 00:09:21.000 determination only goes so far against an imperial 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.879 army. Despite achieving some victorious battles 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:27.120 in the rugged terrain, they were ultimately outnumbered. 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:30.519 cut off from supplies, and completely outgunned 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:32.759 by Ottoman forces who were equipped with heavy 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:35.539 German -manufactured artillery and modern machine 00:09:35.539 --> 00:09:38.679 guns. By September 1915, the Highland tribes 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:40.820 realized the defense was broken. They had no 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:43.179 choice but to abandon their ancestral homes, 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:45.700 fighting their way out to escape into Persia, 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:47.960 watching their villages and farms burn behind 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:51.289 them. So the violence pushes outward. It's no 00:09:51.289 --> 00:09:53.389 longer contained to just the Hakkari Mountains. 00:09:53.789 --> 00:09:56.309 The geographic spread is vast and the source 00:09:56.309 --> 00:09:59.409 material details some incredibly grim localized 00:09:59.409 --> 00:10:02.789 events as the violence sweeps into Persia, Bitlis, 00:10:02.889 --> 00:10:05.149 and Diyarbakir. This is a crucial aspect of the 00:10:05.149 --> 00:10:08.210 SAFO. We see the violence take on a highly localized 00:10:08.210 --> 00:10:10.470 character. Because while the broad overarching 00:10:10.470 --> 00:10:12.850 directives for deportation and homogenization 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:15.549 came from the CUP central government in Constantinople. 00:10:15.750 --> 00:10:18.009 Local actors frequently took matters into their 00:10:18.009 --> 00:10:20.600 own hands. The central government created the 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.039 permissive environment, but local governors, 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:25.700 police chiefs, and tribal leaders frequently 00:10:25.700 --> 00:10:28.179 dictated the ultimate severity and brutality 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:30.240 of the violence on the ground. Let's trace that 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.460 into Persia, specifically the Azerbaijan province. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:36.440 Russia had troops stationed there early in the 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:38.700 war, and they had even armed some of the local 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:41.460 Assyrians to act as a buffer. But on January 00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:45.580 1, 1915, the Russian forces abruptly and unexpectedly 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:47.740 withdrew from the region, leaving the Christian 00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:50.399 populations completely exposed to advancing forces. 00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:53.370 Ottoman troops occupied the region without any 00:10:53.370 --> 00:10:56.990 major opposition. And almost immediately, local 00:10:56.990 --> 00:10:59.809 Muslim populations and Ottoman troops began committing 00:10:59.809 --> 00:11:03.309 massive pogroms. One of the most brutal systematic 00:11:03.309 --> 00:11:05.909 incidents occurred at Haftaban. Yes, Ottoman 00:11:05.909 --> 00:11:08.289 forces lured the local Christians there under 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:10.509 the guise of telling them they needed to register 00:11:10.509 --> 00:11:12.389 with the new authorities. And once they gathered. 00:11:12.590 --> 00:11:14.970 Over the course of two days in February, 700 00:11:14.970 --> 00:11:17.809 to 800 people, essentially the entire male Christian 00:11:17.809 --> 00:11:20.279 population of the area, were executed. by the 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:22.960 Ottoman army and the local Shekat Kurdish tribe. 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:26.259 It's an absolute nightmare scenario. The violence 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:28.519 even breached the walls of international missionary 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:31.559 compounds in Urmia, places where thousands of 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:33.740 desperate Christians had sought shelter, believing 00:11:33.740 --> 00:11:36.620 they would be safe under foreign flags. At the 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:39.580 Lazarus compound, Ottoman forces forced their 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:42.960 way in. More than 100 men were arrested and dozens 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:45.100 were executed, including a prominent bishop. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:48.679 Moving westward into the Bitlis province, the 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:51.299 nature of the violence becomes even more militarized. 00:11:51.700 --> 00:11:54.379 We see the arrival of Jevdet Bey. An Ottoman 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:57.559 official who led a formidable 8 ,000 -man force. 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:00.080 He literally referred to his own troops as the 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:03.120 Butcher Battalion. Just a chilly name. And the 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:04.799 arrival of that battalion in the Sert district 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:07.659 was completely devastating. Sert was a major 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:10.769 historic Christian enclave. largely populated 00:12:10.769 --> 00:12:13.370 by Chaldean Catholics. The source details a month 00:12:13.370 --> 00:12:15.669 -long massacre orchestrated by local officials 00:12:15.669 --> 00:12:17.590 there. Christians were killed in the streets 00:12:17.590 --> 00:12:19.850 and the Chaldean diocese of Sert was completely 00:12:19.850 --> 00:12:23.029 destroyed. And crucially, that destruction included 00:12:23.029 --> 00:12:26.029 their vast library of rare ancient manuscripts. 00:12:26.370 --> 00:12:28.049 Think about the weight of that for a second. 00:12:28.590 --> 00:12:31.230 We are talking about the profound loss of human 00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:33.970 life, which is always the paramount tragedy. 00:12:34.389 --> 00:12:37.370 But alongside it is the systematic erasure of 00:12:37.370 --> 00:12:40.870 centuries of recorded culture, theology in history. 00:12:41.009 --> 00:12:43.389 They were burning the memory of the people. The 00:12:43.389 --> 00:12:45.889 survivors in Sert, who were mostly women and 00:12:45.889 --> 00:12:48.330 children because the men had been executed, were 00:12:48.330 --> 00:12:51.389 then forced on brutal death marches. Driven south 00:12:51.389 --> 00:12:54.570 through harsh terrain like the Wadi Wawila Gorge. 00:12:54.649 --> 00:12:56.389 They were stripped of their possessions, often 00:12:56.389 --> 00:12:58.990 their clothes, and anyone who fell behind out 00:12:58.990 --> 00:13:01.620 of exhaustion or starvation was killed. Out of 00:13:01.620 --> 00:13:04.519 an estimated 7 ,000 to 8 ,000 Chaldeans from 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:07.919 that specific area, maybe 50 to 100 actually 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:11.799 survived the agonizing march to Mosul. The localized, 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:14.340 almost autonomous brutality of the Seifo becomes 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:16.919 even more apparent when we examine the Diyarbak 00:13:16.919 --> 00:13:19.679 province. Here we encounter an Ottoman governor 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.659 named Mehmed Rashid. Who essentially went rogue? 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:24.740 Completely rogue. He was specifically chosen 00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:27.279 for his post because of his prior record of ruthless 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:29.620 violence, and he brought his own dedicated team 00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:32.580 of operatives with him to the province. He instituted 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:35.679 a massive, systematic extermination campaign 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.500 against all Christians in his jurisdiction. What 00:13:38.500 --> 00:13:41.159 makes Diyarbakir a unique case study for historians 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:45.440 is the surviving administrative trail. The central 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:47.940 Ottoman government, specifically Talat Pasha, 00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:52.059 actually sent a telegram to Rashid. Explicitly 00:13:52.059 --> 00:13:54.360 ordering that the harsh measures being taken 00:13:54.360 --> 00:13:56.620 against the Armenians should absolutely not be 00:13:56.620 --> 00:13:58.639 extended to other Christian groups like the Syriacs, 00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:01.860 they directly told Rashid to stop targeting them. 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:03.960 But he entirely ignored the interior minister. 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:06.669 He did. Rashid and his deputies simply found 00:14:06.669 --> 00:14:09.509 a bureaucratic loophole. They classified all 00:14:09.509 --> 00:14:11.889 Aramaic -speaking Christians as Armenians. Wow. 00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:14.590 By applying that label, they declared them enemies 00:14:14.590 --> 00:14:17.070 of the state who had to be eliminated. Even though 00:14:17.070 --> 00:14:19.049 the central government sent those explicit orders 00:14:19.049 --> 00:14:22.110 to halt, Rashid faced zero consequences for ignoring 00:14:22.110 --> 00:14:24.769 them and continuing the massacres. This blatant 00:14:24.769 --> 00:14:27.389 lack of punishment leads many historians to debate 00:14:27.389 --> 00:14:29.909 whether the central orders from Talat were genuine 00:14:29.909 --> 00:14:32.929 attempts to stop the violence. Or simply a paper 00:14:32.929 --> 00:14:35.879 trail created as a who appease protesting German 00:14:35.879 --> 00:14:37.980 and Austrian diplomats who are allied with the 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:40.120 Ottomans. Here's where it gets really interesting 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:43.559 though. Amidst all this slaughter and systemic 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:46.360 violence. The source material makes it abundantly 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:49.480 clear that this wasn't purely a linear story 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:52.179 of defenseless victims quietly waiting for the 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:55.139 end. Right. There was fierce organized armed 00:14:55.139 --> 00:14:59.179 resistance and tragically a vicious cycle of 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:01.539 inter -ethnic violence that emerged as the war 00:15:01.539 --> 00:15:04.019 dragged on. In the Turabdin region, the situation 00:15:04.019 --> 00:15:06.539 developed quite differently than in Hakkari or 00:15:06.539 --> 00:15:09.279 Diyarbakir. While many lowland villages in the 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.860 area were completely wiped out, some mounted 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:14.840 incredibly successful prolonged defenses. The 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:17.779 villages of Iuardo and Azax stand out in the 00:15:17.779 --> 00:15:20.090 historical record. Azak, for instance, was a 00:15:20.090 --> 00:15:23.090 primarily Syriac Orthodox village. When Ottoman 00:15:23.090 --> 00:15:25.230 authorities demanded they hand over their Catholic 00:15:25.230 --> 00:15:27.750 and Protestant neighbors, the village refused. 00:15:28.029 --> 00:15:30.190 They fortified their positions and repelled heavy 00:15:30.190 --> 00:15:32.409 Ottoman military attacks for weeks. They held 00:15:32.409 --> 00:15:34.690 the line so fiercely that they eventually launched 00:15:34.690 --> 00:15:37.450 a surprise night attack, breaking the siege and 00:15:37.450 --> 00:15:39.970 forcing the Ottoman forces to agree to a truce 00:15:39.970 --> 00:15:42.409 on the villagers' own terms. It's a staggering 00:15:42.409 --> 00:15:46.429 story of survival against all odds. But the shifting 00:15:46.429 --> 00:15:49.309 power dynamics of resistance also took a very 00:15:49.309 --> 00:15:51.990 dark turn as the war progressed. They did. After 00:15:51.990 --> 00:15:54.289 the Russian forces completely withdrew following 00:15:54.289 --> 00:15:58.330 the 1917 Russian Revolution, the region of Urmia 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:01.909 descended into total ethnic chaos. This raises 00:16:01.909 --> 00:16:04.629 an important question or rather highlights a 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:07.190 deeply uncomfortable truth about the brutalizing 00:16:07.190 --> 00:16:09.909 psychological effect of genocide and total war. 00:16:10.029 --> 00:16:14.059 Yeah. By 1918, you had Well -organized, battle 00:16:14.059 --> 00:16:16.639 -hardened Christian militias operating in Ermia, 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:19.879 led by military figures like Aga Petros. When 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.059 local Muslim populations and the Persian governor 00:16:22.059 --> 00:16:24.519 launched an armed uprising against these Christian 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:27.100 groups, these Syrian militias didn't just defend 00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:29.899 themselves. No. They brutally crushed the uprising, 00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:32.740 killing hundreds and possibly thousands of local 00:16:32.740 --> 00:16:35.259 Muslims in the process. The victims of a genocide 00:16:35.259 --> 00:16:38.320 had, in that specific localized context, become 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.620 the perpetrators of mass violence. The source 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:42.740 quotes historian David Gahn, who observed that 00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:44.940 the Assyrian victims, when suddenly given the 00:16:44.940 --> 00:16:46.840 military advantage and the chance for revenge, 00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:49.340 turned without hesitation into perpetrators. 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:52.799 It represents a complete tragic breakdown of 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.659 any longstanding societal links between the different 00:16:55.659 --> 00:16:58.159 ethnic and religious groups in the region. And 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:01.220 shortly after this wave of violence, the spiritual 00:17:01.220 --> 00:17:03.600 and temporal leader of the Assyrians, the patriarch 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:06.890 Marshamun, went to negotiate a crucial alliance 00:17:06.890 --> 00:17:10.130 with a powerful Kurdish chieftain named Simko 00:17:10.130 --> 00:17:13.069 Shekak. And in a devastating blow to the Assyrian 00:17:13.069 --> 00:17:15.609 leadership, the patriarch is assassinated by 00:17:15.609 --> 00:17:18.450 Simko Shekak during those very alliance talks. 00:17:18.609 --> 00:17:21.230 Along with many of his bodyguards. This betrayal 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:24.329 triggered a massive uncontrollable spree of revenge 00:17:24.329 --> 00:17:27.289 killings by Assyrian militias against local Kurdish 00:17:27.289 --> 00:17:30.750 populations, which in turn sparked horrific retaliatory 00:17:30.750 --> 00:17:33.210 massacres by Kurdish forces against any remaining 00:17:33.210 --> 00:17:36.579 Christians they could find. It was absolute unmitigated 00:17:36.579 --> 00:17:39.359 chaos. The total collapse of security forced 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:41.960 tens of thousands of surviving Assyrians to flee 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:44.660 south, desperately trying to reach British military 00:17:44.660 --> 00:17:47.019 protection in Mesopotamia. This flight was a 00:17:47.019 --> 00:17:49.460 harrowing ordeal all its own. They were constantly 00:17:49.460 --> 00:17:52.359 harassed by Kurdish irregulars, ambushed by pursuing 00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:55.400 Ottoman forces and dying of starvation and exhaustion 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:57.799 along the route. Eventually, the survivors ended 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:01.279 up in a massive, sprawling, British -run refugee 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:04.400 camp in Bakwuba, near Baghdad in modern -day 00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:06.740 Iraq. And the conditions in the Bakba camp were 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:10.400 incredibly poor. Overcrowding, lack of sanitation, 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:14.019 disease ran rampant. An estimated 7 ,000 Assyrians 00:18:14.019 --> 00:18:16.880 died of disease and exposure in that camp alone, 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:19.160 having survived the massacres and the marches 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:21.539 only to perish in exile. And to compound the 00:18:21.539 --> 00:18:24.059 tragedy, after the war ended, despite various 00:18:24.059 --> 00:18:26.539 British promises of safe resettlement or autonomy, 00:18:27.180 --> 00:18:28.839 the Assyrians were never given an independent 00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:31.349 state. and the vast majority were never allowed 00:18:31.349 --> 00:18:33.730 to return to their ancestral homes in the mountains. 00:18:34.109 --> 00:18:36.690 So what does this all mean for us today? Let's 00:18:36.690 --> 00:18:38.730 talk about the legacy and the cold hard numbers. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.519 The Assira Chaldean delegation that attended 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:44.779 the 1919 Paris Peace Conference estimated their 00:18:44.779 --> 00:18:48.440 community's losses at roughly 250 ,000 to 275 00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:51.019 ,000 dead. To put that staggering number in perspective, 00:18:51.299 --> 00:18:53.140 that represents roughly half of their entire 00:18:53.140 --> 00:18:55.420 pre -war population. It is a demographic collapse 00:18:55.420 --> 00:18:57.420 from which the community has never fully recovered. 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:00.440 Which brings us to a massive, lingering historical 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:04.259 paradox. With a death toll that high, representing 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:07.599 half of an entire civilization, why is the safe 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:10.759 foes so much less known globally than the Armenian 00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:13.279 Genocide, which was happening in the exact same 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:15.799 empire, ordered by the exact same government 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.519 at exactly the same time? This raises an important 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:21.559 question, and the source outlines a few key reasons 00:19:21.559 --> 00:19:23.940 for this glaring disparity in global recognition. 00:19:24.380 --> 00:19:26.539 First, as we discussed with the milit system, 00:19:27.019 --> 00:19:29.940 the Assyrians lacked a unified national identity. 00:19:30.259 --> 00:19:32.940 Because they identified primarily by their specific 00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:35.619 church denominations rather than as a single 00:19:35.619 --> 00:19:38.000 ethnic group. Right. So mounting a collective 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.319 global advocacy campaign in the aftermath of 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:43.019 the war was incredibly difficult. Second, their 00:19:43.019 --> 00:19:46.019 extreme geographic isolation in places like Hikari 00:19:46.019 --> 00:19:48.420 meant there were far fewer international witnesses. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:51.079 Fewer journalists or foreign diplomats present 00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:53.640 to document the atrocities compared to the more 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:55.710 globally connected Armenian populations in major 00:19:55.710 --> 00:19:59.089 cities. Exactly. Third, and perhaps most devastatingly, 00:19:59.130 --> 00:20:01.650 was the massive systematic destruction of their 00:20:01.650 --> 00:20:04.529 physical records. Like the library in CERT. When 00:20:04.529 --> 00:20:06.930 institutions like that were burned to the ground, 00:20:07.450 --> 00:20:09.990 much of the documentary evidence of their existence, 00:20:10.210 --> 00:20:12.609 their culture, and their destruction was permanently 00:20:12.609 --> 00:20:15.730 erased from the historical record. And that profound 00:20:15.730 --> 00:20:19.069 erasure leads us directly into the current geopolitical 00:20:19.069 --> 00:20:21.930 reality regarding the SIFO. As we promised at 00:20:21.930 --> 00:20:24.410 the beginning of this deep dive, we are reporting 00:20:24.410 --> 00:20:27.650 this impartially, based strictly on the provided 00:20:27.650 --> 00:20:31.529 text. The legacy of the SAFO is deeply, often 00:20:31.529 --> 00:20:34.250 fiercely, contested on the world stage today. 00:20:34.529 --> 00:20:37.269 On one side you have the modern Assyrian diaspora. 00:20:37.809 --> 00:20:39.890 In the second half of the 20th century, as Assyrians 00:20:39.890 --> 00:20:41.930 migrated to Western countries with greater freedom 00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:44.829 of speech and political organization, the grandchildren 00:20:44.829 --> 00:20:47.029 of the original survivors began publicly sharing 00:20:47.029 --> 00:20:49.150 the stories their families had kept quiet for 00:20:49.150 --> 00:20:52.250 decades. By the 1990s, this diaspora community 00:20:52.250 --> 00:20:54.890 began heavily lobbying for formal international 00:20:54.890 --> 00:20:57.809 recognition of the SAFO as a genocide. And their 00:20:57.809 --> 00:21:00.009 lobbying efforts have seen tangible success on 00:21:00.009 --> 00:21:02.230 the international stage. According to the source, 00:21:02.549 --> 00:21:04.470 the International Association of Genocide Scholars 00:21:04.470 --> 00:21:06.970 formally recognized the Assyrian genocide in 00:21:06.970 --> 00:21:10.210 2007. Furthermore, several national parliaments, 00:21:10.509 --> 00:21:12.549 including the governments of Sweden, Armenia, 00:21:12.849 --> 00:21:15.650 the Netherlands, and Germany, have passed official 00:21:15.650 --> 00:21:18.170 resolutions explicitly acknowledging the events 00:21:18.170 --> 00:21:21.309 of the SAFO as a genocide. On the other side 00:21:21.309 --> 00:21:23.890 of this diplomatic battle, the modern Turkish 00:21:23.890 --> 00:21:27.210 government actively and vehemently denies that 00:21:27.210 --> 00:21:30.609 the SAFO constitutes a genocide. The source notes 00:21:30.609 --> 00:21:33.380 an interesting distinction. While Turkey has 00:21:33.380 --> 00:21:36.319 a highly vocal, incredibly structured campaign 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:39.160 denying the Armenian Genocide, the government 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:41.500 generally prefers to avoid discussing the SAFO 00:21:41.500 --> 00:21:43.859 altogether. When pressed on the international 00:21:43.859 --> 00:21:46.059 stage, or when justifications are offered by 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:48.539 those denying the genocide label, they frequently 00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:51.000 point to the armed military resistance by some 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:53.400 Assyrian groups. They cite the Highland tribe's 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:56.099 formal declaration of war in Hakkari, or the 00:21:56.099 --> 00:21:58.440 armed violent defenses in villages like Hazak. 00:21:58.589 --> 00:22:00.549 arguing that the Ottoman state was responding 00:22:00.549 --> 00:22:03.130 to an active military rebellion and a security 00:22:03.130 --> 00:22:05.730 threat, rather than conducting a systematic, 00:22:05.970 --> 00:22:08.390 unprovoked extermination of a civilian population. 00:22:08.750 --> 00:22:12.390 It's a profound, open historical fracture. As 00:22:12.390 --> 00:22:14.609 we've seen throughout this analysis, it involves 00:22:14.609 --> 00:22:17.029 incredibly dense layers of imperial ambition, 00:22:17.750 --> 00:22:20.410 localized bureaucratic brutality, the desperate 00:22:20.410 --> 00:22:23.069 complexities of armed resistance, and the lingering, 00:22:23.529 --> 00:22:26.029 heavily politicized scars of memory and state 00:22:26.029 --> 00:22:28.960 denial. It truly is. To briefly recap the immense 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:31.400 ground we've covered today, we started in the 00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:34.319 incredibly isolated 13 ,000 foot peaks of the 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.920 Hakkari Mountains, where the Ottoman milit system 00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:39.500 kept an ancient people politically divided. We 00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:42.119 watched as the paranoid geopolitical chess match 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.500 of World War One turned their mountain fortress 00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:47.700 into a deadly crossfire sparked by a single telegram 00:22:47.700 --> 00:22:50.119 from Talat Pasha that tried to limit their very 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:53.019 existence to isolated groups of 20. We tracked 00:22:53.019 --> 00:22:55.299 the devastating localized spread of the massacres 00:22:55.299 --> 00:22:58.140 across Persia. Bitlis, and D .R. Becker, led 00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:00.420 by rogue governors and self -proclaimed butcher 00:23:00.420 --> 00:23:03.079 battalions. And we examine the complex, morally 00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:06.420 gray reality of fierce armed resistance, a tragic 00:23:06.420 --> 00:23:08.599 cycle of inter -ethnic retaliation in Urmia, 00:23:09.079 --> 00:23:11.500 and the harrowing, fatal exile to the refugee 00:23:11.500 --> 00:23:14.259 camps of Bakba. We analyzed a deeply volatile 00:23:14.259 --> 00:23:16.720 period where the map of the Middle East was redrawn 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:19.299 in blood, leaving a legacy that is still being 00:23:19.299 --> 00:23:21.519 debated in parliaments around the world a century 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:23.680 later. Thank you, listener, for joining us on 00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:26.220 this incredibly complex and heavy historical 00:23:26.220 --> 00:23:28.940 journey. But before we close the book on today's 00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.500 deep dive, I want to leave you with one final 00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:35.019 lingering thought to mull over on your own. It's 00:23:35.019 --> 00:23:37.180 an important one. We talked about how the physical 00:23:37.180 --> 00:23:40.440 records of the Assyrian people, like the irreplaceable 00:23:40.440 --> 00:23:43.900 rare manuscripts in the Diocese of Surt, were 00:23:43.900 --> 00:23:46.779 purposefully burned and destroyed by advancing 00:23:46.779 --> 00:23:50.150 forces. complete cultural erasure. Because of 00:23:50.150 --> 00:23:53.029 that massive destruction, the memory of the SAFO 00:23:53.029 --> 00:23:55.650 wasn't preserved in textbooks or official state 00:23:55.650 --> 00:23:59.009 archives for decades. It was kept alive entirely 00:23:59.009 --> 00:24:01.630 through oral traditions, whispered stories and 00:24:01.630 --> 00:24:04.130 lamentations passed down from the traumatized 00:24:04.130 --> 00:24:06.670 survivors to their grandchildren in the diaspora. 00:24:06.950 --> 00:24:09.029 Through the generations. I want you to consider 00:24:09.029 --> 00:24:11.990 this. When the physical evidence of a people's 00:24:11.990 --> 00:24:14.650 history is systematically erased by an empire, 00:24:14.859 --> 00:24:18.039 How does the simple, deeply human act of singing 00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:21.039 a folk song or telling a story to your grandchild 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:23.500 become the ultimate act of historical defiance? 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:25.940 Wow. Till next time, keep diving deep.