A Farewell to Tur Abdin

Executive Summary

This project began during a period of hope for Turkey and its peoples. Its origins date back to 2002, when I encountered a Syriac couple from Germany exploring the ruins of an abandoned village in Southeastern Anatolia and discussing plans to rebuild it and return from the diaspora to their ancestral homeland.

Inspired by the strong ties connecting the Syriac community to its homeland, I have closely followed the return of Syriacs from the European diaspora to Tur Abdin, making repeated visits to the region over the years and reporting on developments for international media.

When the Istanbul Policy Center – Sabancı University – Stiftung Mercator Initiative offered me the opportunity to contribute to this historical process through the Mercator-IPC Fellowship in 2014/15, hope was still very much alive. My fellowship project, Long Way Home: The Road to Re-Settlement of German Diaspora Syriacs in Southeastern Anatolia, sought to survey the state of returns, evaluate the experiences gained during the process, identify the main obstacles, and gather recommendations from all stakeholders on how the process could be facilitated.

Within this framework, I focused on the widespread expropriation of Syriac land in Tur Abdin, identifying it as one of the principal barriers to return. In June 2015, the IPC published my policy brief on the subject, in which I suggested that Germany's experience in addressing displacement and expropriation following periods of social injustice and upheaval could provide a useful model. At that time, optimism still prevailed.