church, St. John the Arab, in the
Assyrian village of
Geramon (1692–1918) The region stretching from
Tur Abdin to Hakkari formed the
Nairi lands which served as the northern Assyrian frontier and border with their
Urartian rivals. The
Assyrians of this region were
Christians adhering to the
Assyrian Church of the East and lived here until 1924, when the last
Assyrians who survived the
Assyrian genocide and massacres that occurred during 1918 were expelled. Most subsequently moved to the
Sapna and
Nahla valleys in northern Iraq. Those who went to
Simele ended up immigrating further to the
Tell Tamer Subdistrict in Syria during the 1930s. In 980AD,
Adud al-Dawla sent an expedition against the
Hakkari Kurds and subdued them. In 1041AD, after the defeat of the invading
Oghuz turks and subsequent massacre in
Urmia by
Rawadids. They fled to Hakkari where they ravaged it. they were eventually defeated by the
Kurds and 1500 Oghuz tribesmen were killed and the survivors were enslaved by the Kurds. Following the devastation of the urban centres of Mesopotamia at the hands of
Timur, a
Turkic military leader operating under the guise of restoring the
Mongol Empire, he was known as "the Sword of Islam." His conquest of Baghdad and the general area, especially the destruction of Tikrit, affected the
Syrian Orthodox Church which sheltered near Nineveh at
Mar Mattai Monastery following the destruction of Christians in the region, the Ismailis and Sunni and Shi'a Muslims indiscriminately by
Timur during the second part of the 14th century. The few survivors sought refuge among the Assyrians of Hakkari and the surrounding region. This region also produced many bishops and patriarchs as hereditary succession was used to prevent a full ecclesiastical collapse of the church. By the 16th century, the Assyrians disappeared from many cities where they previously thrived, such as in
Tabriz and
Nisibis. The head of the
Church of the East moved from
Baghdad to
Maragha in
Urmia by 1553. By the 1500s, the Assyrians were concentrated in an older version of the Assyrian triangle, with its points in
Diyarbakir (west),
Maragha (east). The Church of the East lost some of its members in the few centuries following the
Schism of 1552 to the
Chaldean Catholic Church, mainly in Diyarbakir. Those living in Hakkari, however, were unaffected by the disputes until 1692 when the Chaldean Archbishop of Diyarbakir
Shimun IX Dinkha broke away from
Rome and moved to
Qudshanis in Hakkari where he reintroduced the
Shimun line of hereditary patriarchial succession which continued until 1976. Patriarch
Shimun XIII moved his seat from
Amid to
Qochanis. After the final return to the traditional faith, Patriarchs of the Shimun line decided to keep their independence and after that time there were two independent lines of traditional patriarchs: the senior Eliya line in Alqosh and the junior Shimun line in Qochanis. Such division was additionally caused by the complex structure of local
Assyrian communities, traditionally organized as tribal confederations with each
tribe being headed by a local lord (
malik), while each
malik was ultimately subject to the patriarch, who mediated between Christian Assyrians and the Ottoman authorities. The Patriarch residing in the Church of Mār Shalīṭa in
Qudshanis enjoyed both spiritual and political power over his subjects. Since priests were required to remain celibates the patriarchy moved from uncle to nephew. The Assyrians formed intricate alliances with neighbouring
Kurdish tribes and their
Ottoman lords, and each tribe was led by a
Malik () who also functioned as a military leader during wartime. The
Tyari Assyrians lived across 51 different villages and constituted 50,000 members - making it the most powerful among the semi-independent
Assyrian tribes.
Kurdish wars In the 19th century, several competing Kurdish centers began emerging in the region.
Mir Muhammed, the Kurdish Emir of the
Soran Emirate, situated around
Rawanduz was able to depose his rivals and control a region stretching from
Mardin to
Persian Azerbaijan. He was however defeated in battle when he tried to subdue the Assyrians of Hakkari in 1838. The Ottomans, seeking to consolidate their control of the region, engaged him in a costly war which eventually led to the dissolution of his Emirate. After the fall of his main rival
Badr Khan of
Bohtan sought to extend his dominion by annexing the Assyrian regions in Hakkari. He took advantage of a rift between the patriarch
Shimun XVII Abraham and
Nur Allah, the
Kurdish Emir of Hakkari. Badr Khan allied with Nur Allah and attacked the Assyrians of Hakkari in the summer of 1843 massacring them and taking those who survived as slaves. Another massacre was inflicted in 1846 on the Assyrians of Tiyari, also residing in Hakkari.
Genocide and exodus On the eve of the First World War, patriarch
Shimun XIX Benyamin was promised preferential treatment in anticipation of the war. Shortly after the war began, however, Assyrian and Armenian settlements to the north of Hakkari were attacked and sacked by Kurdish irregulars allied with the Ottoman Army in the
Assyrian genocide. Others were forced into
labour battalions and later executed. The turning point was when the patriarch's brother was taken prisoner as he was studying in
Constantinople. The Ottomans demanded Assyrian neutrality and executed him as a warning. In return, the patriarch declared war on the Ottomans on 10 April 1915. The Assyrians tried to retake the region, but the Turks and Kurds objected to their desire to retake their ancestral lands in Hakkari, and an attempt to occupy the region by
Agha Petros failed. In 1924, after
a rebellion, Turkey formally occupied northern Hakkari and expelled the last Christian inhabitants who still remained in the region, with the exception of the village of Gaznakh which due to Kurdish alliances and their conversion to the Chaldean Catholic Church avoided deportation. Assyrians still live in the southern Hakkari region of
Barwari Bala, now straddling the Turkey-Iraq border, and in the
Sapna and
Nahla Valleys of Iraqs
Nohadra region. ==Economy==