Political Illusions as an Outcome of Missions to the Assyrians in Hakkari: R. Termen’s Report on the Missionary Activity

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to highlight a religious and political problem that emerged in the last decades of the existence of Christian communities in the Hakkari region of south-eastern Turkey, before their total annihilation. The source is a report written by Russian general Richard Termen (1870–1937), who was a vice-consul in the Ottoman province of Van in 1905–1908. A significant part of his report is dedicated to the activity of Christian missionaries of different denominations and from different countries – such as Russian Orthodox missionaries, French missionaries representing the Roman Catholic Church, English (Anglican) missionaries and American missions of various protestant Churches – among the Assyrian Christians of Hakkari.

General Termen emphasized that despite strong attachment to their history and traditions, Assyrians who mainly belonged to the Church of the East (i.e. the so-called “Nestorian Church”) willingly changed their denominational affiliation when it was to bring them hope of political support. To an extent, this was a result of the political nature of Islam, which – being the dominant religion of the Ottoman Empire – made Christians second-class citizens. Severe discrimination, corruption among the Turkish public servants and endless violence from bands of Muslim Kurds made Assyrians so desperate that they were ready to resort to mass emigration or rise against the Ottoman Turkey in alliance with any country. Any non-Muslim government appeared to be better than what they were experiencing, as demonstrated by the extremely positive impressions from Assyrians who travelled to Russia for work.

Another important motivation for a politically-motivated change of religious denomination was the perception of Christianity as a uniform religion in different forms. Assyrians would rather die than embrace Islam, but readily became Russian Orthodox, Anglicans or Catholics several times in succession when they anticipated some political or financial benefits.

And perhaps the most important political and religious problem of the missions among Assyrians was that the Western Churches had very little influence on the governments in Europe and USA, much less than in the Eastern world. As a result, many promises – whether made explicitly by the missionaries or implied by the Assyrians – were in fact hollow. This caused the ultimate catastrophe of Christianity in the Hakkari region, because Assyrians first lost their religious unity and then, deceived by the political promises, were left on their own to be massacred by the overwhelming Muslim forces of Turks and Kurds.