Political illusions as an effect of missions to Assyrians in Hakkari: report by R.Termen and its religious and political context

Abstract

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

General Termen emphasized that Assyrians who mainly belonged to the Church of East (so-called “nestorians”) and felt strong ties with its history and traditions, willingly changed their denomination identity when it was to bring them political hopes. Partially, it was a result of political nature of Islam which dominated in Ottoman Empire and made Christians the second-class citizens. Severe discrimination, corruption of the Turkish state officers and endless violence from bands of Muslim Kurds made Assyrians so desperate that they were ready to the mass emigration or to war against Ottoman Turkey in alliance with any country. Any non-Muslim government appeared to be better than what they experienced, which was witnessed by the Assyrians who travelled to Russia for work.

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

And perhaps the most important political and religious problem of Western missions among Assyrians was that the Churches had very small impact on the governments in Europe and USA, much smaller than that in the Eastern world. As a result, many promises made by missionaries or expected by Assyrians were just in words. In fact, this phenomenon caused final catastrophe of Christianity in Hakkari region, because Assyrians first lost their religious unity, and then deceived by the political promises were left alone and massacred by overwhelming Muslim forces of Turks and Kurds.