Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal Relations on the Pe ...

The tragedy of Tekhoma resembled what had befallen Tiyari, and the attackers practised extreme cruelty. Here Zenal Beg and other Kurdish leaders committed the most atrocities. Then as Zenal and Tahir Agha Mutasalim al Jazirah were sitting in front of the ruins of the church after destroying the village of Kordiktha, a group of captives was brought to them comprising twenty males, thirty-five women, twenty-six young girls, and twelve children under seven years of age. As soon as they were assembled on the village common, Tahir Agha cried, ‘We don’t want slaves to be liberated by the consuls. Kill them all’. Immediately a general slaughter began, and all the captives were killed except three young girls, who were spared for their beauty.¹²

After the massacre, Bedr Khan Beg and his forces returned from the scene, and in due course, some of those who had escaped to Persia returned to their ruined villages and homes. Noor Allah Beg promptly attacked them, enslaved most of them, and tortured some to make them reveal the location of their supposed buried treasure. The few who manage to escape once again crossed the border to Persia, leaving the whole district almost without inhabitants. This massacre was the subject of a detailed report in a private letter from Urmia, which stated that two hundred women had been slain besides the six hundred killed on their way to Chal, and another three hundred had been killed trying to escape to Persia. Even that figure overlooks those who were killed in the district of Berwar on their way to Mosul.¹³

The severity of the massacre and the fanaticism of the Kurdish leaders were ascribed, among other factors, to the agitating role of their religious leaders, who had called for jihad against the Christians. Rassam reported that every species of cruelty had been practised in the district of Tekhoma. Furthermore, the survivors were subjected to oppression and exploitation, and taxes were being collected from them three times a year—once for Noor Allah Beg and twice for Bedr Khan Beg.

The British consul at Baghdad expressed his firm opinion on the attitude of the Turkish officials to this tragic occurrence. The pasha of Erzeroom could have offered protection to the Christian tribes if he had wished to do so; the Turkish government had taken the same stance. For some time, Rassam kept arguing that the Kurdish leader’s power was exaggerated if not illusory and that he had many enemies who were willing to fight him.¹⁴