| Aksu | |
| Type: | village |
| Province: | Şırnak |
| District: | Silopi |
| Population As Of: | 2023 |
| Population Total: | 10 |
Aksu is a village in the Silopi District of Şırnak Province in Turkey.[1] The village is populated by Chaldean Catholic Assyrians and had a population of 10 in 2023, a decrease from 1,066 in 1985.[2] [3]
In 1913, Harbōl (today called Aksu) was inhabited by 300 Chaldean Catholic Assyrians and were served by one priest and one church as part of the Chaldean Catholic diocese of Gazarta according to the Chaldean Catholic priest Joseph Tfinkdji whilst the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation gave the village's population as 500 in 1914. There was a ruined monastery of Mār Addaï located to the southeast of the village.
Amidst the Sayfo, the villagers were protected by Rachid Osman, the agha of Şırnak, who moved them to mountain villages whilst Harbōl itself was destroyed. By 1918, the village was inhabited by 300 Assyrians. In the 1950s, the village had churches of Mart Maryam and Mar Joseph which may have been built prior to the First World War.
As a result of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, Harbōl was targeted several times during the Turkish army’s pursuit of Kurdish militants into Iraq. The village was thus forcibly evacuated in 1991 and the locals immigrated to France; only the local church, school and some houses remained intact.[4] Few locals have since then returned to rebuild the village, but the village was hit by fire in 2015 which obstructed its reconstruction.[5]
Population history from 1985 to 2023:[6]
NotesCitations