Battle of Chamba

Battle of Chamba
Part of Persian campaign (World War I)
From left to right A bridge in Chamba, Hakkari, in 1912. House of Malik Ismail II guarded by Assyrian fighters.
Date 12–15 June, 1915 Location Chamba, Hakkâri, Ottoman Empire Result Assyrian victory
Belligerents
Tyari Assyrians	Artushi Kurds
Commanders and leaders
Malik Ismail II Deacon Dinkha	Simko Shikak Rashid Beg Haider Beg Soto Agha
Strength
100 (reinforcement)	Unknown
Casualties and losses
7 killed 16 wounded	15 Killed 40 Rifles abandoned

The Battle of Chamba (12-15 June 1915) was a military engagement between the Assyrian defenders led by Malik Ismail II, an Assyrian tribal leader, and Artushi Kurdish forces under Simko Shikak in the village of Chamba, Hakkari. The Assyrians emerged victorious, leading to Kurdish retreat on the 15th of June. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} This confrontation took place in an attempt to exterminate the Assyrian Christians of the Ottoman Empire during the Sayfo. ^{[6] [7]}

Background

Main article: Sayfo

The Assyrian patriarch Mar Benyamin Shimun declared war on the Ottomans after they executed his brother, they did this as a warning because they demanded that the Assyrians should stay neutral during the war. ^{[8] [9]} After this, the Assyrians took the opportunity to ally with the Russians after they promised an independent Assyrian Christian state. ^[10]

This declaration of war would shortly lead to the Kurdish chieftains of Hakkari to form a coalition against the Assyrians during the Sayfo of 1915, in order to expel or get rid of the Assyrians of Hakkari by any means. ^{[11] [12] [13]} The coalition contained multiple Kurdish tribal Chiefs such as the Emir of Upper Berwar, Reshid Bey, ^[14] Simko Shikak, ^{[15] [14]} Said Agha, ^[14] and Suto Agha. ^{[16] [17]}

Main article: Battle of Oramar

Suto Agha was a fierce enemy to the mountain Assyrians, he previously sacked their villages, stole their flocks, and abducts their women while killing the male villagers. ^[16] An example of these attacks was during the time of Sayfo in the early stages of the First World War, when the village of Oramar was controlled by Suto Agha of the Oramar tribe, during which he actively participated in the mass slaughter of Assyrian Christians in the region, ^[18] and used Oramar as his headquarters. ^[19] However, he spared the Assyrians in the village as they were responsible for the maintenance of the church of Mar Mamo, which was considered sacred by the Kurds also, and it was feared the snakes would return if the priests or the church were harmed. ^[20]

Battle

The conflict in Chamba began when Assyrian scouts, led by Deacon Dinkha, the son of Malik Ismail II, had noticed the movements of the Artushi Kurdish army of Simko Shikak, which had previously resided between Yellow Water and Kani Khale. On 13 June, a confrontation broke out when Dinkha’s 22 men engaged the Kurds near Suwareh camp but were forced to retreat after a two-hour battle. ^[21]

The Assyrians regrouped at stronger defensive positions near Kamaka Beybuneh and Sheeva d’Gelleh, fighting off any further attacks and inflicting high casualties. That evening, a Kurdish soldier set fire to a house in order to create confusion, allowing the Kurds to enter the village, which led to Dinkha reporting the developments directly to Malik Ismail II. ^[22]

In response to this, Malik Ismail mobilized his forces and sent out spies and messages to other Assyrian villages. On 14 June, fighting escalated across the region. Anticipating encirclement by the forces of Rashid Beg and Haidar Beg, Malik then ordered a retreat across the river to Beh Delyata. That night, Assyrian reinforcements had arrived, and about 100 fighters took up positions at the “Rock of Crucifixion.” ^[23]

On 15 June, the Kurdish forces advanced, believing the Assyrian positions to be abandoned. When they entered the village of Chamba and began looting, the Assyrians ambushed them from hidden positions, leading to a fierce battle. Surrounded and disoriented, the defeated Kurdish fighters fled toward Kalitan, suffering fifteen dead and abandoning 40 rifles. The Assyrians lost seven men and had sixteen wounded, emerging victorious at the end. ^[24]

Aftermath

Main article: Hakkari expedition of 1916

Despite the victories, many Assyrians fell victims to the ongoing genocide. Mar Benyamin Shimun however, led some surviving 50,000 Assyrians out of the mountains and into Russian controlled Qajar Iran. ^[25] The Assyrians of Malik Ismail II would later depart from Urmia in 1916 and embark on an expedition in Hakkari to fight off these Ottoman and Kurdish forces that previously subjugated them the year prior. ^[26]

See also

• Malik Ismail II
• Simko Shikak
• Hakkari expedition of 1916
• Hakkari

References

1. Suny, Ronald Grigor; Göçek, Fatma Müge; Naimark, Norman M. (2011-02-02). A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 257. ISBN   978-0-19-978104-1.
2. Ismail, Yaqou D'Malik (1964-01-01). Assyrians and Two World Wars: Assyrians from 1914 to 1945. Ramon Michael.
3. Wigram, W. A. (William Ainger); Wigram, Edgar Thomas Ainger (1922). The cradle of mankind; life in eastern Kurdistan. University of California Libraries. London, A. & C. Black, ltd. p. 366.
4. Wigram, W. A. (William Ainger); Austin, H. H. (Herbert Henry) (1920). Our Smallest Ally: A Brief Account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War. p. 16.
5. Yacoub, Joseph (2016). Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide : a History. Oxford University Press. p. 164. ISBN   978-0-19-063346-2.
6. Gaunt, David (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Gorgias Press. p. 143. ISBN   978-1-59333-301-0.
7. Travis, Hannibal (2017-07-20). The Assyrian Genocide: Cultural and Political Legacies. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-351-98025-8.
8. Stafford, R. S. (2013-10-28). The Tragedy of the Assyrian Minority in Iraq. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN   978-1-136-19619-5.
9. O'Ballance, E. (1995-12-18). The Kurdish Struggle, 1920-94. Springer. p. 10. ISBN   978-0-230-37742-4.
10. Adak, Hülya; Göçek, Fatma Müge; Suny, Ronald Grigor (2023-09-28). Critical Approaches to Genocide: History, Politics and Aesthetics of 1915. Taylor & Francis. p. 79. ISBN   978-0-429-66566-0.
11. Morris, Benny; Ze'evi, Dror (2019-04-24). The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924. Harvard University Press. p. 375. ISBN   978-0-674-24008-7.
12. Astourian, Stephan; Kévorkian, Raymond (2020-11-01). Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State. Berghahn Books. p. 71. ISBN   978-1-78920-451-3.
13. Travis, Hannibal (2017-07-20). The Assyrian Genocide: Cultural and Political Legacies. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-351-98025-8.
14. Gaunt, David (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Gorgias Press. p. 143. ISBN   978-1-59333-301-0.
15. Yacoub, Joseph (2016). Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide : a History. Oxford University Press. p. 164. ISBN   978-0-19-063346-2.
16. "Shlama - The Ataman and the Bloody Baron". www.shlama.be. Retrieved 2025-06-05.
17. Gaunt, David (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Gorgias Press. p. 143. ISBN   978-1-59333-301-0.
18. Yacoub, Joseph (2016). Year of the Sword: The Assyrian Christian Genocide : a History. Oxford University Press. p. 164. ISBN   978-0-19-063346-2.
19. Werda (1924), pp. 29–30.
20. "Literatus: A Sentimental Journey". Zinda. Vol. 7, no. 18. 16 July 2001. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
21. Ismail, Yaqou D'Malik (1964-01-01). Assyrians and Two World Wars: Assyrians from 1914 to 1945. Ramon Michael.
22. Ismail, Yaqou D'Malik (1964-01-01). Assyrians and Two World Wars: Assyrians from 1914 to 1945. Ramon Michael.
23. Ismail, Yaqou D'Malik (1964-01-01). Assyrians and Two World Wars: Assyrians from 1914 to 1945. Ramon Michael.
24. Ismail, Yaqou D'Malik (1964-01-01). Assyrians and Two World Wars: Assyrians from 1914 to 1945. Ramon Michael.
25. Stafford, R. S. (2013-10-28). The Tragedy of the Assyrian Minority in Iraq. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN   978-1-136-19619-5.
26. Emel, Topçu (2023). Kurdish migration in Hakkâri in 1915 within the context of constructivism theory. International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology. p. 18.

Sources

• Werda, Joel E. (1924). The Flickering Light of Asia or The Assyrian Nation and Church (PDF). Retrieved 10 June 2025.