With a population not exceeding 25.000 members 1, the Syriacs are one of the non-Muslim communities along with Armenians (40.000 to 70.000)2, Greeks (5000) 3 and Jews (17.000)4 living in the contemporary Turkish Republic today. In eastern Anatolia, the group’s ancestral homeland is Tur Abdin, meaning the “Mountain of the Worshippers” in Syriac, a plateau stretching north from the Tigris River until the plain of Nisibis, south and west of Mardin, until the region of Gzirto (Cizre) east (see: Map 1), and also Diyarbakir, where the bones of the Apostle (doubting) Thomas were reputedly brought for burial. It is lik