Mor Gabriel Monastery

Oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world

Dayro d Mor Gabriel (; the Monastery of Saint Gabriel), also known as Deyrulumur, is the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world. It is located on the Tur Abdin plateau near Midyat in the Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey. It has been involved in a dispute with the Turkish government that threatened its existence. Syriac Orthodox culture was centered in two monasteries near Mardin (west of Tur Abdin), Mor Gabriel Monastery and Deyrulzafaran.

Dayro d Mor Gabriel was founded in 397 by the ascetic Mor Shmu'el (Samuel) and his student Mor Shem'un (Simon). According to tradition, Shem'un had a dream in which an Angel commanded him to build a House of Prayer in a location marked with three large stone blocks. When Shem'un awoke, he took his teacher to the place and found the stone the angel had placed. At this spot Mor Gabriel Monastery built. The monastery's importance grew and by the 6th century there were over 1000 local and Coptic monks there. The monastery became so famous that it received contributions from Roman Emperors, such as Arcadius, Honorius, Theodosius II and Anastasius. In 1991, the remains of monks killed by Timur (Tamerlane) were found in caves underneath the monastery, dated to the year 1401. During the Seyfo genocide the monks were massacred by Kurds and the monastery was occupied for four years until returned to the church in 1919. The monastery is an important center for the Syriac Orthodox Christians of Tur Abdin with around fifteen nuns and two monks occupying separate wings, as well as a fluctuating number of local lay workers and guests from overseas. It maintained a significant library however, almost nothing remains. The monastery is currently the seat of the metropolitan bishop of Tur Abdin. In its history the monastery has produced many high ranking clerics and scholars, among them, four patriarchs, a Maphrian and 84 bishops. Dayro d Mor Gabriel is a working community set amongst gardens and orchards, and somewhat disfigured by 1960s residential accommodation. The monastery's primary purpose is to keep Syriac Orthodox Christianity alive in the land of its birth by providing schooling, ordination of native born monks. On occasions it has provided physical protection to the Christian population. Dayro d Mor Gabriel is open to visitors, and it is possible to stay with permission, but is closed after dark.

Between 2008 and 2018, the monastery was involved in a land dispute with the Turkish government and Kurdish village leaders, particularly those linked to the Çelebi tribe, backed by local representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party. In 2008 the villages of Eğlence, Çandarlı and Yayvantepe as well as the Turkish Land Registry and the Forestry Ministry filed legal proceeding disputing the territory of the monastery. In meetings with the monastery's bishop, the Turkish prime minister and president implied that the land dispute was initiated as retaliation against the Syriac diaspora for lobbying for international recognition of the killings of tens of thousands of Syriacs during World War I as genocide. The attempts to confiscate land owned by the monastery garnered attention from many European governments and gathered opposition to Turkey's EU bid, and could be the basis of a case by the monastery at the ECHR. Otmar Oehring from Missio, a German Catholic charity, said that the cases meant that “the state's actions suggest it wishes that the monastery no longer existed.”

Then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on 30 September 2013 that the land would be returned to the Syriac community in Turkey. This decision was approved a week later (7 October) by the Prime Ministry Directorate General of Foundations. A land registration process of two months would begin and was subject to approval. The head of the Monastery of Mor Gabriel Foundation was handed the deeds of 12 parcels of the immovable property belonged to the Foundation of the Monastery of Mor Gabriel on 25 February 2014. This was based on the decision taken on 7 October 2013 by the Council of Foundations of the General Directorate of the Foundations. The legal process for taking the remaining 18 parcels of the monastery property continued. A news report in June 2018 stated that the Turkish Parliament had passed an omnibus bill which was then signed into law by the president to return historic Syriac properties. The government returned the title deeds which had been confiscated from Mor Gabriel Monastery.