TUR ‘ABDIN: Unidentified persons destroy olive grove of returned Syriac nun. “Turkish state must protect Syriacs”

ZAZ, TUR ‘ABDIN, Turkey – Hatune Dogan planted them with great care 3 years ago. After returning home from a trip to Africa last week, she found her beloved olive grove in the garden of her home destroyed. Unidentified persons destroyed 15 olive saplings. The motive behind the destruction is so far unknown. Ordinary mischief? Or is there malicious intent in play to scare off the returning nun? Hatune learned from the news from her neighbor while she was still abroad.

“What have the olive trees done to the perpetrators,” the nun told non-Turkish state aligned news agency DHA. “The perpetrators should be ashamed.” The [Syriac] people only want peace and dream of returning home to their native villages. And there are returnees, but because of such attacks, they feel deterred and scared to return to their homeland. It is therefore important that the Turkish state protects them, she said. “We want to return home and we are coming back. We need the [Turkish] state’s protection and we want it… I hope there will be peace all over the world and also in Turkey. We want harmony and peace.”

The Syriac nun came back to her Syriac home village of Zaz (Turkish: İzbırak), Tur ‘Abdin, three years ago, to rebuild her parental home. She returned to her native village for good in 2021 after living in the diaspora in Germany for 36 years.

Nun Hatune Dogan has her own charitable organization and has traveled the world for charity. She is the author of several books.