Turkey | An “eternal” wine to revive Assyrian culture

(Midyat) The villagers at work in the vineyards of Yuhanna Aktas, in south-eastern Turkey, now know perfectly well what the sweet grains of the Mazrona grape are intended for: with success coming, the Assyrian winegrower no longer needs to hide to produce his wine.

Coming from the Assyrian Christian minority of Midyat, about fifty kilometers from the Syrian border and not far from Iraq, Aktas had to fight to be accepted by his Muslim neighbors and the Turkish authorities, who saw a bad eye selling alcoholic beverages.

“Becoming a winegrower and reviving the Assyrian culture that was disappearing was my childhood dream,” says Yuhanna Aktas, 44, near the vats installed in her native village of Bethkustan, 30 km from Midyat.

In the province of Mardin, where Midyat is located, scarcely more than 3,000 Assyrians remain, as a result of discrimination and violence which pushed most of them to leave for Istanbul or Europe. From 700,000 under the Ottoman Empire, the Assyrians are only 15,000 in all of Turkey.

The departure of this community, which some archaeologists claim invented wine 2,700 years ago, dealt a heavy blow to this activity.

Also, when Yuhanna Aktas wanted to establish his first production site in 2009, he had to face death threats, red tape and, above all, opposition from the inhabitants of the region.

“Workers did not want to work for me, peasants refused to sell their grapes to me, swearing that wine is prohibited by Islam,” he recalls.

But his perseverance and ultimately his success, which today allows him to sell some 110,000 bottles per year throughout Turkey, have changed the situation.

“Peasants who once told me ‘I would rather throw my grapes than sell them to you’ are now the ones who offer to supply me,” he smiles.

The key to success: choosing local grape varieties – like this mazrona harvested in late harvest, whose taste is reminiscent of Alsatian and very fragrant Gewurztraminer.

Dismissed hopes for a return

And work in organic farming, completely natural fermentation, without adding yeast or sulphites to prolong the conservation.

“Other wines can cause headaches because of sulphites: that will never be the case with ours,” he says.

Faced with growing demand, Yuhanna Aktas launched a second production site in her native village.

As in other Assyrian villages in the region, most of the families originally from Bethkustan now live in Europe and the United States.

In the early 2010s, democratization reforms and the promise made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, to return Assyrians’ looted property had raised hopes of a return home.

“Several Assyrians prepared at this time to return to Turkey. They renovated their ruined houses. But some saw that their land had been confiscated by the state or neighboring villagers. These problems continue to this day ”, assures Ayhan Gurkan, president of the Assyrian Culture Association of Midyat.

Many Assyrians were killed in 1915, on the sidelines of the Armenian genocide led by the Ottoman authorities during the First World War and which ended up affecting all Christian minorities.

Subsequently, the survivors and their descendants gradually left Turkey, especially in the years 1980-1990 because of clashes between the army and the Kurdish rebellion in the south-eastern regions.

The hardening of the Turkish authorities towards opponents and the Kurds after the failed coup in 2016 ended any hope of a return.

More recently, fears of further persecution were aroused with the disappearance, in 2020, of an Assyrian couple in Sirnak, near the border with Iraq and the conviction of an Assyrian Orthodox priest for “helping a terrorist organization. “.

Sales explosion

“Returns to villages are now suspended,” said Yuhanna Aktas, himself prosecuted for his political activities in organizations close to the HDP (People’s Democratic Party, Prokurdist opposition).

Added to these pressures are the restrictions on the sale of alcohol by the authorities.

Since the rise to power of the Islamoconservative party of Mr. Erdogan, taxes on alcoholic beverages have jumped by 300% and the sale of alcohol is framed by time restrictions.

In May, it was even banned entirely during the 17 days of confinement decreed to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today, alcoholic beverages are living their golden age in Turkey. The bans generated a backlash. Sales have exploded, ”says the winemaker.

Passionate about wine, he intends to draw inspiration from his rebirth in the region to do the same with the Assyrian culture.

“Crushed, the grape dies during winemaking,” he explains. “But only to begin his eternal life through wine. “