Shamoun Hanna Haydo

Shamoun Hanna Haydo, sometimes spelled Chamoun (±1880 - 1963 Sare/Mardin Turkey) was a Assyrian warrior and leader during the early 20th century. He was famous for his heroic stand against the Turkish government. He was well respected in the Kurdish communities as well, where he tried to unite secular Kurds and resist the enforcements of the Young Turks and Islamist Kurds.

He was, together with the kurdish Alîkê Battê, one of the regions most respected men and warriors. Alîkê Battê was from the Mala Osmên family, the rulers of the Hevêrka clan which included Muslim kurdish, syriac and yezidi kurdish tribes. It is widely known among people in those regions that Alîk and Shamoun were even closer to each other than brothers are. When Alîk took control of the Hevêrka Clan, he and Shamoun fought against other clans, even the Turkish government at that time.

Although these two were known for being fearless warriors, they were even more famous for being good-hearted and taking the side of weak. They resisted the Christian genocide performed by the Turkish government.

Shamoun was born in the village of Sare, in Tur Abdin region of what is today Turkey. A Syriac Orthodox Christian, Shamoun was very well known among Kurds and had Kurdish friends. During World War I, Shamoun and his best friend Alike Bate together tried to unite their communities against governmental institution and oppressive Kurdish landlords.

Prior to the Assyrian Genocide of 1914, he travelled to the village of Arbo with the intention to unite the of "Beth-Rishe" region in Tur Abdin under a rule comparable to what Assyrians in Hakkari had with the Malik system. He tried to convince the two ruling family clans of Arbo, the Beth Arsan and the Beth Malkuno, to be ready to fight the Ottomans and their Islamic Kurdish allies.

Shamoun would eventually flee the Ottoman territory for Europe. Today, his grandchildren live in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Australia. Many Syriac and Kurdish songs have been written about him by musicians.|

Famous quotes containing the word hanna:

    Yabba dabba do!
    —William Denby Hanna (b. 1910)