Öğündük, İdil

Mor Sobo church

It has been speculated that Midun (today called Öğündük) was named after the nearby Roman border fort of Mindon along the frontier with the Sasanian Empire in the Melabas Hills of Tur Abdin.[7][nb 2] Some scholars link this to the efforts of the Roman general Belisarius to construct a fort in 528 at Mindouos, which prompted a battle resulting in a defeat for the Romans (Procopius' History of the Wars, 1.13.1-5). Another scholar locates Mindouos about 6 km south-east of Dara (Oğuz, Mardin), far from Öğündük.[8] The village was historically exclusively inhabited by Syriac Orthodox Assyrians.[9]

It was attacked by Bakhti Kurds in 1453 alongside the neighbouring villages of Beth Sbirino, Bēth Isḥaq, and Araban, according to the account of the priest Addai of Basibrina in c. 1500.[10] Bakhti Kurds attacked Midun, as well as the villages of Bēth Isḥaq and Araban, again in 1457 and many of its inhabitants, including the priests Behnam and Malke, were killed.[11] Midun was later looted by the emir Bidayn in 1714 and the Kurdish rebel Yezdanşêr in 1855.[12] After the Hamidian massacres in the 1890s, Armenian refugees from Palu settled a section of the village called Sanhatkar.[13] Midun was visited by the English traveller Mark Sykes in the early 20th century.[14]

Until the First World War, Midun was inhabited by 500 Syriac Orthodox families in thirty-one different clans and had ten churches.[15] Amidst the Sayfo, the village was surrounded and repeatedly attacked by neighbouring Kurdish tribes for a week.[16] Although the Kurdish attacks were repulsed, the villagers opted to take refuge at nearby Beth Sbirino as Midun's location in the plains left it vulnerable.[16] A number of villagers were killed as they travelled to Beth Sbirino; consequently, Kurds of the Domanan tribe seized their homes and settled at Midun.[16] With the help of Chelebi Agha, some villagers were able to return after the war and came under the patronage of the Domanan tribe.[15]

A significant number of the village's Assyrian population emigrated abroad to Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium in the late 20th century.[17] In 1999, Öğündük was inhabited by 50 Assyrian families.[17] In 2007, 257 Assyrians in 50 families inhabited Öğündük.[17]

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