ESKİLER YENİLER VE DEĞİŞENLER BAĞLAMINDA GÜNÜMÜZ TUR ABDİN SÜRYANİLERİNDE EVLENME GELENEKLERİ

An important part of Turkish Syrians whose population has decreased quite well these days has been living basicly in Mardin and Midyat, the region called as “Tur Abdin”. In the North Hasankeyf, in the North-East Siirt, in the East Cizre, in the South Nusaybin, in the West Mardin and in the North-West Savur make the borders of Tur Abdin when Midyat was taken as the centre. According to the information obtained in 2005, approximately 2000 Syrian population lives in Tur Abdin region. It is not possible to give exact population information since some Syrians in Turkey and abroad have been returning their homelands for certain or seasonal recently. However, the number mentioned above is very close to the exact number because it is based on the information given by Syrian people as source in 2005. Of this population, about 1200 inhabits in Midyat, Dargeçit and Idil, about 400 inhabits in Nusaybin and about 400 of this population inhabits in Mardin. Apart from these, 3 families live in Dereici (Kıllıt) village connected to Savur and 1 family live in the town centre of Omerli. According to the Syrian belief, marriage is one of the seven holly secrets of Syrian Church which they come together in a holly way with the fertility of special prayers, come side by side and which they belong to in order to make the generation of faithful women and men continue. Marriage is a natural law which God established in the beginning of world by saying in Holly Bible “It is not convenient Adam be alone, so I will create a suitable assistant for him” (Genesis, 2.18). In modern times, different incentives cause the religion and traditional way of living to change, to erode or even to be lost. In the case with Syrians whose origins go back thousands of years, although they go on challenging the effect of modernity with the reasons coming from the dependence on the church authority and ethnic belonging, some issues face change. As will be pointed out below, getting married with a person of another religion, getting divorced of the ones migrating to the Western countries despite the church prohibition etc. are such examples. The influence of church is felt in all kinds of life styles of Syrians whom we observe that they are extremely affiliated to their religion and traditions. Despite the changing living conditions, it is seen that engagement, marriage contract, wedding ceremonies, family or bringing up children applications are realized in accordance with the secrecy and boundaries defined by the church. Although marriage in Syrians is realized within the boundaries that is drawn by the church, in some applications they appear some similarities between Muslims because of neighborhood relations. In this manuscript, in general sense, the wedding traditions of Syrians of today’s Mardin, their family institutions, on contrary to this, opposition and being plucked from it, the effect of modernity which means evolution or change in all fields of individual, social and political life aspects have been tried to be examined; apart from the literature, some Syrians living in Mardin and Midyat city centres and their rural areas have been interviewed face to face within the context of issue.