The Assyrian farmer Malke Danho Ergün in the village of Derqubbe, Turabdin, Turkey found out that some Kurds from neighboring villages were co-owners when the land was registered. It appeared that the Kurds had lost their own lands to the forestry and falsely claimed Assyrian land, by bribing the officer. They bought him a brand new car, Malke says. His son Hacho Ergün speaks about the ongoing court processses to regain the land. To their help they have two Kurds of conscience that testify about the falsification of the title deeds. One is Sehmus Haco, who inherited the title deeds after his father passed away. He tells in the beginning of the program (in Turkish) how the other Kurds cheated his illiterate father when they told him to give them a copy of his ID-card, in order to register his own land in the vicinity of Derqubbe. The villages of the area were forced to evacuate in 1995 during the war between Kurdish PKK and the Turkish Army. Therefore the Haco family lived in Nsibin.
The court in Midyat decided recently to give back the Assyrian land in 2 cases out of 54. Hacho Ergün is optimistic about the rest, but do not think the Kurds are going to respect the decision. “Probably they will continue to make trouble for us, because we are the weaker part”, he adds.