The low hills of the Turabdin region in southeastern Türkiye have long been home to Syriac Christianity. By late antiquity the region was known for its many monasteries. It is also the home of Turoyo, a Neo-Aramaic language still spoken there to this day. “Freie Universität Berlin is one of the most important institutions worldwide for research on the Turoyo language,” says Professor Maciej Klimiuk from Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Semitic Studies. “Maintaining contact with this region is therefore incredibly important to us.”

Maciej Klimiuk and Shabo Talay, professor of Semitic studies and dean of the Department of History and Cultural Studies, led a group of students and researchers to southeastern Türkiye earlier this year. Over the course of the ten-day student trip they visited many villages, monasteries, churches, and mosques in this region. During their journey, they met speakers of local Aramaic and Arabic varieties – dialects that are severely endangered. The group began in Diyarbakır, a city with a long history of religious and cultural diversity, before moving on to Midyat and the surrounding villages. The final stop was Şanlıurfa, known in antiquity as Edessa or Urhay, one of the earliest and most important centers of Syriac Christianity.

Aleksandrs Grigorjevs and Lukas Aktaş were two of the student participants on the trip. They are both enrolled in the Semitic studies master’s degree program at Freie Universität, which is one of the university’s programs offered in English. “This trip was the first time that I’ve experienced Semitic language and culture in real, everyday life,” says Grigorjevs. “We were able to have conversations with the people we met there and test out our language skills. We also learned a lot about daily life, for example, when we went to visit vineyards or bakeries.” His classmate Lukas Aktaş is originally from the Turabdin region in Türkiye. His first language is the local dialect of Aramaic spoken there. “I actually came to Berlin to learn more about my own culture and language,” he says. During their trip, the students got to meet his grandfather, a calligrapher who works with Syriac, the liturgical language of Syriac churches. “Even though I obviously know the region very well, I learned a lot on this trip,” says Aktaş.

In the villages that the students visited, languages other than Aramaic are still in use. Several Arabic dialects are spoken there, many of them on the verge of extinction. “We conducted a great number of interviews with the people there – and recorded them,” says Grigorjevs. “It was our way of actively supporting efforts to preserve these languages and collect data for our own research.” In addition to the recordings of different dialects, the students also took photographs to document ancient Syriac manuscripts and inscriptions from various churches and monasteries. They will now turn their attention to analyzing the materials they collected.

Students in the Semitic studies master’s degree program at Freie Universität have had opportunities like this for several years now. Last year, for example, a group of students traveled to Cairo. Thanks to support from external grants as well as assistance from the Institute of Semitic Studies, the students themselves only have to pay a small fraction of the costs. “It’s important that young people studying languages and cultures are able to gain experience in the very places they are studying,” says Klimiuk. “But sometimes these places are not easy to reach if you are just traveling by yourself.”

Klimiuk has observed a troubling development over the last two decades working at universities: fewer and fewer students seem interested in participating in trips like these. “For me it appears that young people today are a bit reluctant,” he says. “We offer these trips so that they can gain experience and hopefully return to the region later on their own.”

As for Grigorjevs, he is sure that he wants to return to Turabdin. “I am already planning my next trip,” he says. “This time I want to go there with some friends of mine from Latvia.”

---

The original German version of this article appeared in the Tagesspiegel newspaper supplement published by Freie Universität Berlin.