Kaza Çarsancak / Չարսանջակ – Charsanjak / Akpazar

The kaza of Çarsancak was located in the southern valley of Dersim, with the village Berri (Peri) as its administrative seat. It was a plain area, with mountains in the north und the Aradzan River (Trk.: Murat Su) as its southern border. The rivers Berri (Peri) and Mndzur (Munzur) flow through the kaza. The kaza has many springs, fertile soil, abundant vegetation, vast pastures and forests.

Toponym

The place-name Charsanjak originated from the words ‘chahar’ and ‘sanjak’, meaning “four districts”, or sancaks.

Population

The kaza Çarsancak had the largest Armenian population of Dersim. According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, on the eve of World War I, 7,940 Armenians lived in 43 localities of the kaza, where they maintained 51 churches, 15 monasteries and 23 schools for 1,114 children.^[1]

According to other Armenian sources, there lived 20,000 Armenians in the kaza on the eve of the First World War.^[2]

The majority of the population was engaged in agriculture. They cultivated wheat, barley, rye, lentils, peas, beans, flax, etc. The kaza Çarsancak has deposits of salt, borax and oil.

Destruction

“In 1914, there were 1,763 Armenians in Peri [Berri], the administrative seat of the kaza of Çarsancak, and around 6,200 living in 42 villages in the kaza. The kaymakam, Ali Riza, held office from 2 March to 15 July 1915. He was therefore present when the first massacres took place in Pertag/Pertak [Բերդակ – Berdak], near the landing of the ferry that linked Harput to Dersim over the Euphrates. In this kaza, the official count of the deportees, 6,537, seems quite as unlikely, as the census figures cited a moment ago, if one bears in mind the number of conscripts in the amele taburis [forced labor battalions] and the number of people who were able to retreat into Dersim’s mountainous areas.”^[3]