Editor’s Note: Pizzeria Babylon is moving to a new location, but will be open again soon for business! Check out their Instagram and Facebook for updates from Ishok.
Nestled in Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin is the historic region of Tur Abdin, meaning “The Mountain of God’s Servants” in the language of the Syriac people (also known as Assyrians). These Orthodox Christians have called the area home for millennia and still speak a Semitic mother tongue that is the most similar living language to the Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ.
Midyat, the most populated and urbanized part of the region, is today inhabited primarily by Kurds while the historic legacy of the Syriacs dominates the setting of the old city, which has numerous handsomely-restored churches and ancient sandy-colored stone buildings with rooftops that provide a panoramic view of the region. Though the old city is enjoying an influx of investment due to a surge in tourism (in no small part thanks to the renowned Syriac/Assyrian wine, which is sold at numerous shops in the district despite its conservative nature) resulting in widespread restoration of more run-down areas and the opening of a flurry of boutique hotels. It also didn’t hurt that the Syriac churches of Midyat were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative in 2021.
While we certainly intended to sample some Syriac wine, we’ve been on the road all day and our stomachs are rumbling. Before we imbibe, it’s time for a pie at one of Turkey’s best pizzerias. Although we are hungry having not eaten since breakfast, we make the half-hour trek on foot through much of modern Midyat, which lacks the charm of the old city and resembles many of the more under-developed areas in the region. Finally, we reach a main road, where across the street from a large state hospital lies the unassuming Pizzeria Babylon.
The shop was opened in 2017 by Ishok Demir, a thirty-something Syriac who was born and raised in Switzerland and returned to the ancestral village with his family when he was in high school. The 20th century did not bode well for the Syriacs of Turkey, hundreds of thousands of whom were massacred in the late Ottoman period. Decades later, large numbers of Syriacs left southeastern Turkey for Istanbul or elsewhere in Europe in the ‘80s and ‘90s during the height of the protracted conflict between the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish military that engulfed the region. Demir’s family was among those that settled abroad but opted to return in the 2000s when things became more peaceful. He had never seen his family’s home village before.
“When I heard that my parents wanted to go back to Turkey and live in their old homeland, I was shocked and had no understanding of their decision. As a 16 year-old, it was very difficult – I just finished school, left my friends and relatives behind and had no other choice but to immigrate with my family to their homeland, which I have never been to before and was even more difficult and shocking for me. From Switzerland in the middle of summer to a place with 40-degree Celsius temperatures [about 104 degrees Fahrenheit], no language skills, just nothing,” Demir said of his early years in Tur Abdin.
Eventually the lands his parents were forced to leave behind began to grow on him. Demir adapted to his new surroundings and decided he was here to stay. He and his family are among the 2,500 Syriacs that currently live in Midyat and Tur Abdin, many of whom returned to rebuild their houses in their villages after years in Europe.
“Time passed. I found new friends, and learned more about this place very slowly. With time, I started to like it, I made souvenirs with objects like monasteries and churches on postcards and churches and sold them to tourists. Sometimes I translated for tourists in German and Syriac, and I’ve worked for a Syriac newspaper as well,” he said.
In 2016, the enterprising Demir decided to open a pizza place in Midyat. An older Syriac friend, who had returned after living for years in the Italian region of Switzerland and ran restaurants, taught Demir the ropes of making oven-fired pizza, and Demir absorbed the knowledge like a sponge. He opened Pizzeria Babylon the following year.
When we roll in, it’s a chilly day in December right before sunset, and the shop has only been open for a couple hours due to the frequent power cuts that are still a regular nuisance in this part of the country. Near the entrance is a chalkboard welcoming customers in Turkish, German, Syriac and Kurdish. Demir warmly greets us and we quickly order a half margherita, half Babylon pizza. The latter is the shop’s special and comes topped with thin strips of garlic chicken, mushrooms, green peppers and cherry tomatoes.
We first dive into the margherita. The crust is brilliantly crispy and chewy, the product of masterfully-made dough that retains its lively flavor through the baking process. The Babylon is delicious; the thin yet courageous crust does not bow under the weight of the toppings, and there is no sogginess even after the pizza begins to cool down. Perhaps what delighted us the most were the homemade spicy pepper and garlic tomato dipping sauces served alongside that were surprise complements to the already-impressive slices.
“Pizza, especially from a wood oven, was and still is something very different for this area,” Demir explains. “It’s nice to see when people here eat pizza for the first time with no ketchup or mayonnaise, which are totally forbidden in our pizzeria.”
“It looks and sounds very easy to make a good pizza, but believe me, sometimes I have difficulties, because the dough must be perfect; well done, not too cold, not too warm. The ingredients must be well chosen, because in the end, the eye eats too!” he adds.
The dough was perfect, and we have no doubts that it is not easy to make. After years of eating subpar pizza around the world (sometimes out of necessity or hunger pangs while on the road), to enjoy such a pleasant pie in such an unlikely setting was a tremendous treat. Pizzeria Babylon’s location across from the state hospital proved to be strategic as it generates a great deal of customers. Increasingly, guests, including younger Syriacs from Europe like Demir, have visited his pizzeria while on a pilgrimage of sorts to the homeland.
“A lot of people always ask me why we immigrated to this place. We are a very small minority, but have such a big and old history. Our monasteries and churches are so old; they deserve to be visited and maintained. I feel at home here, close to my religion and faith, and thats why I decided to stay here, and not to go back to Switzerland, even when I miss it very much,” Demir says.
Before we step out, Demir recommends a boutique wine shop in old Midyat run by a Syriac friend of his. After several glasses of excellent local wines, we head back to our hotel, with its terrace gazing out over the ancient city. We pop open another bottle, which pairs perfectly with the two slices of margherita pizza we couldn’t finish and took to-go. Most visitors come to Midyat for the historic sites and the Syriac wine, but since it ranks among the best pizza we have ever eaten in Turkey (or elsewhere, for that matter) Pizzeria Babylon is a destination on its own.
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