Yuhanna Aktas, an Assyrian trader, no longer has to hide the fact that the grapes he harvests are intended to produce wine from the locals in his conservative region of southern Turkey.

Aktas, a member of Mardin's decreasing Christian minority, has been fighting an uphill battle to gain acceptance from his Muslim neighbors and municipal officials, who frown on alcohol sales.

"Winegrowing and resurrecting the vanishing Assyrian culture was my boyhood ambition," Aktas said in Midyat, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Syrian border.

Only about 3,000 Assyrians remain in the larger Mardin province, which is part of the historical Mesopotamia region, where archaeologists believe wine was invented 2,700 years ago.

As a result of discrimination and violence, the majority of Assyrians in Turkey have either relocated to Istanbul or emigrated to the West, reducing their population from 700,000 during the Ottoman Empire to 15,000 now.

Their slow departure has inflicted a devastating blow to Mardin's viticulture traditions, forcing Aktas to embark on a torturous quest to realize his ambition.

The 44-year-old, who wears glasses and has a touch of a beard, claims he received death threats when he initially tried to start making wine in 2009.

He said that "workers refused to work for me, and peasants refused to sell their grapes, claiming that wine is forbidden in Islam."

But he persisted, and now he sells 110,000 bottles each year in Turkey.

Choosing the correct local grapes, especially a Mazrona variety with a powerful scent akin to Gewurztraminer grapes used in Alsatian white wines, was the key to his success, according to Aktas.

The wines are organically cultivated and naturally fermented without yeast or sulphites, which are additions that prolong preservation, according to Aktas. They also have the added bonus of being considerably healthier for your health.

"Sulphites in other wines can cause headaches. With a hint of a smirk, he remarked, "That is never the case with our wine."

The business has been so successful that Aktas has opened a second production facility in his hometown of Beth Kustan, roughly 30 kilometers from the Midyat vineyards.

The majority of the original Assyrian families now live in Europe or the United States, as they do in other towns around the region.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was Prime Minister at the time, vowed to make it easy for these families to restore their properties nearly a decade ago, creating hopes for their homecoming.

"A number of Assyrians had intended to return to Turkey at the time. The Washington Newsday Brief News is a daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C.