Al-Hasakah Governorate محافظة الحسكة | |
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| Hasakah Governorate | |
 Map of Syria with Al-Hasakah Governorate highlighted | |
| Coordinates (Hasakah):36°30′N40°54′E / 36.5°N 40.9°E /36.5; 40.9 | |
| Country | Syria |
| Control |  Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (mostly)  Turkish occupation of northern Syria (Ras al-Ayn District only) |
| Capital | Al-Hasakah |
| Districts | 4 |
| Government | |
| • Prime Minister (Governor) | Akram Hesso |
| Area | |
• Total | 23,334 km2 (9,009 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 1,512,000[1] |
| • Density | 64.80/km2 (167.8/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (AST) |
| ISO 3166 code | SY-HA |
| Main language(s) | Arabic,Kurdish,Neo-Aramaic languages,Armenian |
| Ethnicities | Kurds,Arabs,Assyrians,Armenians &Yazidis |
Al-Hasakah Governorate (Arabic:محافظة الحسكة,romanized: Muḥāfaẓat al-Ḥasakah;Kurdish:Parêzgeha Hesekê;Classical Syriac:ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܚܣܟܗ,romanized: Huparkiyo d'Ḥasake, officially known asHasakah Governorate[2] and also known asܓܙܪܬܐ,Gozarto) is one of the fourteengovernorates (provinces) ofSyria. It is located in the far north-east corner ofSyria and distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, natural environment, and more than one hundred archaeological sites. It was formerly known asAl-Jazira Province. Prior to theSyrian Civil War nearly half of Syria's oil was extracted from the region.[3] It is the lower part ofUpper Mesopotamia.
Most of the territory is controlled by theDemocratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), which as part of the ongoingRojava conflict, on 21 January 2014 declared democratic autonomy on the area of Al-Hasakah Governorate as theJazira Region, the largest of thethree original regions of DAANES.[4]
During the Abbasid era, the area that makes this province used to be part of theDiyar Rabi'a administrative unit, corresponding to the southern part ofUpper Mesopotamia. Kurdistan did not include the lands of Syrian Jazira.[note 1][5] TheTreaty of Sèvres' putative Kurdistan did not include any part of today's Syria.[6]
The French, following theOttoman policies which encouraged the nomadic tribes to become sedentary, established several villages and towns since the beginning of their rule.[7]Hasakah was founded in 1922,Qamishli in 1926.[8] In the late 1930s a small but vigorousKurdish separatist movement emerged in Qamishli. With some support fromFrench Mandate authorities, the movement actively lobbied for autonomy directly under French rule and its separation from Syria on the ground that the majority of the inhabitants wereKurds not Arabs. Syrian nationalists saw the movement as a profound threat to their eventual rule. The Syrian nationalists allied with local ArabShammar tribal leader and Kurdish tribes. They together attacked the Christian movement in many towns and villages. LocalSunniKurdish tribes who were allies of ArabShammar tribe sacked and burned the Assyrian town of Amuda.[9] In 1941, the Assyrian community ofal-Malikiyah was subjected to a vicious assault. Even though the assault failed, Assyrians felt threatened and left in large numbers, and the immigration of Kurds from Turkey to the area converted al-Malikiya,al-Darbasiyah andAmuda to Kurdish-majority cities.
Between 1932 and 1939, a Kurdish-Assyrian autonomy movement emerged in Jazira. The demands of the movement were autonomous status similar to theSanjak of Alexandretta, the protection of French troops, promotion ofKurdish language in schools and hiring of Kurdish officials. The movement was led by Michel Dome, mayor of Qamishli, Hanna Hebe, general vicar for the Syriac-Catholic Patriarch of Jazira, and theKurdish notable Haji Agha. Some Arab tribes supported the autonomists while others sided with the central government. In the legislative elections of 1936, autonomist candidates won all the parliamentary seats in Jazira and Jarabulus, while the nationalist Arab movement known as the National Bloc won the elections in the rest of Syria. After victory, the National Bloc pursued an aggressive policy toward the autonomists. In July 1937, armed conflict broke out between the Syrian police and the supporters of the movement. As a result, the governor and a significant portion of the police force fled the region and the rebels established local autonomous administration in Jazira.[10] In August 1937 a number ofAssyrians in Amuda were killed by a pro-DamascusKurdish chief.[11] In September 1938, Haji Agha chaired a general conference in Jazira and appealed to France for self-government.[12] The new French High Commissioner, Gabriel Puaux, dissolved parliament and created autonomous administrations for Jabal Druze, Latakia and Jazira on 8 July 1939 which lasted until 1943.[13][14]
The Governorate has a decade long history of farming. Already in 1921, the French wanted to develop the agricultural sector and over a feasibility study of theUnion Economique de Syrie the region was seen profitable for the cotton production.[15] With the outbreak ofWorld War II in 1939, the agricultural expansion grew significantly.[16] When the United States instated a control on cotton exports during theKorean War, the cotton production in the province increased eightfold.[16] By the 1960s, the province had the second largest amount of cultivated land in Syria per capita, but was still the lowest in terms of cultivable land per capita.[16] Other economic branches are wheat and oil.[3] Before the eruption of theSyrian civil war, the province accounted for about half of the Syrian oil production.[3]
Al-Hasakah Governorate's ethnic groups includeKurds,Arabs,Assyrians,Armenians andYazidis. The majority of theKurds andArabs in the region areSunni Muslim. Between 20 and 30% of the people of Al-Hasakeh city are Christians of various churches and denominations (majoritySyriac Orthodox).[17]
Until the beginning of the 20th century, al-Hasakah Governorate (then called Jazira province) was a “no man’s land” primarily reserved for the grazing land of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.[18] During the late days of theOttoman Empire, largeKurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria fromAnatolia. The largest of these tribal groups was the Reshwan confederation, which was initially based inAdıyaman Province but eventually also settled throughout Anatolia. The Milli confederation, mentioned in 1518 onward, was the most powerful group and dominated the entire northernSyrian Desert in the second half of the 18th century. Danish writerCarsten Niebuhr whotraveled to Jazira in 1764 recorded five nomadic Kurdish tribes (Dukurie, Kikie, Schechchanie, Mullie and Aschetie) and six Arab tribes (Tay, Kaab, Baggara, Geheish, Diabat and Sherabeh).[19] According to Niebuhr, the Kurdish tribes were settled nearMardin in Turkey, and paid the governor of that city for the right to graze their herds in the Syrian Jazira.[20][21] The Kurdish tribes gradually settled in villages and cities and are still present in the modern governorate).[22]
The demographics of northern Syria saw a huge shift in the early part of the 20th century when theOttoman Empire (Turks andKurds) conducted ethnic cleansing of its Armenian and Assyrian Christian populations and some Kurdish tribes joined in the atrocities committed against them.[23][24][25] Many Assyrians fled to Syria during the genocide and settled mainly in the Jazira area.[26][27][28] DuringWorld War I and subsequent years, thousands of Assyrians fled their homes in Anatolia after massacres. After that, massive waves of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey due to conflict with Kemalist authorities and settled in Syria, where they were granted citizenship by theFrench Mandate authorities.[29] The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920s was estimated at 20,000 people.[30] Starting in 1926, the region witnessed another huge immigration wave of Kurds following the failure of theSheikh Said rebellion against theTurkish authorities.[31] Tens of thousands of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey and settled in Syria, and as usual, were granted citizenship by the French mandate authorities.[29] This large influx ofKurds moved to Syria's Jazira province. It is estimated that 25,000 Kurds fled at this time to Syria.[32] The French official reports show the existence of at most 45 Kurdish villages in Jazira prior to 1927. A new wave of refugees arrived in 1929.[33] The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800.[33] French authorities were not opposed to the streams of Assyrians, Armenians or Kurds who, for various reasons, had left their homes and had found refuge in Syria. The French authorities themselves generally organized the settlement of the refugees. One of the most important of these plans was carried out in Upper Jazira in northeastern Syria where the French built new towns and villages (such as Qamishli) were built with the intention of housing the refugees considered to be “friendly”. This has encouraged the non-Turkish minorities that were under Turkish pressure to leave their ancestral homes and property, they could find refuge and rebuild their lives in relative safety in neighboring Syria.[34] Consequently, the border areas in al-Hasakah Governorate started to have a Kurdish majority, while Arabs remained the majority in river plains and elsewhere.[35]
In 1939,French mandate authorities reported the following population numbers for the different ethnic and religious groups in al-Hasakah governorate.[36]
| District | Arab | Kurdish | Assyrian | Armenian | Yezidi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hasakah city centre | 7,133 | 360 | 5,700 | 500 | |
| Tel Tamer | 8,767 | ||||
| Ras al-Ayn | 2,283 | 1,025 | 2,263 | ||
| Shaddadi | 2,610 | 6 | |||
| Tel Brak | 4,509 | 905 | 200 | ||
| Qamishli city centre | 7,990 | 5,892 | 14,140 | 3,500 | 720 |
| Amuda | 11,260 | 1,500 | 720 | ||
| Derbasiyeh | 3,011 | 7,899 | 2,382 | 425 | |
| Shager Bazar | 380 | 3,810 | 3 | ||
| Ain Diwar | 3,608 | 900 | |||
| Derik (later renamedal-Malikiyah) | 44 | 1,685 | 1,204 | ||
| Mustafiyya | 344 | 959 | 50 | ||
| Derouna Agha | 570 | 5,097 | 27 | ||
| Tel Koger (later renamedAl-Yaarubiyah) | 165 | ||||
| Nomadic | 25,000 | ||||
| Totals | 54,039 | 42,500 | 36,942 | 4,200 | 1,865 |
The population of the governorate reached 155,643 in 1949, including about 60,000 Kurds.[35] These continuous waves swelled the number of Kurds in the area who represented 30% of the Jazira population in a 1939 French authorities census.[36] In 1953, French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that out of the total 146,000 inhabitants of Jazira, agriculturalist Kurds made up 60,000 (41%), semi-sedentary and nomad Arabs 50,000 (34%), and a quarter of the population were Christians.[37]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1931 | 44,153 | — |
| 1933 | 64,886 | +47.0% |
| 1935 | 94,596 | +45.8% |
| 1937 | 98,144 | +3.8% |
| 1938 | 103,514 | +5.5% |
| 1939 | 106,052 | +2.5% |
| 1940 | 126,508 | +19.3% |
| 1942 | 136,107 | +7.6% |
| 1943 | 146,001 | +7.3% |
| 1946 | 151,137 | +3.5% |
| 1950 | 159,300 | +5.4% |
| 1953 | 232,104 | +45.7% |
| 1960 | 351,661 | +51.5% |
| 1970 | 468,506 | +33.2% |
| 1981 | 669,756 | +43.0% |
| 2004 | 1,275,118 | +90.4% |
| 2011 | 1,512,000 | +18.6% |
| Religious group | Population (1943) | Percentage (1943) | Population (1953) | Percentage (1953) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muslims | Sunni Muslims | 99,665 | 68.26% | 171,058 | 73.70% |
| Other Muslims | 437 | 0.30% | 503 | 0.22% | |
| Christians | Assyrians | 31,764 | 21.76% | 42,626 | 18.37% |
| Armenians | 9,788 | 6.70% | 12,535 | 5.40% | |
| Other churches | 944 | 0.65% | 1,283 | 0.55% | |
| Total Christians | 42,496 | 29.11% | 56,444 | 24.32% | |
| Jews | 1,938 | 1.33% | 2,350 | 1.01% | |
| Yazidis | 1,475 | 1.01% | 1,749 | 0.75% | |
| TOTAL | Al-Jazira province | 146,001 | 100.0% | 232,104 | 100.0% |
Among the Sunni Muslims, mostly Kurds and Arabs, there were about 1,500Circassians in 1938.[40]
The inhabitants of al-Hasakah governorate are composed of different ethnic and cultural groups, the larger groups beingArabs andKurds in addition to a significant large number of Assyrians and a smaller number ofArmenians.[41] The population of the governorate, according to the country's official census, was 1,275,118, and was estimated to be 1,377,000 in 2007, and 1,512,000 in 2011.
According to the National Association of Arab Youth, there are 1717 villages in Al-Hasakah province: 1161 Arab villages, 453 Kurdish villages, 98 Assyrian villages and 53 with mixed populations from the aforementioned ethnicities.[42]
| Arab villages | 1,161 |
| Kurdish villages | 453 |
| Assyrian villages | 98 |
| Mixed Arab-Kurdish villages | 48 |
| Mixed villages | 3 |
| Mixed villages | 2 |
| Total | 1717 |
Today, Arabs comprise the largest demographic group and mostly live in the city of al-Hasaka and its south and east countryside, with smaller presence in the north and west countryside. Kurds are the second largest group, with thousands living in villages and towns in the north, northeast, and northwest countryside. Assyrians live mostly in the north and northeast regions of al-Hasaka, especially inTell Tamer but also in Qamishli andal-Malikiyah.[43] In 2013 there was en estimated 200,000Assyrians in Hasakah province[44]
This list includes all cities, towns and villages with more than 5,000 inhabitants. The population figures are given according to the 2004 official census:[45]
The governorate is divided into fourdistricts (manatiq). The districts are further divided into 16 sub-districts (nawahi):
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TheKhabur River, which flows through al-Hasakah for 440 kilometres (270 mi), witnessed the birth of some of the earliest civilizations in the world, including those ofAkkad,Assyria,Aram, theHurrians andAmorites. The most prominent archaeological sites are:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Places adjacent to Al-Hasakah Governorate | ||||||||||||||||
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Ethno-linguistic group(s) indigenous to theMiddle East; also known as Syriac-Arameans or Chaldeans | |||||||||
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