Al-Hasakah Governorate

Map of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), with its provinces, in medieval times

During the Abbasid era, the area that makes this province used to be part of the Diyar Rabi'a administrative unit, corresponding to the southern part of Upper Mesopotamia. Kurdistan did not include the lands of Syrian Jazira.[note 1][5] The Treaty of Sèvres' putative Kurdistan did not include any part of today's Syria.[6]

The French, following the Ottoman 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 vigorous separatist movement emerged in Qamishli. With some support from French 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 were not Arabs. Syrian nationalists saw the movement as a profound threat to their eventual rule. The Syrian nationalists allied with local Arab Shammar tribal leader and Kurdish tribes. They together attacked the Christian movement in many towns and villages. Local Kurdish tribes who were allies of Shammar tribe sacked and burned the Assyrian (Syriac) town of Amuda.[9] In 1941, the Assyrian (Syriac) community of al-Malikiyah was subjected to a vicious assault. Even though the assault failed, Assyrians (Syriacs) felt threatened and left in large numbers, and the immigration of Kurds from Turkey to the area converted al-Malikiya, al-Darbasiyah and Amuda 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 the Sanjak of Alexandretta, the protection of French troops, promotion of Kurdish 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 the Kurdish notable Hajo 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 of Assyrians in Amuda were killed by a pro-Damascus Kurdish chief.[11] In September 1938, Hajo 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 the Union Economique de Syrie the region was seen profitable for the cotton production.[15] With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the agricultural expansion grew significantly.[16] When the USA instated a control on cotton exports during the Korean War, the cotton production in the province increased eightfold.[16] By 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 the Syrian Civil the province accounted for about half of the Syrian oil production.[3]

Watermill on the Khabur river, 1939

Al-Hasakah Governorate's ethnic groups include Kurds, Arabs, Syriac-Aramaic Christians (Assyrians), Armenians and Yazidis. The majority of the Arabs and Kurds in the region are Sunni Muslim. Between 20 and 30% of the people of Al-Hasakeh city are Christians of various churches and denominations (majority Syriac 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 the Ottoman Empire, large Kurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia. The largest of these tribal groups was the Reshwan confederation, which was initially based in Adıyaman Province but eventually also settled throughout Anatolia. The Milli confederation, mentioned in 1518 onward, was the most powerful group and dominated the entire northern Syrian steppe in the second half of the 18th century. Danish writer C. Niebuhr who traveled 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 near Mardin 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 the Ottoman Empire (Turks) 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] During WWI 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 the French 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 the Sheikh Said rebellion against the Turkish 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 of Kurds 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]

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]

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]

Qamishli

Ras al-Ayn

Malikiyah

Tell Hamis

Qahtaniyah

Shaddadeh

Amuda

Darbasiyah

Tell Tamer

Jawadiyah

Yaarubiyah

Bir al-Helou

Markada

Arishah

Hawl

Al-Hasakah

The governorate is divided into four districts (manatiq). The districts are further divided into 16 sub-districts (nawahi):

The Khabur 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 of Akkad, Assyria, Aram, the Hurrians and Amorites. The most prominent archaeological sites are:

• Hamoukar:considered by some archaeologists to be the oldest city in the world
• Tell Halaf: Excavations have revealed successive civilization levels, Neolithic glazed pottery and basalt sculptures.
• Tell Brak: Situated halfway between al-Hasakah city and the frontier town of Qamishli. Excavations in the tell have revealed the Uyun Temple and King Naram-Sin's palace-stronghold.
• Tell el Fakhariya
• Tell Hittin: 15 layers of occupation have been identified.
• Tell Leilan: Excavations began in 1975 and have revealed many artefacts and buildings dating back to the 6th millennium BC such as a bazaar, temple, palace, etc.

• ehasakeh The First Complete website for Al-Hasakah news and services