Al-Hasakah

Government

Al -Hasakah, Arabic الحسكة, DMG al -Hasakah, Syriac Aramaic ܓ ܨ ܪ ܛ ܐ, Kurdish: Hesîçe, also Hassake, Hasse Czech; is the capital of the government of al -Hasakah in the Jazira region of northeastern Syria.

Geography

Al -Hasakah and is 80 kilometers north lies along the Turkish border Qamishli are the two largest cities in the region. The distance from Deir ez- Zor on the Euphrates River is about 175 kilometers by road, north- west over Tall Tamir to Ras al - Ain, there are almost 80 kilometers.

The city is located 300 meters above sea level on the Khabur, on the junction of the eastern tributary Dschaghdschagh. Both rivers originate in Turkey. The river system of the Khabur allows for millennia an agriculture with artificial watering. The statistical limit with 250 mm annual precipitation, in rain-fed agriculture is still possible runs, a few kilometers south of the city. Agriculture is therefore on the way south to the confluence with the Euphrates only in a few kilometer wide strip along the river possible. To the north of al -Hasakah, in the area of ​​rainfed construction zone, the Jazirah is immemorial relatively densely populated by a fine network of small villages since. In Qamishli falls on average twice as much precipitation as in al -Hasakah. From the 1960s was between promoted through the system of dams, irrigation channels and the use of strong diesel pumps for the use of groundwater of intensive irrigated wheat and cotton in the area.

Al -Hasakah is surrounded by several prehistoric settlement mounds. The best known are Tell Brak, 45 kilometers north-east and Tell Knedig, 20 kilometers to the south.

Population

The population was estimated in 2003 at 175,000. The population consists mainly of Syrians / Assyrians and Kurds, followed by the Syrian Arabs and a smaller number of Armenians. There are at least four large church building in the city as a visible sign of a large number of Christians of various Orthodox faiths ( Syriacs ).

History

Syrian archaeologists dug in 2007 and 2008 on the 2.5 -acre citadel hill in the city center in the far bottom layer of mud-brick walls of the Neo-Assyrian period of the 11th to the 8th century BC, and the remains of a Byzantine church dating from the 5th century from; in the overlying layers, they found traces of settlement from the early Islamic period.

In Ottoman times it was insignificant. Today's settlement was established in April 1922 by a French military post. After expulsion and genocide of the Aramaeans in the then Ottoman Empire came many of the fugitives al -Hasakah, now began to develop into a city in the 1920s. During the French mandate period, numerous villages along the Khabur of Aramaeans were founded in the 1930s, who had fled for the massacre of Semile from Iraq. On the Citadel Hill, French troops were stationed during that time. In 1942 there were 7835 inhabitants in al-Hasakah, several schools, two churches and a gas station. The new city grew from the 1950s to the administrative center of the region. The economic boom of the cities Qamishli and al -Hasakah is a result of the started in the 1960s irrigation program, with the Northeast became the main cotton-growing area, and reinforces the intensified from the 1970s, oil production from the oil fields of Qara Shuk and Rumaylan in the extreme northeast.

Cityscape

The Khabur flows around the south in several river bends to the city center, outside the east until he picks up something the Dschaghdschagh. On the south side of the citadel hill parts of the massive defensive wall can still be obtained from the Islamic period. There is a stop for urban minibuses. North of it is, as in Syrian cities usual, the central square of a clock tower visible. There are two hotels in the business district ( two outside ) and quite a lot of gold jewelry shops. The older, one-to two-story houses in the center soft since the turn of the century up to six-storey new buildings. On all sides the city in the outer regions is growing rapidly and faceless by mostly three-storey apartment blocks. A large park with high trees south of the Khabur makes this compensation.