Ayn al-Arab

Government

Ain al-Arab (Arabic عين العرب, DMG ʿ Ayn -al- ʿ Arab, Kurdish: Kobanê ) is the name for both a district in the province of Aleppo in Syria, and for the same capital. The city has 54 681 inhabitants (estimated 2007). The meaning of the name Ain al-Arab is the source of the Arabs. The Kurdish name Kobanê derives from the German word " company" here because had settled here a company of laborers for the construction of the Baghdad railway.

The town of Ain ​​al-Arab lies on the Syrian- Turkish border to the Turkish city in the province of Şanlıurfa Suruc. Ain al-Arab is far from the river Euphrates, 160 km north-east of Aleppo and 30 km to the east.

The inhabitants of Ain al - Arabs are mainly Kurds. State officials and police, however, come from other parts of Syria. Until the 70s of the 20th century there was still Armenian families, but they are now migrated to larger cities such as Aleppo or to Armenia.

Large Kurdish Eşirets here are the Berazan and Kêtikan. Leading members of these tribes were eg Bozan Beg, who was at one time deputy for Urfa in the Turkish parliament and his nephew Şahin Şahin, who was a deputy in the Syrian parliament in Damascus in the 1950s. Other well-known people from the city are the artists and writers Mişoyê Bekebûrê, Polat Can and Jan Dost and politicians Salih Muslim.