Al-Hasakah Governorate


Al-Hasakah Governorate is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is located in the far north-east corner of Syria and distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, natural environment, and more than one hundred archaeological sites. It was formerly known as Al-Jazira Province. Prior to the Syrian Civil War nearly half of Syria's oil was extracted from the region. Most of the governorate's territory is coextensive with the Jazira Region of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, with parts under the Turkish occupation of northern Syria or urban enclaves of the Syrian government.

History

Three soldiers were killed by armed militants in Al-Hasakah in an ambush during the Syrian Civil War on 24 March 2012. About a year later, local forces launched the 2013 Al-Hasakah offensive.
After the battle of al-Hasakah in August 2016 between Kurds and the Bashar al-Assad regime, the area was mostly in People's Protection Units control.

Demographics and population

Until the beginning of the 20th century, al-Hasakah Governorate was a “no man’s land” primarily reserved for the grazing land of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes. 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. The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920's was estimated at 20,000 people.
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 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. Consequently, the border areas in al-Hasakah Governorate started to have a Kurdish majority, while Arabs remained the majority in river plains and elsewhere.
In 1939, French mandate authorities reported the following population numbers for the different ethnic and religious groups in al-Hasakah city centre.
DistrictArabKurdChristianArmenianYezidiAssyrian
Hasakah city centre71333605700500
Tel Tamer8767
Ras al-Ayn228310252263
Shaddadi26106
Tel Brak4509905200
Qamishli city centre7990589214,1403500720
Amuda11,2601500720
Derbasiyeh301178992382425
Shager Bazar38038103
Ain Diwar3608900
Derik 4416851204
Mustafiyya34495950
Derouna Agha570509727
Tel Koger 165

The population of the governorate reached 155,643 in 1949, including about 60,000 Kurds.
The inhabitants of al-Hasakah governorate are composed of different ethnic and cultural groups, the larger groups being Arabs and Kurds in addition to a significant large number of Assyrians and a smaller number of Armenians. 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.

Censuses of 1943 and 1953

Among the Sunni Muslims, mostly Kurds and Arabs, there were about 1,500 Circassians in 1938.
In 1949, there were officially 155,643 inhabitants. The French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that there were about 50,000 Arabs, 60,000 Kurds, a few thousands Jews and Yezidis, the rest being Christians of various denominations.

Cities, towns and villages

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:
English NamePopulationDistrict
Al-Hasakah188,160Al-Hasakah District
Qamishli184,231Qamishli District
Ras al-Ayn29,347Ras al-Ayn District
Amuda26,821Qamishli District
Al-Malikiyah26,311Al-Malikiyah District
Al-Qahtaniyah16,946Qamishli District
Al-Shaddadi15,806Al-Hasakah District
Al-Muabbada15,759Al-Malikiyah District
Al-Sabaa wa Arbain14,177Al-Hasakah District
Al-Manajir12,156Ras al-Ayn District
Al-Darbasiyah8,551Ras al-Ayn District
Tell Tamer7,285Al-Hasakah District
Al-Jawadiyah6,630Al-Malikiyah District
Mabrouka6,325Ras al-Ayn District
Al-Yaarubiyah6,066Al-Malikiyah District
Tell Safouk5,781Al-Hasakah District
Tell Hamis5,161Qamishli District
Al-Tweinah5,062Al-Hasakah District
Al-Fadghami5,062Al-Hasakah District

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.
Arab villages1161
Kurdish villages453
Assyrian villages98
Mixed Arab-Kurdish villages48
Mixed villages3
Mixed villages2
Total1717

Districts and sub-districts

The governorate is divided into four districts. The districts are further divided into 16 sub-districts :
The Khabur River, which flows through al-Hasakah for, witnessed the birth of some of the earliest civilizations in the world, including those of Akkad, Assyria, the Hurrians and Amorites. The most prominent archaeological sites are: