Al-Hasakah

Al-Hasakah الحسكة Hesîçe
City
Location in Syria
Coordinates: 36°30′42″N 40°44′32″E{{#coordinates:36|30|42|N|40|44|32|E|type:city(188160)_region:SY |primary |name= }}
Country	Syria
Governorate	Al-Hasakah Governorate
District	Al-Hasakah District
Nahiyah	Al-Hasakah
Population (2004 census)
• City	188,160
• Metro	251,570
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	+3 (UTC)
Area code(s)	52

Al-Hasakah (Arabic: الحسكة‎, Kurdish: Hesîçe, Syriac: ܚܣܟܗ), also known as Al-Hasakeh, is the capital city of the Al-Hasakah Governorate and it is located in the far north-eastern corner of Syria. With a population of 188,160 residents in 2004, Al-Hasakah is among the 10 largest cities in Syria and the largest in the governorate. It is the administrative center of a nahiyah ("subdistrict") consisting of 108 localities with a combined population of 251,570 in 2004. Al-Hasakah has a mixed population with the majority being Arabs and Kurds in addition to a significant minority of Syriacs/Assyrians/Chaldeans and a smaller number of Armenians. The Khabur River runs through Al-Hasakah and the rest of the governorate.

Geography

Al-Hasakah is 80 km south of the Turkish border-city of Qamishli. The Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates River flows through the city, downriver from Ras al-Ayn, another Turkish border-town. The Jaghjagh River flows into the Khabur River at Al-Hasakah.

Districts

The city of Al-Hasakah is divided into 5 districts, which are Al-Madinah, Al-Aziziyah, Ghuwayran, Al-Nasra and Al-Nashwa. These districts, in turn, are divided into 29 neighborhoods.

English Name	Arabic Name	Population	Neighborhoods (Population)
Al-Madinah	المدينة	30,436	Al-Matar al-Shamali (9,396), Center / Al-Wista (6,067), Municipal Stadium / Al-Malaab al-Baladi (5,802), Al-Matar al-Janoubi (4,714), Al-Askari (4,457)
Al-Aziziyah	العزيزية	56,123	Al-Salehiyah (21,319), Al-Ghazal (11,199), National Hospital / Al-Mashfa al-Watani (11,108), Al-Talaia (4,883), Abou Amshah (4,435), Al-Mufti (3,179)
Ghuwayran	غويران	34,191	Sports City / Al-Madinah al-Riyadiyah (8,418), Al-Thawra (8,180), Al-Taqaddum (7,623), 16 Tishreen (5,595), Al-Zuhour (3,367), Abou Bakr (1,008)
Al-Nasra	الناصرة	42,070	Tell Hajjar (10,343), Al-Kallasah (9,721), Al-Meshirfah (8,074), Al-Qusour (7,672), Al-Beitra (2,423), Al-Mashtal (2,306), Al-Maaishiyah (1,531)
Al-Nashwa	النشوة	25,340	Al-Rasafah (12,618), Al-Masaken (4,968), Al-Khabour (3,805), Al-Liliyah (2,977), Villas / Al-Villat (972)

History

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Mitanni houses at Tell Brak

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.

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Excavations in 2007 on Citadel Hill. The barracks from the French Mandate, battalion Levant is in the background

In Ottoman times the town was insignificant. Today's settlement was established in April 1922 by a French military post. After the expulsion and genocide of the Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire many refugees fled to the city and began to develop it in the 1920s. During the French mandate period, Assyrians, fleeing ethnic cleanings in Iraq during the Simele massacre, established numerous villages along the Khabur River during the 1930s. French troops were stationed on the Citadel Hill during that time. In 1942 there were 7,835 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 was a result of the irrigation projects started in the 1960s which transformed the Northeast of Syria into the main cotton-growing area. The 1970s brought oil production from the oil fields of Qara Shuk and Rumaylan in the extreme northeast.

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

Syrian Civil War

Hasakah is currently controlled jointly between The Syrian Army and the Kurds. Since August 2014 ISIL have besieged the city, having failed to enter it earlier.

Demographics

In 2004 the population was 188,160. The population consists mostly of Arabs and Kurds in addition to a significant number of Syriacs/Assyrians/Chaldeans and a smaller number of Armenians. There are at least nine church buildings in the city as a visible sign of a large number of Christians of various Christian rites. Although by contrast, there are more than forty mosques in the city.

Sports

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Bassel al-Assad Stadium

Al-Jazeera SC Hasakah is the largest football club in the city and plays at Bassel al-Assad Stadium.

Gallery

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  Saint George Cathedral

• Assyrian church in Al-Hasakah

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  Tell Hajjar neighborhood in Al-Hasakah

References

Template:Cities of Syria