Jazira Region

Jazira Region's ethnic groups included Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians and Yazidis. While Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac were official languages, all communities had the right to teach and be taught in their native language. Religions practiced in the region were Islam, Christianity and Yazidism.^[8] The majority of the Arabs and Kurds in the region were Sunni Muslim. Between 20 and 30% of the people of Al-Hasakeh governorate were Christians of various churches and denominations.^[10]

Cities and towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants according to the 2004 Syrian census were Hasakah (188,160), Qamishli (184,231), Amuda (26,821), Al-Malikiyah (26,311), Al-Qahtaniyah (16,946), Al-Shaddadah (15,806), Al-Muabbada (15,759), Al-Sabaa wa Arbain (14,177) and Al-Manajir (12,156).

The Jazira region had been home to one of the largest concentrations of Christians in Syria. Many of the cities had been founded by Christian communities. In 1927, the region's population was recorded as follows.^[11]

The Kurdish tribes gradually settled in villages and cities and remained present in Jazira (modern Syria's Hasakah Governorate).^[12] Until the 19th century, Kurdistan did not include the lands of Syrian Jazira in some books.^{[note 1][13]} The Treaty of Sèvres' putative Kurdistan did not include any part of today's Syria.^[14] According to McDowall, Kurds slightly outnumbered Arabs in Jazira in 1918.^[15]

Starting in 1926, the region saw an immigration of Kurds following the failure of the Sheikh Said rebellion against the Turkish authorities.^[16] It was estimated that 25,000 Kurds fled at this time to Syria.^[17] While many of the Kurds in Syria had been there for centuries, waves of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey and settled in Syria, where they were granted citizenship by the French mandate authorities.^[18]

In the late 1930s, a small but vigorous separatist movement emerged in Qamishli. With some support from French Mandate officials, the movement actively lobbied for autonomy directly under French rule and separation from Syria on the grounds 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 Shammal tribal leader and Kurdish tribes. They together attacked the Christian movement in many towns and villages. Local Kurdish tribes that were allies of the Shammar tribe sacked and burned the Assyrian town of Amuda.^[19][20] In 1941, the Assyrian community of al-Malikiyah was subjected to a vicious assault. Even though the assault failed, Assyrians felt threatened and left in large numbers, and the immigration of Kurds from Turkey to the area converted al-Malikiyah, al-Darbasiyah and Amuda into Kurdish-majority cities.

According to the French report to the League of Nations in 1937, the population of Jazira consisted of 82,000 Kurdish villagers, 42,000 Muslim Arab pastoralists, and 32,000 Christian town dwellers (Assyrians and Armenians).^[21]

Between 1932 and 1939, a Kurdish-Christian 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. The Jazira governor appointed by Damascus intended to disarm the population and encourage the settlement of Arab farmers from Aleppo, Homs and Hama in Jazira.^[22] 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 a local autonomous administration in Jazira.^[23] In August 1937, a number of Assyrians in Amuda were killed by a pro-Damascus Kurdish chief.^[24] In September 1938, Hajo Agha chaired a general conference in Jazira and appealed to France for self-government.^[25] The new French High Commissioner, Gabriel Puaux, dissolved parliament and created autonomous administrations for Jabal Druze, Latakia and Jazira in 1939, which lasted until 1943.^[26]

The economy of Jazira Canton was mainly based on agriculture, which accounted for 17 percent of Syria's agricultural production, particularly wheat and cotton, which were grown there in abundance.^[38] Being the "bread basket" of Syria, wheat production before the Syrian Civil War had been around 1.8 million tons per year, but at the height of the war it had dropped as low as 0.5 million tons.^[38] The Economy Committee promoted varied vegetable and fruit cultivation instead of the monoculture of wheat; in Amuda, a centre to develop seedlings had been established.^[39] The development of a greenhouse economy was promoted.^[40] In Al-Qahtaniyah, an ecological village was founded so that the local Rojavan population could acquire experience in ecology from international volunteers.^[39] By 2020, 40 workers' cooperatives had been established, with between five and ten families each. Eighteen were organized by Aborija Jin of the Kongra Star, an organization focused on women's activities in the DAANES.^[41]

The only significant industrial area was in Hasakah.^[39]

Jazira Region was home to several oil fields, among them Syria's best-producing one at Rmelan. As of summer 2016, oil output in Jazira Region was estimated at 40,000 barrels per day.^[35] Some people worked at primitive oil refineries, which caused health hazards and pollution.^[42] The oil wealth, in combination with the economic blockade of the DAANES from the adjacent territories controlled by Turkey and, partially, the KRG, resulted in a distortion of relative prices; petrol cost only half as much as bottled water.^[39]

Electricity was supplied by Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates, within Euphrates Region; apart from that, electricity was produced by diesel generators.^[39]

Like in the other Rojava regions, primary education in the public schools was initially provided through mother-tongue instruction, either in Kurdish or Arabic, with the aim of bilingualism in Kurdish and Arabic in secondary schooling.^[44][45] Curricula were a topic of continuous debate between the regions' Boards of Education and the Syrian central government in Damascus, which partly paid the teachers.^{[46][47][48][49]} In August 2016, the Ourhi Centre in the city of Qamishli was founded by the Assyrian community to educate teachers in order to make the Syriac language an additional language to be taught in public schools in Jazira Region,^[50][51] which then started with the 2016/17 academic year.^[46] With that academic year, the Rojava Education Committee stated that "three curriculums have replaced the old one, to include teaching in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac”.^[52]

The federal, regional and local administrations in Rojava placed much emphasis on promoting libraries and educational centers to facilitate learning and social and artistic activities. One cited example was the 2015-established Nahawand Center for Developing Children’s Talents in Amuda.^[53]

The Jazira Region Board of Education operated two public institutions of higher education, the University of Rojava and the Mesopotamian Social Sciences Academy, both in the city of Qamishli. Jazira Region also housed a third one, the Hasakah campus of Al-Furat University, which was operated by the Damascus government's Ministry of Higher Education.

• Federalization of Syria
• Rojava conflict
• Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria
• Afrin Region
• Euphrates Region
• Assyrians in Syria
• Armenians in Syria
• Kurds in Syria