Al Qamishli

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The city of Qamishli

Qamishli (Arabic: القامشلي, Syriac:ܩܡܫܠܝ, ܩܡܫܠܐ or Beth-Zalin ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝܢ, Kurdish: Qamişlo) is a large city in northeastern Syria on the border with Turkey and close to Iraq. It is part of the Al Hasakah governorate and the center of an administrative district.

1 Etymology
2 Demographics
3 History
4 Petroleum
5 Travel
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Etymology

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The roots of the name Qamishli maybe originally traced to languages spoken in ancient Southwest Asia during the bronze age, like the name of the Hittite/Mitanni city of Carchemish (KarKamish). The word Qamishli seems to have been Turkicized to mean "with reed".

[edit] Demographics

Al Qamishli is a predominantly Kurdish^[1] city that has a population of 200,000^{[citation needed]} people. The city also has a large number of Christians.^[2] The Christians of the city who are indigenous to the area mainly consist of Assyrian-Syriac and Armenians. The city's population grew with the arrival of Assyrian-Syriac fleeing the Assyrian Genocide in modern Turkey^{[citation needed]}. Today Kurds, Assyrian-Syriac, Arabs, and Armenians live side by side in the city.

[edit] History

Qamishli is situated at the base of the Taurus Mountains, located near the area of ancient Hurrian city of Urkesh which was founded during the fourth millennium BC.

The modern city was founded in 1926 as a railway station on the Taurus railway.^[3]

According to Human Rights Watch, Syrian security forces opened fire at Kurds celebrating spring festival of Newroz in Qamishli in March 2008. The shooting left three people dead. Also in March 2004, during a chaotic soccer match, security forces killed 25 people and wounded more than 100^[4]^[5]. In June 2005, thousands of Kurds demonstrated in Qamishli to protest Sheikh Khaznawi's assassination a welknown Kurdish cleric in Syria, which resulted in killing of one policeman and four Kurds injured. ^[6] ^[7]

Qamishli is the largest town in Hassake province and it is regarded as the secret capital of the Kurds. It is also the centre of the Syrian Kurdish problem. ^[8]

The city is renowned for throwing a large Christmas parade every year in December, and celebrating Newroz festival by a large crowd every year in March.

[edit] Petroleum

Al Qamishli has recently experienced an economic boom due to the exploration of petroleum in the Qarah Shuk region 80 km east of Al Qamishli.^{[citation needed]}