Raʾs al-ʿAin
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رأس العين / Raʾs al-ʿAin Raʾs al-ʿAin |
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| Coordinates | 36 ° 51 ′ N , 40 ° 4 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Syria | ||
| al-Hasakah | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | SY-HA | ||
| height | 360 m | ||
| Residents | 55,000 (2010) | ||
Raʾs al-ʿAin ( Arabic رأس العين; also ʿAin Warda , Aramaic ܪܝܫ ܥܝܢܐ Rēš ʿAynā , Kurdish سەرێ کانیێ Serê Kaniyê ) is a Syrian city in al-Hasakah Governorate . Today's Raʾs al-ʿAin is the Syrian part of the old city of Raʾs al-ʿAin, while the northern Turkish part of Rasüleyn became today's Ceylanpınar .
Location and cityscape
Raʾs al-ʿAin is located in the northeast of the country on the Turkish-Syrian border directly opposite the Turkish Ceylanpınar , to which there is no official border crossing.
The small town is located at an altitude of 360 meters on the Chabur , whose longest tributaries arise in Turkey, but which draws its main water volume from 13 rich and partly warm karst springs in the southern area. Raʾs al-ʿAin as well as the Kurdish name Serê Kaniyê translates as "the head of the spring". The city has 55,000 inhabitants, made up of Syrian Christians (also called Aramaeans / Assyrians), Arabs , Kurds , Armenians , Chechens and Turks . According to a calculation by the World Gazetter, the city should have 24,242 inhabitants (2010 calculation). Three kilometers west of the city, the hill of ruins Tell Halaf with excavations from prehistoric and Assyrian times can be seen from afar.
history
Early history was unearthed one kilometer south of the present city in Tell Fecheriye . The finds there prove a settlement from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Through the empire of Mitanni , the Central and New Assyrian empire and up to the Islamic period around 800 AD.
In Roman times the place was called Resaina and was in the east of the ancient landscape of Osrhoene . The name derives from coin finds, texts by ancient authors and the entry on the Tabula Peutingeriana , a late Roman map. Under Theodosius I (347–395) the place was re-established as Theodosiopolis , received city rights in 383 and was a bishopric.
In the Roman-Persian wars under the Roman emperor Gordian III. the first attack by Shapur I repulsed at the beginning of 243 in the battle of Resaina, so that the Sassanids had to retreat behind the Euphrates. In the eventful campaign that followed, Gordian III was finally killed and a status quo ante agreed.
At the end of the 6th century, the Persian general Adharmahan destroyed the city twice during the reign of Hormizd IV .
Raʾs al-ʿAin was conquered by the Islamic Arabs in 640 . In the 10th century, Byzantines briefly occupied the city and sacked it. During the crusades in the 12th century it was conquered by Joscelin I , a large part of the Arab population was killed or led into slavery.
The city was under the rule of the Zengids from the middle of the same century and, towards the end, under their successors, the Ayyubids . The conqueror Timur sacked the city in the 14th century. In the 16th century the region became part of the Ottoman Empire . The present city was re-established in 1878 by Chechens who had been expelled from the Caucasus .
During the First World War , Raʾs al-ʿAin was the location of an Ottoman concentration camp for the genocide of the Armenians . After the war, Raʾs al-ʿAin was divided. The southern part became part of the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon , while the northern part became Turkish. For 1970 about 6000 inhabitants are given.
General tensions in the region between the Kurds and the Syrian government resulted in special surveillance of the population by the Syrian secret service.
Syrian civil war
In the course of the Syrian civil war , Raʾs al-ʿAin repeatedly became the scene of armed clashes between jihadist opposition groups and Kurdish militias. The last time there was a widespread attack by jihadist groups on the city took place in January 2013. According to reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , 57 members of the opposition groups, 12 Kurdish militiamen and four civilians were killed in the course of the fighting. According to Syrian activists, 65 percent of the city's residents fled the city during the fighting.
On July 18, 2013, Kurdish YPG fighters conquered the city and drove out Islamist rebels from the Nusra Front . Some projectiles during the several days of fighting also hit houses in the neighboring Turkish town of Ceylanpınar.
With the Turkish offensive against areas in northern Syria on October 9, 2019, Raʾs al-ʿAin also became a target. On October 12, Turkish officials announced the occupation of the city center by militias allied with Turkey. On October 13, 2019, the SOHR announced that the city had been retaken by the Syrian Democratic Forces . As part of a ceasefire, Kurdish associations withdrew from Raʾs al-ʿAin on October 20.
literature
- Ernst Honigmann : Raʾs al-ʿAyn. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Syria Islamist-Kurd warring ends as dissident mediates In: AFP, February 20, 2013
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: bevoelkerungsstatistik.de
- ^ Eugen Wirth : Syria, a geographical country study. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1971, p. 428
- ↑ An unnecessary fight against Kurds betrays Syrian struggle. In: The National . Retrieved February 3, 2013
- ↑ https://www.expatica.com/fr/kurd-jihadist-firefights-rage-in-northern-syria/ In: AFP , January 18, 2013
- ↑ Reports of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: January 24, 2013 , January 25, 2013 Retrieved February 3, 2013
- ^ Jonathon Burch: Kurds seize town on Syria-Turkey border, Ankara concerned. Reuters, July 18, 2013
- ↑ Zeina Khodr: Turkish troops seize the center of Syrian border town Al Jazeera, October 12, 2019.
- ^ The SDF regain the control of Ras Al-Ayn city almost completely after a counter attack in which 17 members of the pro-Turkey factions were killed. SOHR , October 13, 2019, accessed on October 13, 2019 .
- ^ "Germany and France against NATO support for Turkey" Tagesspiegel from October 20, 2019