Yarmuk (refugee camp)

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The Yarmuk refugee district occupies the southwestern part of the Al-Yarmouk district of the same name .

Yarmuk ( Arabic مخيم اليرموك, DMG Muḫayyam al-Yarmūk , English Yarmouk Camp ) is an approximately 2.1 km² residential and business district on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus . It is located on the southern city limits in the district of the same name, east of the district of Qadam (Al-Kadam) , and is part of the Damascus governorate . Yarmuk is predominantly inhabited by refugees from Palestine and their descendants. From 2015 to 2018 the so-called refugee quarter was under the control of the Islamic State .

history

The neighborhood emerged from a refugee camp established in 1957 for Palestinian refugees from the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Like other refugee camps in Syria, Yarmuk developed into a normal neighborhood with houses and shops. At times up to 150,000 Palestinians, but also Syrians, lived in Yarmuk. The Palestinians were seen as guests and were largely on an equal footing with the Syrians. They had no right to vote, but they could study and do all kinds of jobs, build houses and start businesses. When the uprising against Syria's President Assad began , there were protests against him and the control of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Yarmuk . In 2011 the situation escalated when the protesters burned the PFLP headquarters in Yarmuk: 14 people were shot. Many Palestinians then joined the Free Syrian Army .

In the spring of 2015, Yarmuk was trapped by IS extremists and thus isolated from the outside world. At the beginning of April 2015, the camp was under IS control. On April 8, 2015, the Syrian government announced the reconquest. On April 10, 2015, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon appealed to the world public that Yarmuk was like a death camp and that a catastrophe of epic proportions was taking place here. At that time there were about 16,000 people in Yarmuk, including 3,500 children.

Since May 21, 2018, Yarmuk has been under the control of the Syrian government again.

Personalities

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Archive link ( Memento from April 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Gudrun Büscher: In the blackest hole in hell. derwesten.de, April 11, 2015; accessed on January 21, 2020
  3. ↑ n-tv.de : Jarmuk refugee camp conquered. IS advances to Damascus for the first time. April 1, 2015; accessed on January 21, 2020.
  4. ↑ Spiegel ( online )
  5. ^ Syrian army drives out the last of the IS militias. In: tagesschau.de. Retrieved May 21, 2018 .

Coordinates: 33 ° 28 ′ 27 ″  N , 36 ° 18 ′ 20 ″  E