Tell Tamer

Tell Tamer ناحية تل تمر Girê Xurma
Town
Tell Tamer Location of Tell Tamer in Syria
Coordinates: 36°39′38″N 40°22′17″E / 36.6606°N 40.3714°E / 36.6606; 40.3714Coordinates: 36°39′38″N 40°22′17″E / 36.6606°N 40.3714°E / 36.6606; 40.3714
Country	Syria
Governorate	al-Hasakah
District	al-Hasakah
Subdistrict	Tell Tamer
Population (2004)[1]	7,285
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Geocode	C4409

Tell Tamer (Arabic: تل تمر‎‎, Syriac: ܬܠ ܬܡܪ‎, Kurdish: Girê Xurma‎^[2]) also known as Tal Tamr or Tal Tamir, is a small town in western al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. It is administrative center of the Tell Tamer Nahiya consisting of 13 municipalities.

Originally inhabited by Assyrians, the town is now predominantly populated by Kurds and recently settled Arab Bedouin, with the Assyrians remaining a substantial minority of about 20%. At the 2004 census, Tell Tamer had a population of 7,285.^[1]

Located by the Khabur River at an intersection between the M4 Highway (Aleppo–Mosul) and the major road between al-Hasakah and Diyarbakır (Turkey), the town is a transport hub of major importance.

Etymology

The name of the town, "Tell Tamer", is derived from the Arabic and Aramaic words "tell/tella", both meaning "hill", and "tamer/tamra", both meaning "date". The name of the town therefore means "Hill of Dates".

Geography and climate

In the Upper Khabur Valley of Jazira in northeastern Syria, Tell Tamer is situated on the left (eastern) bank of Khabur River, just south of the small Zirgan river's estuary. About 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the east, the landscape ascends to the volcanic basalt plateau Ard al-Shaykh.

Tell Tamer lies on a direct line between the city of Ras al-Ayn some 35 kilometres (22 mi) to the northwest and the provincial capital al-Hasakah some 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the southeast. The intersection with the M4 highway (Aleppo–Mosul) and the nearby river crossing make Tell Tamer an essential transport hub.

History

Settled in the 1930s by Iraqi Assyrian refugees fleeing the Simele massacre in Iraq, who moved to French controlled Syria and settled in a 25 km stretch of the Khabur River in 35 settlements.

• 
  Tal Tamer (1939)
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  Assyrian men in Tal Tamer (1939)
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  Assyrian woman cooking (1939)
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  Assyrian woman spinning wool (1939)
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  Tal Tamer watermill (1939)

Syrian Civil War

An Assyrian exodus from the town began in November 2012, when Free Syrian Army (Islamic Terrorist militants) soldiers threatened to invade the town. The exodus further continued when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took control of nearby roads just outside the town.

In October 2013, four Assyrians were stopped while driving in a car and kidnapped by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terrorists.

According to the Syriac International News Agency, in May 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attacked an Assyrian village in the town, which prompted the Assyrians to call the Kurdish People's Protection Units to help protect them.^[3]

Al-Hasakah offensive in progress, 24 February 2015

Since ISIL militants captured the city of Ar-Raqqah, some Assyrians from there and from Al-Thawrah fled to Tell Tamer as refugees. However, more than 500 Assyrian families have also fled the town. Many Assyrians from the town emigrated mainly to the United States, Europe and Canada.

In February 2015 the town was taken by the Islamic State militia,^[4] resulting in the abduction of about 90 residents.^[5] during the al-Hasakah offensive.^[6] Several thousand residents fled the city, mostly to the city of al-Hasakah.

On 23 February 2015, ISIL kidnapped around 220 Assyrians from villages surrounding Tell Tamer, and by 26 February, that number had increased to 350. On 1 March, ISIL released 19 of the kidnapped Assyrians.^[7] On 24 March 5 more Assyrian hostages were released, raising the number of released Assyrian hostages to 24.^[8]

Demographics

Its original inhabitants are Assyrians from the Upper Tyari tribe, who came to the area from Hakkari region in Turkey via Iraq.^[9] As late as the 1960s, they still comprised virtually the entire population of the town.^[10] The majority of the town's modern population is composed of by Arabs and Kurds, while local Assyrian leaders in the 1990s estimated their own community's presence in the town to be around 20%.^[11]

Historical population estimates are as follows: 1,244 (1936); 1,250 (1960); 2,994 (1981); 5,030 (1993); 5,216 (1994); 5,405 (1995).^[12]

The pre-war scholarly estimates actually placed the total number of Assyrians belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East living all over of Syria at around 30,000 individuals, with between 15,000 and 20,000 (i.e., 2/3, at most) of them living along the Khabur.^[13]

Religion

The Assyrian "Church of Our Lady", located in the Old Town, at a prominent place near the actual Tell (hill), serves as the center of the Assyrian community. In the early 1980s the original church built of mud-brick in the 1930s was broken down and replaced by a new Italianate-style building. A large green-domed brick mosque built in the 1970s serves the growing Muslim community just to the south of the town center.^[14]

Notable people

• Juliana Jendo, prominent Assyrian singer.
• Omar Souleyman, prominent Arabic singer.

See also

• List of Assyrian settlements

References

Literature

• Fernandez, Alberto M. (1998). "Dawn at Tell Tamer: The Assyrian Christian Survival on the Khabur River" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 12 (1): 34–47. 

External links

• http://www.aina.org/articles/asotk.pdf
• http://www.aina.org/maps/khaburmap.htm

Al-Hasakah Governorate
Capital: Al-Hasakah
	Al-Hasakah District Al-Hasakah Abu Hajirat Khuatana Abu Tinah al-Alwa al-Arishah Bir al-Helou Bureij Sharqi Dashishah Gharbiyah al-Fadghami al-Fakkah Markada Ghabshah al-Ghariri al-Haddadiyah al-Hajiyah al-Hawl Al-Kharitah Khatuniyah Markada Markada Sharqiyah Qaber Shamiyah al-Sabaa wa Arbain al-Saadah Safia al-Shaddadeh al-Shaykh Hamad Sumayhan Gharbi Tell Arboush Tell Balouaah Tell Baz Tell Brak Tell Bureij Tell Damshij Tell Fuweidat Jazira Tell Goran Tell Hefyan Tell Hermez Tell Jazira Tell Jedaya Tell Jemaah Tell Kifji Tell Maghas Tell Majdal Tell Makhadah Tell Massas Tell Nasri Tell Ruman Tell Safouk Tell Sakra Tell Shamah Tell Shamiram Tell Tal Tell Talaah Tell Tamer Tell Tawil Tell Tawil Gharbi al-Tweinah Umm Ghargan Umm al-Keif Umm Madfaa
	Al-Qamishli District Al-Qamishli Amuda Jimaayah al-Manathirah al-Qahtaniyah al-Tannuriyah Tell Hamis Tell Maaruf Umm al-Fursan
	Al-Malikiyah District Al-Malikiyah al-Jawadiyah al-Muabbada Maashuq Sabaa Jafar Suwaydiyah Fawqani al-Tabaqah Tell Adas Tell Arab al-Yaarubiyah
	Ras al-Ayn District Ras al-Ayn Abu Rasin al-Darbasiyah al-Lid Dirbasiyah Mabrouka al-Manajir Tell Halaf Tell Sinan Sharqi Umm al-Dibs Dirbasiyah