# Assyrian Refugees Settle on the Khabur (1933)

URL: https://allhistories.com/syria/timeline/1933-assyrian-refugees-settle-on-the-khabur
Location: Tall Tamir, Al-Hasakah Governorate
Themes: Assyrians, Refugees

After the Simele massacre in Iraq in 1933, about 9,000 Assyrians moved into north-eastern Syria and settled near Tall Tamir on the upper Khabur River. The French mandate authorities organised the settlement with League of Nations assistance. The settlement became part of Syria in 1942. The settlers were mostly farmers, and they founded villages along the river. Counts differ: one section of the source speaks of over 30 villages, its list names about 35, and another describes about 20. The Khabur settlement added to the Assyrian and Syriac Christian population already in the Jazira, where the French also settled refugees at Qamishli. A 1936 autonomy movement in the Jazira failed after a French crackdown. The Assyrian Democratic Organization was founded in 1957. Estimates of the present Assyrian population of Syria range widely, from 400,000 to 877,000 in a 2025 estimate, and an academic put them at about 4 percent of Syria's population in 2018. At this point in the timeline (1933), the French Mandate over Syria was administered by French High Commissioner Auguste Henri Ponsot (August 1926 – 16 July 1933), with President Muhammad Ali Bey al-Abid (11 June 1932 – 21 December 1936) as head of the Syrian state, while Prime Minister Haqqi al-Azm (7 June 1932 – 16 March 1934) headed the government.

## Why it matters
It created the Khabur Assyrian community, which later became a significant minority in the north-east.

Ruler at the Time: [Auguste Henri Ponsot](https://allhistories.com/syria/rulers/auguste-henri-ponsot)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Assyrians in Syria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrians_in_Syria)
- [Wikipedia — Qamishli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qamishli)