The city was established in the 1920s by Assyrians escaping the
Assyrian genocide who fled from northwestern Iran and southern Turkey. They built a small town under the
French Mandate which they initially called Bet-Zalin. In 1926, it was renamed Qamishli and served as a station on the Taurus railway. One of the funders of the early development of the city was Masoud Asfar, an Assyrian who survived the
Massacres of Diyarbakır (1895) as a young child. Masoud, along with stepbrother, whose last name was Najjar, established the Asfar & Najjar Corporation, a company that produced wheat in Qamishli. Throughout the 1920s–1940s, the Asfar & Najjar Corporation funded hospitals, Assyrian schools, and churches throughout the city. At the same time, many
Armenians and
Assyrians, fleeing persecution in Iraq and Turkey, moved into the region. This was followed by the emigration of
Kurds from Turkey, most of whom settled in the countryside and then began to move to the city. However, in the 1960s and until the late 1970s, when Assyrians still constituted two-thirds of the city's population, the government of the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region actively confiscated Assyrian farms, lands, and areas, causing an Assyrian exodus. Qamishli is considered a center for both the
Kurdish and the
Assyrian ethnic groups in Syria. It was heavily settled by refugees from the
Assyrian genocide. Assyrians were the majority in the city until the 1970s, when Kurds from the surrounding countryside moved into the city in numbers. Qamishli is renowned for its large
Christmas parade, and
Newroz and
Kha b-Nisan festivals.
21st century In March 2004, during a chaotic soccer match, the
Qamishli riots began when visiting Arab fans from
Deir ez-Zor started praising
Saddam Hussein to taunt the Kurdish home fans. The riot expanded out of the stadium and weapons were used against people of Kurdish background. In the aftermath, at least 30 Kurds were killed as the Syrian security services took over the city. In June 2005, thousands of Kurds demonstrated in Qamishli to protest the assassination of Sheikh Khaznawi, a Kurdish cleric in Syria, resulting in the death of one policeman and injury to four Kurdish civilians. In March 2008, according to
Human Rights Watch, three more Kurds were killed when Syrian security forces opened fire on people celebrating the spring festival of
Newroz.
Syrian Civil War and after the conflict With the
civil war and the
Rojava conflict from 2011, the city grew into a major political role, being the de facto capital of the
DAANES. Part of the city, as well as an area to the south which includes
Qamishli Airport, remained under the administration of the
Syrian government until the rebel offensive in December 2024. Unlike many Syrian cities, Qamishli has not seen large-scale fighting during the war, although it has been attacked by unknown perpetrators
in 2015 and by Islamic State
in 2016, as well as brief skirmishes between DAANES and Syrian forces
in 2016 and
2018. Qamishli is home to Chirkin prison, which houses detained
Islamic State militants. On 17 August 2020,
Syrian forces reportedly clashed with
US troops near Qamishli, which resulted in the death of one Syrian. Two other
Syrian soldiers were said to have been injured during the clash,
state media added. In 2022, the Syrian government remained in control of a large part of the city centre as well as a substantial rural area to the south, including the airport, the border crossing, various government buildings, and many residential neighbourhoods. The government still organised the production and the distribution of the harvest in the southern countryside, and organised flights between Qamishli and other Syrian cities, as well as
Beirut. However, most of the city was under the administration of the DAANES. The city came fully under Kurdish forces control in December 2024, when
Ba'athist Syrian forces handed over control with little fighting. Following the
2026 northeastern Syria offensive, the
Syrian transitional government forces entered the city on 3 February as part of a ceasefire agreement. On 4 March 2026, a stray Iranian ballistic missile originally headed for Turkey impacted a field in Qamishli, and failed to explode. ==Climate==