During the French mandate period , Assyrians , fleeing ethnic cleansings in Iraq during the Simele massacre , established numerous villages along the Khabur River during the 1930s . French troops were stationed on the Citadel Hill during that time . In 1942 there were 7,835 inhabitants in al-Hasakah , several schools , two churches and a gas station . The new city grew from the 1950s to the administrative center of the region . The economic boom of the cities of Qamishli and al-Hasakah was a result of the irrigation projects started in the 1960s which transformed Northeast Syria into the main cotton-growing area . The 1970s brought oil production from the oil fields of Qara Shuk and Rumaylan in the extreme northeast
Simele massacre
Simele massacre
Al-Hasakah