Harir ( ar, حرير, ku, ھەریر, Harîr) is a town and sub-district in

Erbil Governorate ku, پارێزگای ھەولێر , other_name = , image_skyline = Collage_of_Hawler_-_Erbil_Governorate.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Clockwise, from top: ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. The town is located in the

Shaqlawa District Shaqlawa District ( ku, قەزای شەقڵاوە, Qezay Şeqlawe, ar, قضاء شقلاوة) is a district in the Erbil Governorate, Iraq. This district encompasses three sub-districts Hiran, Salahaddin and Harir, and 210 villages. It lies 5 ...

. In the town, there was a church of

Mar Mar, mar or MAR may refer to: Culture * Mar or Mor, an honorific in Syriac * Earl of Mar, an earldom in Scotland * MAA (singer) (born 1986), Japanese * Marathi language, by ISO 639-2 language code * March, as an abbreviation for the third mon ...

Yohanna.

History

Harir is mentioned by

Evliya Çelebi Derviş Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi ( ota, اوليا چلبى), was an Ottoman explorer who travelled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years, recording ...

in ''

Seyahatnâme ''Seyahatname'' ( ota, سياحتنامه, Seyāḥatnāme, book of travels) is the name of a literary form and tradition whose examples can be found throughout centuries in the Middle Ages around the Islamic world, starting with the Arab travel ...

'' in the 17th century as part of

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...

. The district was ruled by Mir Xanzad of the

Soran Emirate Soran Emirate ( ku, میرنشینی سۆران) was a medieval Kurdish emirate established before the conquest of Kurdistan by Ottoman Empire in 1514 and later revived by Emir Kor centered in Rawandiz from 1816 to 1836. Kor was ousted in an off ...

during the reign of the Ottoman

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Murad IV Murad IV ( ota, مراد رابع, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; tr, IV. Murad, was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad IV was born in Cons ...

(). The town was rebuilt in 1928 by

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

refugees, all of whom were adherents of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...

and were originally from Shemsdin in the

Hakkari Hakkari or Hakkâri may refer to: *Hakkari (historical region), a historical region in modern-day Turkey and Iraq *Hakkâri (city), a city and the capital of Hakkâri Province, Turkey *Hakkâri Province Hakkâri Province (, tr, Hakkâri ili, ...

mountains in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, after they had departed the refugee camp at

Baqubah Baqubah ( ar, بَعْقُوبَة; BGN: Ba‘qūbah; also spelled Baquba and Baqouba) is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate. The city is located some to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated populati ...

in the aftermath of the

Assyrian genocide The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish t ...

in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The church of

Yohanna was built soon after. By 1938, Harir was inhabited by 485 Assyrians in 78 families. The town was destroyed and its population displaced by pro-government militia, who settled at Harir, in 1963 during the

First Iraqi–Kurdish War The First Iraqi–Kurdish WarMichael G. Lortz. (Chapter 1, Introduction). ''The Kurdish Warrior Tradition and the Importance of the Peshmerga''. pp.39-42. (Arabic: الحرب العراقية الكردية الأولى) also known as Aylul revo ...

, prior to which there were over 90 Assyrian households. The discovery of a mass grave, in which 37 Assyrians from Harir were buried, was announced by

Kurdistan Regional Government The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ( ku, حکوومەتی هەرێمی کوردستان, ''Hikûmetî Herêmî Kurdistan'') is the official executive body of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. The cabinet is selected by the m ...

's Minister of Human Rights on 18 February 2006. A

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

was later established at Harir by the

Iraqi government The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution, approved in 2005, as an Islamic, democratic, federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as wel ...

and used to intern over 300 Kurdish families of the Barzani tribe from the village of Argush who were forcibly deported there on 26 June 1978. Amidst the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, over one thousand paratroopers of the US

173rd Airborne Brigade The 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers") is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Eu ...

landed at the airfield at Harir via airdrop on 26 March as part of

Operation Northern Delay Operation Northern Delay occurred on 26 March 2003 as part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It involved dropping paratroopers into Northern Iraq. It was the last large-scale combat parachute operation conducted by the U.S. military since Operation ...

Notable people

Ali Hariri Ali Hariri or Sheikh Ahmed Bohtani (; 1009 in Harir – 1079/1080) was a Kurdish poet who wrote in Kurmanji and considered a pioneer in classical Kurdish Sufi literature and a founder of the Kurdish literary tradition. Biography Hariri was b ...

(1425–), Kurdish poet *

Franso Hariri Franso Toma Hariri ( syr, ܦܪܢܣܘ ܚܪܝܪܝ; 1937 – February 18, 2001), was a Iraqi Assyrian politician, and a high-ranking and long-standing Kurdistan Democratic Party member and head of the KDP block of the Kurdistan Region Parliament. ...

(1937–2001), Assyrian politician * Fawzi Hariri (b. 1958), Assyrian politician

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Historic Assyrian communities in Iraq Populated places in Erbil Governorate Kurdish settlements in Iraq Subdistricts of Iraq {{Iraq-geo-stub