Tadamon (; also spelled ''Tadamoun'' or ''Tadamun'') is a neighborhood and district of the al-Midan municipality of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. The neighborhood has been active in the Syrian civil war.

History

Until the 1960s, the area of Tadamon was largely covered by orchards. However, the area began to be populated by Syrians who had fled the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

after

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

occupied that region in the 1967

Six Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June 1967. Military hostilities broke ...

. The area also saw an influx of Syrians moving in from the countryside of

. Most of the people who moved to Tadamon built their homes without government permits and the area has since developed as an informal neighborhood where roughly 90% of homes lack formally registered property deeds. During the Syrian Civil War, in 2012, most of Tadamon was overrun by rebels fighting under the banner of the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA; ) is a Big tent, big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition (2011–2024), Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defe ...

(FSA). In 2013, the area was the site of the Tadamon massacre, where 280+ people were executed by Syrian Military Intelligence personnel. In 2015, the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIL), took over part of the district from the FSA. Government forces reasserted complete control of Tadamon in a military offensive in 2018.

Population

According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Tadamon had a population of 86,793 in the 2004 census.Damascus city population
According to ''

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

'', Tadamon had a pre-war population of 250,000 but most of the inhabitants fled the area during war. As of late 2018, the population of the district is around 65,000.

References

{{Municipalities of Damascus, midan Neighborhoods of Damascus