The Assyrian roots of Aleppo's Kurdified districts

"The two neighborhoods that have become known as Kurdish in recent years were, 50 years ago, little more than small residential clusters inhabited by a limited number of poor Christians, mainly Assyrians and Armenians.

Over time, people from the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo, including residents of Afrin, Jandaris and Ain al-Arab (Kobani), moved there in search of better opportunities in the city, drawn by relatively affordable living costs and proximity to industrial zones.

What led many to label the neighborhoods as Kurdish was the rare and unprecedented concentration of Kurds in one area of Aleppo.

Until the 1970s, Aleppans knew Sheikh Maqsoud as Jabal al-Sayyida, named after the Virgin Mary. After a mosque bearing the name of a Kurdish Sufi sheikh, Sheikh Maqsoud, was built at the site where Kurds had begun to gather, the new name became widely used.

The neighboring Ashrafieh district emerged around the same time as an unplanned extension of the Assyrian Christian quarter."

Read the full story in the link below:

From ‘Jabal al-Sayyida’ to ‘Sheikh Maqsoud,’ Ashrafieh’s Syriac Roots

Aqil Hussein, a Syrian activist and journalist from Aleppo, reflects on his ties to the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, now the scene of fighting in and around them between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian government. He was involved in the civil protest movement that erupted with the Syrian uprising in March 2011 and reported from the ground, particularly in the eastern districts of the city, which later came under intense bombardment and suffered widespread destruction at the hands of forces loyal to then president Bashar al-Assad.

الشرق الأوسطAsharq Al Awsat