Al-Malikiyah
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Al-Malikiyah (Arabic: المالكية) (Also:Dayrik) is a Syrian town and the center of an administrative district belonging to Al-Hasakah Governorate. The district constitutes the northeastern corner of the country. The Tigris river defines the border that separates Syrian from Iraqi and Turkish territories. The population enjoys demographic diversity that is characteristic of most of Al-Hasakah Governorate; Assyrians, Syriacs, Chaldeans, Arabs, Kurds, Armenians and other ethnic minorities continue to coexist peacefully despite the rise of occasional tensions between Arabs and Kurds in the recent years.
Al-Malikiyah, which is named after a Syrian army officer Adnan Al-Maliki, is also known as Dayrik (a Syriac reference to monastery). The town's indigenous occupants are Christians who trace their ancestry to many Turkish villages whose inhabitants fled to Syria escaping the ethnic cleansing of the Assyrian and Armenian populations of Ottoman Turkey during WWI.
The northern geographic half of the town is mainly inhabited by Kurds, the southern by Christians. Being the economic center of the district, The town is usually flocked by people from the surrounding villages and towns, especially during the morning hours. The town has seen a dramatic urban expansion and real estate development in recent years which led to many streets being extended to new neighborhoods that are now part of the continually growing town.