The 64th anniversary of the Arabization of Derik's name to Malikiya

By Hozan Dershaui

ARK News: The twenty-fourth of March marks the 64th anniversary of the Arabization of the name of Derik city in Kurdistan Syria to Malikiya

On 24.03.1957 under Decree No. 346, the name of the city of Derek was Arabized in Kurdistan Syria to Malikiya which related to the name of the Syrian officer Adnan al-Maliki.

The Arabization of Derik was not the first and last step in the Arabization of the region, where after the arrival of the Baath Party to power, the names of Kurdish villages were Arabized from the Tigris River to Afrin, Derik became Malikiya, Girke Lage became Ma’bada, Sari Kaniye became Ras Al Ain, Kobani became Ain al-Arab... etc.

Although dozens of years have passed since the Arabization of the names of Kurdish towns and villages in Syria, the original names did not leave the tongue of the people of the region, on the contrary, they used Arabic names only in official departments and documents.

Derik lies in the far northeast of Syria, in the Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish border triangle, Derik was annexed to Syria in 1929 under a border-planning agreement between Syria and Turkey in the presence of the representative of France, who was then assigned to Syria, where before that date was a village belonging to the Principality of Botan, it became a municipality by decree (1414 on 18.07.1933) and in (1936) it became a municipality of the Tigris and then the center of Derik region, its administrative borders extend from Ain Dewar to Chil Agha (Jawadia), which includes Ain Dewar, Zuhairiya, Girke Lage (Ma’bada), Rimailan, Khana Seri (Khan Al Jabal) and Till Kocher( al-Yahroubia).

Chil Agha (al-Jawadia) belonging to and the province of Hasaka, and the name of Derik is derived from (Der) any place of worship and (ik) any single relative to the monastery in which some refer to the history of this monastery (1600 years) or Derik is derived from (de) and (rik) i.e. the two ways where it was connected with its surroundings in two ways, also known as (Derika Hamko also and Dashta Hasnan), and it was Arabized to Malikiya by decree (346 dated 24.03.1957) in relation to the Syrian officer Adnan al-Maliki, and the area of Derik is (878 hectares), and the population of the city is about (75) thousand people and has a population as the region of about (300) thousand people, according to unofficial statistics.

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