In Ottoman times the town was insignificant. Today's settlement was established in April 1922 as a French military post which soon grew into a town. The establishment of new cities in northern Syria was deemed necessary by the authorities of the French Mandate, as after the foundation of Turkey, all major economic centers were allocated to Turkey. After the expulsion and genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, many refugees fled to the area and began to develop it in the 1920s.