Syrian Kurdistan

This article is about the Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria. For the AANES, often called Rojava, see Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Location of Kurdish-speaking communities (Le Monde diplomatique, 2007)

Syrian Kurdistan or Western Kurdistan (Template:Lang-ku), often shortened to Rojava, is regarded as one of the four parts of Kurdistan, covering parts of northern Syria. In this conception, northern Syria (Western Kurdistan) is joined by southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), and northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan). The term Syrian Kurdistan is often used in the context of Kurdish nationalism, which makes it a controversial concept among proponents of Syrian and Arab nationalism. There is ambiguity about its geographical extent, and the term has different meanings depending on context.

Extermist Kurdish nationalists have used the concept of "Syrian Kurdistan" to portray native Arabs in Upper Mesopotamia as foreign "settler herds", contributing to regional ethnic tensions. As a result, the academic book The Issue of the Kurds in Syria: Facts, History and Myth argued that the "Syrian 'Kurdish issue' can only be resolved within the framework of a purely Syrian national solution, outside the inventions of 'West Kurdistan', and in a way that sets Syrian Kurds within the context of belonging to Syrian society and its institutionalized state form as the Syrian Arab Republic".

History

1803 Cedid Atlas showing Kurdistan in blue.

Although the concept of an independent Kurdistan as homeland of the Kurdish people has a long history, the extent of said territory has been dispued over time. Kurds have lived in territories which later became part of modern Syria for centuries. Before the 1980s, however, Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria were usually only regarded as "Kurdish regions of Syria". Local Kurdish parties generally maintained ideologies which stayed in a firmly Syrian framework, and did not aspire to create a separate Syrian Kurdistan. In the 1920s, there were two separate demands for an autonomy of the areas with a Kurdish majority. One of Nouri Kandy, an influential Kurd from the Kurd Dagh, and another one of the Kurdish tribal leaders of the Barazi confederation. Both demands were not taken into consideration by the authorities of the French Mandate.

The idea of Syrian territory being part of a distinct "Kurdistan" or "Syrian Kurdistan" gained more widespread support among Syrian Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s. This development was fueled by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that strengthened Kurdish nationalist ideas in Syria, whereas local Kurdish parties had previously lacked "a clear political project" related to a Kurdish identity, partially due to political repression by the Syrian government. Despite the role of the PKK in initially spreading the concept of "Syrian Kurdistan", the Democratic Union Party (PYD) (the Syrian "successor" of the PKK) generally refrained from calling for the establishment of "Syrian Kurdistan". As the PKK and PYD call for the removal of national borders in general, the two parties believed that there was no need for the creation of a separate "Syrian Kurdistan", as their internationalist project would allow for the unification of Kurdistan through indirect means.

The idea of a Syrian Kurdistan gained even more relevance after the Syrian Civil War's start, as Kurdish-inhabited areas in northern Syria fell under the control of Kurdish-dominated factions. The PYD established an autonomous administration in northern Syria which it eventually began to call "Rojava" or "West Kurdistan". By 2014, many local Kurds used this name synonymously to northeastern Syria. Non-PYD parties such as the KNC also began to raise demands for the establishment of Syrian Kurdistan as separate area, raising increasing concerns by Syrian nationalists and some observers who regarded these plans as attempts to divide Syria. As the PYD-led administration gained control over increasingly ethnically diverse areas, however, the use of "Rojava" for the merging proto-state was gradually reduced in official contexts. Regardless, the polity continued to be called Rojava by locals and international observers, with journalist Metin Gurcan noting that "the concept of Rojava [had become] a brand gaining global recognition" by 2019.

Extent

Syrian Kurdistan as claimed by the Kurdish Project

"Syrian Kurdistan", as understood in the modern sense, has no clearly defined territory. According to the Crisis Group, the term "refers to the western area of 'Kurdistan'", namely those in Syria. Following the partition of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the Kurdish population before living in the Ottoman Empire was divided between its successor states Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The Kurdish-inhabited areas in northern Syria are adjacent to "Turkish Kurdistan" in the north and "Iraqi Kurdistan" in the east. Various areas have been claimed to be part of the Syrian part of Kurdistan. Two maps by Ekurd Daily from 2012 and 2013 included all of northern Syria, including the entire al-Hasakah Governorate, the northern Deir ez-Zor Governorate, northern Raqqa Governorate, and northern Aleppo Governorate, as well as the areas bordering Turkey's Hatay Province in "Western Kurdistan". By 2013, Syrian Kurdistan had become synonymous with PYD-ruled areas, regardless of ethnic majorities. In 2015 a map by Kurdish National Council (KNC) member Nori Brimo was published which largely mirrored the Ekurd Daily's maps, but also included the Hatay Province. The claimed map includes large swaths of Arab-majority areas.

Demographic background

1910 British ethnographic map of ethnic distribution in Syria

Northern Syria is an ethnically diverse region. Kurds constitute one of several groups which have lived in northern Syria since antiquity or the Middle Ages. The first Kurdish communitites constituted a minority and mostly consisted of nomads or military colonists. During the Ottoman Empire (1516–1922), large Kurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia. Until the beginning of the 20th century, parts of al-Hasakah Governorate (then called Jazira province) were "no man's land" primarily reserved for the grazing land of nomadic and semi-sedentary tribes. The last years of Ottoman rule witnessed extensive demographic changes in northern Syria as a result of the Assyrian Genocide and mass migrations. Many Assyrians fled to Syria during the genocide and settled mainly in the Jazira area.

Starting in 1926, the region saw another immigration of Kurds following the failure of the Sheikh Said rebellion against the Turkish authorities. Waves of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey and settled in Syrian Al-Jazira Province, where they were granted citizenship by the authorities of the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920s was estimated at 20,000 to 25,000 people, out of 100,000 inhabitants, with the remainder of the population being Christians (Syriac, Armenian, Assyrian) and Arabs. According to Michael Gunter, many Kurds still do not see themselves as belonging to either the Turkish or Syrian Kurdistan, but rather as one who originates from "above the line" (Kurdish: Ser Xhet) or "below the line" (Kurdish:Bin Xhet).

French mandate authorities gave the new Kurdish refugees considerable rights and encouraged minority autonomy as part of a divide and rule strategy and recruited heavily from the Kurds and other minority groups, such as Alawite and Druze, for its local armed forces. French Mandate authorities encouraged their immigration and granted them Syrian citizenship. The French official reports show the existence of at most 45 Kurdish villages in Jazira prior to 1927. A new wave of refugees arrived in 1929. The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800. The French authorities themselves generally organized the settlement of the refugees. One of the most important of these plans was carried out in Upper Jazira in northeastern Syria where the French built new towns and villages (such as Qamishli) were built with the intention of housing the refugees considered to be "friendly". This has encouraged the non-Turkish minorities that were under Turkish pressure to leave their ancestral homes and property, they could find refuge and rebuild their lives in relative safety in neighboring Syria. Consequently, the border areas in al-Hasakah Governorate started to have a Kurdish majority, while Arabs remained the majority in river plains and elsewhere. The population of the governorate reached 155,643 in 1949, including about 60,000 Kurds. These continuous waves swelled the number of Kurds in the area who represented 37% of the Jazira population in a 1939 French authorities census. In 1953, French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that out of the total 146,000 inhabitants of Jazira, agriculturalist Kurds made up 60,000 (41%), semi-sedentary and nomad Arabs 50,000 (34%), and a quarter of the population were Christians.

Another demographic shift took place after Syria's independence, as the governing Ba'ath Party implemented Arabization policies in northern Syria, settling additional Arabs in the area, while displacing Kurds. Mass migration also took place during the Syrian civil war. Accordingly, estimates as to the ethnic composition of northern Syria vary widely, ranging from claims about a Kurdish majority to claims about Kurds being a small minority. In addition, the Kurdish population of Syria has been highly segmented due to the different backgrounds and lifestyles of Kurdish groups.

1939 French Mandate survey

City	Syrian Arabs	Armenians	Assyrians	Kurds
Qamishli City	7990	3500	14,140	5892
Ras al-Ayn	2283	N/A	2263	1025
Hasakah City	7133	500	5700	360

See also

• Arab Belt
• Kurds in Syria

References

Works cited

• Allsopp, Harriet; van Wilgenburg, Wladimir (2019). The Kurds of Northern Syria. Volume 2: Governance, Diversity and Conflicts. London; New York City; etc.: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-8386-0445-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tejel, Jordi (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. Abingdon-on-Thames, New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-42440-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Meri, Josef W. (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Volume 1: A - K. New York City, London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96691-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vanly, Ismet Chériff (1992). "The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon". In Philip G. Kreyenbroek; Stefan Sperl (eds.). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. New York City, London: Routledge. pp. 112–134. ISBN 978-0-415-96691-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Syria (Rojava or Western Kurdistan) by The Kurdish Project
• Examining the Experiment in Western Kurdistan by the LSE Middle East Centre
• The Emergence of Western Kurdistan and the Future of Syria by Robert Lowe