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[[File:Cedid Atlas (Middle East) 1803.jpg|thumb|right|1803 [[Cedid Atlas]] showing Kurdistan in blue where it is located north-east of modern Syria's boundary.]]
[[File:Cedid Atlas (Middle East) 1803.jpg|thumb|right|1803 [[Cedid Atlas]] showing Kurdistan in blue where it is located north-east of modern Syria's boundary.]]
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".<ref>Hamza Mustapha, 2018 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.31430/almuntaqa.1.3.0111.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A46c7429c40b6fc8dd5021b2dffe56bde Review: The Issue of the Kurds in Syria: Facts, History and Myth]</ref>


Although the concept of an independent Kurdistan as homeland of the Kurdish people has a long history,{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=69}} the extent of said territory has been dispued over time.{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=95}} Kurds have lived in territories which later became part of modern Syria for centuries,{{sfnp|Meri|2006|p=445}}{{sfnp|Vanly|1992|pp=115–116}} and following the partition of the [[Ottoman Empire]], the Kurdish population before living in the Ottoman Empire, was divided between its successor states Turkey, [[Mandatory Iraq|Iraq]] and [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|Syria]].<ref>Gunter, Michael M. (2016), p.87</ref> Before the 1980s, however, Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria were usually only regarded as "Kurdish regions of Syria".{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=95}} Local Kurdish parties generally maintained ideologies which stayed in a firmly Syrian framework, and did not aspire to create a separate Syrian Kurdistan.{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=86}} 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 Mountains|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.{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|pp=27–28}}
Although the concept of an independent Kurdistan as homeland of the Kurdish people has a long history,{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=69}} the extent of said territory has been dispued over time.{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=95}} Kurds have lived in territories which later became part of modern Syria for centuries,{{sfnp|Meri|2006|p=445}}{{sfnp|Vanly|1992|pp=115–116}} and following the partition of the [[Ottoman Empire]], the Kurdish population before living in the Ottoman Empire, was divided between its successor states Turkey, [[Mandatory Iraq|Iraq]] and [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|Syria]].<ref>Gunter, Michael M. (2016), p.87</ref> Before the 1980s, however, Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria were usually only regarded as "Kurdish regions of Syria".{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=95}} Local Kurdish parties generally maintained ideologies which stayed in a firmly Syrian framework, and did not aspire to create a separate Syrian Kurdistan.{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|p=86}} 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 Mountains|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.{{sfnp|Tejel|2009|pp=27–28}}

Revision as of 20:01, 13 November 2020

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 in the Middle East(Le Monde diplomatique, 2007)

Syrian Kurdistan or Western Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê), often shortened to Rojava, is regarded by many Kurds[1][2][3] and some regional experts as the part of Kurdistan in Syria,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] In this conception, parts of northern Syria (Western Kurdistan) is joined by southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), and northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan).[17][18] 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.

1803 Cedid Atlas showing Kurdistan in blue where it is located north-east of modern Syria's boundary.

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".[19]

Although the concept of an independent Kurdistan as homeland of the Kurdish people has a long history,[20] the extent of said territory has been dispued over time.[4] Kurds have lived in territories which later became part of modern Syria for centuries,[21][22] and following the partition of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurdish population before living in the Ottoman Empire, was divided between its successor states Turkey, Iraq and Syria.[23] Before the 1980s, however, Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria were usually only regarded as "Kurdish regions of Syria".[4] Local Kurdish parties generally maintained ideologies which stayed in a firmly Syrian framework, and did not aspire to create a separate Syrian Kurdistan.[24] 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.[25]

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.[26][16] 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.[27] 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)[28] generally refrained from calling for the establishment of "Syrian Kurdistan".[29] 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.[2]

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".[2][30][31] By 2014, many local Kurds used this name synonymously to northeastern Syria.[1] 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.[32] 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.[33] Regardless, the polity continued to be called Rojava by locals and international observers,[34][35][36][37] with journalist Metin Gurcan noting that "the concept of Rojava [had become] a brand gaining global recognition" by 2019.[35]

Kurdistan as suggested by the Treaty of Sèvres was located north of the Syrian border

Extent

"Syrian Kurdistan", as understood in the modern sense, has no clearly defined territory.[4] According to the Crisis Group, the term "refers to the western area of 'Kurdistan'", namely those in Syria.[31] In the 20th century, Kurdistan was usually only included areas in Turkey and Iraq. The Kurdish-inhabited areas in northern Syria are adjacent to "Turkish Kurdistan" in the north and "Iraqi Kurdistan" in the east. Accordingly, some researchers argue that the Kurdish problem is Syria was originally a Turkish problem that shifted into Syria, as Kurds from Turkey migrated to Syria and took their national concepts with them.[38][39]

By 2013, Syrian Kurdistan had become synonymous with PYD-ruled areas, regardless of ethnic majorities. For the most part, the term was used to refer to the "non-contiguous Kurdish-populated areas" in the region.[31] 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.[32]

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.[40][21][a] The first Kurdish communitites constituted a minority and mostly consisted of nomads or military colonists.[22][21] During the Ottoman Empire (1516–1922), large Kurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia.[29] 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.[41] The last years of Ottoman rule witnessed extensive demographic changes in northern Syria as a result of the Assyrian Genocide and mass migrations.[42] Many Assyrians fled to Syria during the genocide and settled mainly in the Jazira area.[43]

Starting in 1926, the region saw another immigration of Kurds following the failure of the Sheikh Said rebellion against the Turkish authorities.[44] 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.[45] The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920s was estimated at 20,000[46] to 25,000 people,[47] out of 100,000 inhabitants, with the remainder of the population being Christians (Syriac, Armenian, Assyrian) and Arabs.[46] 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).[48]

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.[49] French Mandate authorities encouraged their immigration and granted them Syrian citizenship.[50] 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.[51] The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800.[51] 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.[52] 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.[53] These continuous waves swelled the number of Kurds in the area who represented 37% of the Jazira population in a 1939 French authorities census.[54] 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.[55]

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.[56] 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.[57] In addition, the Kurdish population of Syria has been highly segmented due to the different backgrounds and lifestyles of Kurdish groups.[58]

1939 French Mandate survey[59]
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

Controversies

According to some researchers, extremist 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".[60]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ It is difficult to properly define early Kurds, as "Kurdish" was often used as a catch-all word for nomadic tribal groups west of Iran during antiquity and medieval times.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "Special Report: Amid Syria's violence, Kurds carve out autonomy". Reuters. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Kaya, Z. N., & Lowe, R. (2016). The curious question of the PYD-PKK relationship. In G. Stansfield, & M. Shareef (Eds.), The Kurdish question revisited (pp. 275–287). London: Hurst.
  3. ^ Pinar Dinc (2020) The Kurdish Movement and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria: An Alternative to the (Nation-)State Model?, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 22:1, 47-67, DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2020.1715669
  4. ^ a b c d Tejel (2009), p. 95.
  5. ^ Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland, (2014), by Ofra Bengio, University of Texas Press
  6. ^ Lowe, Robert (2014), Romano, David; Gurses, Mehmet (eds.), "The Emergence of Western Kurdistan and the Future of Syria", Conflict, Democratization, and the Kurds in the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 225–246, doi:10.1057/9781137409997_12, ISBN 978-1-137-40999-7, retrieved 2020-11-10
  7. ^ Riamei, Mr Lungthuiyang (2017-08-15). Kurdistan: The Quest for Representation and Self-Determination: The Quest for Representation and Self-Determination. KW Publishers Pvt Ltd. ISBN 978-93-86288-87-5.
  8. ^ Schmidinger, Thomas (2014). Krieg und Revolution in Syrisch-Kurdistan: Analysen und Stimmen aus Rojava (in German). Mandelbaum. ISBN 978-3-85476-636-0.
  9. ^ Radpey, Loqman (12 August 2016). "Kurdish Regional Self-rule Administration in Syria: A new Model of Statehood and its Status in International Law Compared to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq". Japanese Journal of Political Science. 17 (3): 468–488. doi:10.1017/S1468109916000190. ISSN 1468-1099.
  10. ^ Gunter, Michael M. (2016). The Kurds: A Modern History. Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-558766150.
  11. ^ Nikitine, Basile (1956). Les Kurdes, Études sociologique et historique. Imprimerie Nationale. pp. 39–40.
  12. ^ Kaya, Zeynep N. (2020). Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism. Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-108-47469-6.
  13. ^ Izady, Mehrdad (2015-06-03). Kurds: A Concise Handbook. Taylor & Francis. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-135-84490-5.
  14. ^ "Kurdistan | History, Religion, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
  15. ^ Meho, Lokman I.; Maglaughlin, Kelly L. (2001). Kurdish Culture and Society: An Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-313-31543-5.
  16. ^ a b Khen, Hilly Moodrick-Even; Boms, Nir T.; Ashraph, Sareta (2020-01-09). The Syrian War: Between Justice and Political Reality. Cambridge University Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-108-48780-1.
  17. ^ Khalil, Fadel (1992). Kurden heute (in German). Europaverlag. pp. 5, 18–19. ISBN 3-203-51097-9.
  18. ^ Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland, (2014), by Ofra Bengio, University of Texas Press, p. 1.
  19. ^ Hamza Mustapha, 2018 Review: The Issue of the Kurds in Syria: Facts, History and Myth
  20. ^ Tejel (2009), p. 69.
  21. ^ a b c d Meri (2006), p. 445.
  22. ^ a b Vanly (1992), pp. 115–116.
  23. ^ Gunter, Michael M. (2016), p.87
  24. ^ Tejel (2009), p. 86.
  25. ^ Tejel (2009), pp. 27–28.
  26. ^ Tejel (2009), pp. 93–95.
  27. ^ Tejel (2009), p. 93.
  28. ^ Allsopp & van Wilgenburg (2019), p. 28.
  29. ^ a b Tejel (2009), p. 123.
  30. ^ Kurdish Regional Self-rule Administration in Syria: A new Model of Statehood and its Status in International Law Compared to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq
  31. ^ a b c "Flight of Icarus? The PYD's Precarious Rise in Syria" (PDF). International Crisis Group: Middle East Report N°151. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2020. : "The Middle East's present-day borders stem largely from the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement between France and the UK. Deprived of a state of their own, Kurds found themselves living in four different countries, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The term 'rojava' ('west' in Kurdish) refers to the western area of 'Kurdistan'; today in practice it includes non-contiguous Kurdish-populated areas of northern Syria where the PYD proclaimed a transitional administration in November 2013.".
  32. ^ a b Mohamed Al Hussein (21 February 2020). "Map of proposed Syrian Kurdistan provoke questions". zamanalwsl. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  33. ^ Allsopp & van Wilgenburg (2019), pp. 89, 151–152.
  34. ^ "Turkey's military operation in Syria: All the latest updates". al Jazeera. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  35. ^ a b Metin Gurcan (7 November 2019). "Is the PKK worried by the YPG's growing popularity?". al-Monitor. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
  36. ^ "The Communist volunteers fighting the Turkish invasion of Syria". Morning Star. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  37. ^ "Nordsyrien: Warum ein Deutscher sein Leben für die Kurden riskiert" [Northern Syria: Why a German risks his life for the Kurds]. ARD (in German). 31 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  38. ^ Gunter, Michael M. (2016). The Kurds: A Modern History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-558766150.
  39. ^ Hamza Mustapha, 2018 Review: The Issue of the Kurds in Syria: Facts, History and Myth
  40. ^ Vanly (1992), p. 116: "To the east of Kurd-Dagh and separated from it by the Afrin valley lies the western and mountainous part of the Syrian district of Azaz which is also inhabited by Kurds, and a Kurdish minority lives in the northern counties of Idlib and Jerablos. There is reason to believe that the establishment of Kurds in these areas, a defensive site commanding the path to Antioch, goes back to the Seleucid era."
  41. ^ Algun, S., 2011. Sectarianism in the Syrian Jazira: Community, land and violence in the memories of World War I and the French mandate (1915- 1939). Ph.D. Dissertation. Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands. Pages 18. Accessed on 8 December 2019.
  42. ^ Tejel (2009), pp. 9–10.
  43. ^ Bat Yeʼor (2002). Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide. p. 162. ISBN 9780838639429.
  44. ^ Abu Fakhr, Saqr, 2013. As-Safir daily Newspaper, Beirut. in Arabic Christian Decline in the Middle East: A Historical View
  45. ^ Dawn Chatty (2010). Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East. Cambridge University Press. pp. 230–232. ISBN 978-1-139-48693-4.
  46. ^ a b Simpson, John Hope (1939). The Refugee Problem: Report of a Survey (First ed.). London: Oxford University Press. p. 458. ASIN B0006AOLOA.
  47. ^ McDowell, David (2005). A Modern History of the Kurds (3. revised and upd. ed., repr. ed.). London [u.a.]: Tauris. p. 469. ISBN 1-85043-416-6.
  48. ^ Gunter, Michael M. (2016), p.90
  49. ^ Yildiz, Kerim (2005). The Kurds in Syria : the forgotten people (1. publ. ed.). London [etc.]: Pluto Press, in association with Kurdish Human Rights Project. p. 25. ISBN 0745324991.
  50. ^ Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Sperl, Stefan (1992). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. London: Routledge. pp. 147. ISBN 0-415-07265-4.
  51. ^ a b Tejel (2009), p. 144.
  52. ^ Tachjian Vahé, The expulsion of non-Turkish ethnic and religious groups from Turkey to Syria during the 1920s and early 1930s, Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, [online], published on: 5 March, 2009, accessed 09/12/2019, ISSN 1961-9898
  53. ^ La Djezireh syrienne et son réveil économique. André Gibert, Maurice Févret, 1953. La Djezireh syrienne et son réveil économique. In: Revue de géographie de Lyon, vol. 28, n°1, 1953. pp. 1-15; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/geoca.1953.1294 Accessed on 8 December 2019.
  54. ^ Algun, S., 2011. Sectarianism in the Syrian Jazira: Community, land and violence in the memories of World War I and the French mandate (1915- 1939). Ph.D. Dissertation. Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands. Pages 11-12. Accessed on 8 December 2019.
  55. ^ Fevret, Maurice; Gibert, André (1953). "La Djezireh syrienne et son réveil économique". Revue de géographie de Lyon (in French) (28): 1–15. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
  56. ^ Allsopp & van Wilgenburg (2019), p. 27.
  57. ^ Allsopp & van Wilgenburg (2019), pp. 7–16.
  58. ^ Tejel (2009), p. 9.
  59. ^ Algun, S., 2011. Sectarianism in the Syrian Jazira: Community, land and violence in the memories of World War I and the French mandate (1915- 1939). Ph.D. Dissertation. Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands. Page 11. Accessed on 7 October 2020.
  60. ^ Hamza Mustapha, 2018 Review: The Issue of the Kurds in Syria: Facts, History and Myth

Works cited

External links

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