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The Arab Belt (Arabic: الحزام العربي, al-hizām al-ʿarabī; Kurdish: Kembera Erebî, که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی) was an Arabization and ethnic cleansing policy in Syrian Kurdistan carried out by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region government of Syria. The policy was carried out in the north of the Al-Hasakah Governorate and intended to change the ethnic composition of the population in favor of Arabs to the detriment of other ethnic groups, particularly Kurds.^[1]^[2] It involved the seizure of Kurds' land, which was then settled with Arabs displaced by the creation of Lake Assad; the denial of Syrian identity documents to hundreds of thousands of Kurds which endured for decades, and the suppression of Kurdish language, culture, and politics. The policy was part of the Arab nationalist ideology of the Ba'ath Party, which renamed the Syrian Republic the Syrian Arab Republic.

The Baath party came to power in 1963 in Syria and decided in 1965 to build the 350 km long and 10-15 km wide Arabic belt along the Syria–Turkey border. The planned belt stretched from the Iraqi border in the east to Ras al-Ayn in the west. After another coup within the Baath party, Hafez al-Assad succeeded in becoming the head of Syria in 1970 and began to implement the plan in 1973. The project's name was officially changed to "Plan for the establishment of state model farms in the Jazira region".^[3]

History

Events in Iraqi Kurdistan and the discovery of oil in Syrian Kurdistan in the 1960s coincided with a marked worsening for the Kurdish population.^[4] In August 1961, the government decreed an extraordinary census of al-Jazira Province, which was undertaken in November, by which time the uprising for Kurdish autonomy in Iraq had begun.^[4] As part of this census, 120,000 Kurds in the province were stripped of Syrian nationality and civil rights, on the pretext that they were foreigners – the August decree stated that Kurds were "illegally infiltrating" from Turkish Kurdistan into Syria, aiming to "destroy its Arab character". The following year, the Syrian government adopted the Arab Belt (al-Hizam al-Arabi) policy in order and "save Arabism" and defeat the "Kurdish threat" by expelling all the Kurdish inhabitants from the area of the Syria–Turkey border, dispersing and resettling them, and replacing them with Arabs.^[4] Oil had been discovered at Qaratchok, and the desire the control the Kurdish region's resources was connected with the policy.^[4] The region of the planned belt are rich in oil deposits and fertile agricultural land. About 50 to 60 per cent of the Syrian petroleum caves are estimated to be located in the district of Derik.^[5] The Kurdish situation worsened again when, in March 1963, Ba'ath Party of Michel Aflaq took power in Damascus.^[6] In November the party published Study of the Jezireh Provnce in its National, Social, and Political Aspects, a pamphlet written by the al-Jazira Province's chief of police, Mohamed Talab Hilal.^[6] An Arab nationalist, Hilal claimed to use "anthropological" reasoning to "prove scientifically" Kurds "do not constitute a nation".^[6] His view was that "the Kurdish people are a people without history or civilization or language or even definite ethnic origin of their own. Their only characteristics are those shaped by force, destructive power and violence, characteristics which are, by the way, inherent in all mountain populations".^[6] It was also his opinion that "The Kurds live from civilization and history of other nations. They have taken no part in these civilizations or in the history of these nations."^[6] Hilal produced a twelvefold strategy to achieve the Arabization of the al-Jazira Province. The steps were:^[7]

(1) batr (dispossession) – eviction and resettlement of Kurds
(2) tajhil (obscurantist) – deprivation of all education for Kurds, including in Arabic
(3) tajwii (famine) – removal of Kurds from employment
(4) extradition – expulsion of refugees from Turkish Kurdistan into Turkish custody
(5) encouragement of intra-Kurdish factionalism in order to divide and rule
(6) hizam (Arab cordon) – Arab settlement of former Kurdish lands, much as proposed in 1962
(7) iskan (colonization) – "pure and nationalist Arabs" to be settled in Syrian Kurdistan so Kurds might be "watched until their dispersion"
(8) military involvement by "divisions stationed in the zone of the cordon" would guaranty "that the dispersion of the Kurds and the settlement of Arabs would take place according to plans drawn up by the government"
(9) "socialization" – "collective farms", (mazarii jama'iyya), to be established in the Kurds' stead by Arab settlers equipped with "armament and training"
(10) prohibition of "anybody ignorant of the Arabic language exercising the right to vote or stand for office"
(11) Kurdish ulemas were to be expelled to the south and replaced with Arabs
(12) "a vast anti-Kurdish campaign amongst the Arabs" to be undertaken by the state

Though the 120,000 Kurds of al-Jazira Province deemed non-Syrians were unable to vote or marry or receive education or healthcare, they were nevertheless eligible to be conscripted for military service, and could be sent to fight on the Golan Heights; they were particular victims of the Arab Belt policy, which continued to set the Kurdish agenda of the Syrian government and many of whose provisions were implemented in the following years.^[8] The strategy called for the eviction of 140,000 Kurdish peasants and their replacement with Arabs; possibly even extending the expulsions to the Kurds of the Kurd Mountains was under consideration in 1966.^[8] In the decade following 1965, around 30,000 Kurds left al-Jazira Province to find work or escape persecution elsewhere in Syria or in Lebanon.^[8] In 1967, the land of the Kurds in al-Jazira Province was nationalized under the Plan to establish model state farms in the Jezireh Province, a euphemism for the Arab Belt concept, and those who had been ordered out refused to leave but the events of the Six-Day War temporarily prevented its implementation from being completed.^[9] The construction and flooding of the Tabqa Dam displaced Arabs who were then resettled in Kurdish al-Jazira. 40 "model villages" were constructed in 1975 and populated with 7,000 armed Arab peasant families; these settlements stretched from Amuda to Derik, a town whose Kurdish name was replaced with the Arabic al-Malikiyah at that time.^[10] Proceeding slowly to avoid international criticism, the Syrian government suppressed Kurdish culture and harassed Kurdish people, and Kurdish literature and music was confiscated.^[11] Members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria were given lengthy prison sentences for "anti-Arabist" crimes.^[12] In official government documents, mention of Kurds (along with all other non-Arabs) is omitted, and while there were Kurdish members of the legislative People's Council of Syria, official identity was exclusively Arab.^[13]

In 1976, the policy of the Arab Belt , never fully realized, were abandoned, with Hafez al-Assad preferring "to leave things as they are", remitting the official harassment and ceasing to build new settlements.^[14] Existing Arab colonies and settlers remained in place, and while Kurdish music was again heard, the position of Kurds in Syria remained dependent to developments in relations between Syria and Iraq.^[14] The descendants of the 120,000 continued to be denied passports and documents and were still nevertheless the subject to conscription into the 21st century.^[15]

41 Arab villages were built in the course of time, and all the Kurdish village names of the area were replaced by Arabic names. About 4,000 Arab families from the provinces of Al-Raqqa and Aleppo, where they had previously lost their houses by the construction of the Tabqa dam, were accommodated in the new villages. These Arabs are named as Maghmurin (مغمورين Maġmūrīn, which is affected by flooding).

References

^ Tejel, Jordi (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-203-89211-4.
^ David L. Phillips (2017). The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East. ISBN 9781351480369. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
^ November 2009. "Group Denial: Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 28 September 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The Kurds were suspected of being "in league" with the Kurds of Iraq, who had just launched the September 1961 insurrection aimed at securing autonomous status within an Iraqi framework. On August 23, 1961, the government promulgated a decree (no. 93) authorizing a special population census in Jezireh Province. It claimed that Kurds from Turkish Kurdistan were "illegally infiltrating" the Jezireh in order to "destroy its Arab character". The census was carried out in November of that year; when its results were released, some 120,000 Jezireh Kurds were discounted as foreigners and unjustly stripped of their rights as Syrian nationals. In 1962, to combat the "Kurdish threat" and "save Arabism" in the region, the government inaugurated the so-called "Arab Cordon plan" (Al Hizam al-arabi), which envisaged the entire Kurdish population living along the border with Turkey. They were to be gradually replaced by Arabs and would be resettled, and preferably dispersed, in the south. The discovery of oil at Qaratchok, right in the middle of Kurdish Jezireh, no doubt had something to do with the government's policy.
^ 20 March 2013. "Syria's Oil Resources Are a Source of Contention for Competing Groups". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 September 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. In March 1963, Michel Aflaq's Baath Party came to power. Its socialism was soon shown to be mainly of the national variety. The Kurds' position worsened. In November 1963, in Damascus, the Baath published a Study of the Jezireh Provnce in its National, Social, and Political Aspects, written by the region's chief of police, Mohamed Talab Hilal. ... Hilal had set out to "prove scientifically", on the basis of various "anthropological" considerations, that the Kurds, "do not constitute a nation". His conclusion was that "the Kurdish people are a people without history or civilization or language or even definite ethnic origin of their own. Their only characteristics are those shaped by force, destructive power and violence, characteristics which are, by the way, inherent in all mountain populations." Furthermore: "The Kurds live from civilization and history of other nations. They have taken no part in these civilizations or in the history of these nations."
^ Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. A zealous nationalist, Hilal proposed a twelve-point plan, which would first be put into operation against the Jezireh Kurds: (1) a batr or "dispossession" policy, involving the transfer and dispersion of the Kurdish people; (2) a tajhil or "obscurantist" policy of depriving Kurds of any education whatsoever, even in Arabic; (3) a tajwii or "famine" policy, depriving those affected of any employment possibilities; (4) an "extradition" policy, which meant turning the survivors of the uprisings in northern Kurdistan over to the Turkish government; (5) a "divide and rule" policy, setting Kurd against Kurd; (6) a hizam or cordon policy similar to the one proposed in 1962; (7) an iskan or "colonization" policy, involving the implementation of "pure and nationalist Arabs" in the Kurdish regions so that the Kurds could be "watched until their dispersion"; (8) a military policy, based on "divisions stationed in the zone of the cordon" who would be charged with "ensuring that the dispersion of the Kurds and the settlement of Arabs would take place according to plans drawn up by the government"; (9) a "socialization" policy, under which "collective forms", mazarii jama'iyya, would be set up for the Arabs implanted in the regions. These new settlers would also be provided with "armament and training"; (10) a ban of "anybody ignorant of the Arabic language exercising the right to vote or stand for office"; (11) sending the Kurdish ulemas to the south and "bringing in Arab ulemas to replace them"; (12) finally, "launching a vast anti-Kurdish campaign amongst the Arabs".
^ ^a ^b ^c Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. Many of the measures listed above were put into practice. The 120,000 Kurds classified as non-Syrian by the "census" suffered particularly heavily. Although they were treated as foreigners and suspects in their own country, they were nonetheless liable for military service and were called up to fight on in the Golan Heights. However, they were deprived of any other form of legitimate status. They could not legally marry, enter a hospital or register their children for schooling.
^ Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The euphemistically renamed "Plan to establish model state farms in the Jezireh Province", the so-called "Arab Cordon" plan, was not dropped in the years that followed. Under the cover of "socialism" and agrarian reform, it envisaged the expulsion of the 140,000 strong peasantry, who would be replaced with Arabs. In 1966, there were even thoughts of applying it seriously, and perhaps extending it to the Kurd-Dagh. But those Kurdish peasants who had been ordered to leave refused to go. In 1967 the peasants in the Cordon zone were informed that their lands had been nationalized. The government even sent in a few teams to build "model farms" until the war against Israel forced it momentarily to drop its plans.
^ Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The little town of Derik lost its Kurdish name and was officially restyled Al-Malikiyyeh.
^ Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The plan was carried out gradually, so as not to attract too much attention from the outside world. The Kurds were subjected to regular administrative harassment, police raids, firings and confiscation orders. Kurdish literary works were seized, as were records of Kurdish folk music played in public places.
^ Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. Syrian KDP leaders were imprisoned for years, charged with "anti-Arabist actions".
^ Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. True the Assembly retained a certain number of Kurdish deputies, but they could not stand as such since the official fiction decreed that all Syrian citizens are Arabs. In all the official publications of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Kurds - and every other non-Arab group - are never mentioned. Since the Republic is Arab, the Kurds must be as well.
^ ^a ^b Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. However in 1976, President Assad officially renounced any further implementation of the plan to transfer the population, and decided "to leave things as they are". The Kurdish peasants would not be harassed any more, and no further Arab villages would be built on their lands. But the villages which had already been built would stay, as would the newcomers transplanted from the Euphrates Valley. The radio began to broadcast Kurdish music and the Kurds in the country felt much safer. They wondered, however, if this was the beginning of a new policy vis-a-vis the Kurds of Syria or if it was just as government maneuver predicated on the rivalry between Damascus and the Iraqi Government.
^ O'Shea, Maria T. (2004). Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan. New York and London: Routledge. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-415-94766-4. In 1961, 120,000 Kurds in the Jazireh region of Syria were declared foreigners by government decree, and they and their children are still denied passports or identity cards, although military service is still an obligation.

[1] Tejel, Jordi (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-203-89211-4.

[2] David L. Phillips (2017). The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East. ISBN 9781351480369. Retrieved 25 November 2019.

[jAD34-3] November 2009. "Group Denial: Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 28 September 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[:2-4] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The Kurds were suspected of being "in league" with the Kurds of Iraq, who had just launched the September 1961 insurrection aimed at securing autonomous status within an Iraqi framework. On August 23, 1961, the government promulgated a decree (no. 93) authorizing a special population census in Jezireh Province. It claimed that Kurds from Turkish Kurdistan were "illegally infiltrating" the Jezireh in order to "destroy its Arab character". The census was carried out in November of that year; when its results were released, some 120,000 Jezireh Kurds were discounted as foreigners and unjustly stripped of their rights as Syrian nationals. In 1962, to combat the "Kurdish threat" and "save Arabism" in the region, the government inaugurated the so-called "Arab Cordon plan" (Al Hizam al-arabi), which envisaged the entire Kurdish population living along the border with Turkey. They were to be gradually replaced by Arabs and would be resettled, and preferably dispersed, in the south. The discovery of oil at Qaratchok, right in the middle of Kurdish Jezireh, no doubt had something to do with the government's policy.

[YEP4e-5] 20 March 2013. "Syria's Oil Resources Are a Source of Contention for Competing Groups". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 September 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[:3-6] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. In March 1963, Michel Aflaq's Baath Party came to power. Its socialism was soon shown to be mainly of the national variety. The Kurds' position worsened. In November 1963, in Damascus, the Baath published a Study of the Jezireh Provnce in its National, Social, and Political Aspects, written by the region's chief of police, Mohamed Talab Hilal. ... Hilal had set out to "prove scientifically", on the basis of various "anthropological" considerations, that the Kurds, "do not constitute a nation". His conclusion was that "the Kurdish people are a people without history or civilization or language or even definite ethnic origin of their own. Their only characteristics are those shaped by force, destructive power and violence, characteristics which are, by the way, inherent in all mountain populations." Furthermore: "The Kurds live from civilization and history of other nations. They have taken no part in these civilizations or in the history of these nations."

[7] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. A zealous nationalist, Hilal proposed a twelve-point plan, which would first be put into operation against the Jezireh Kurds: (1) a batr or "dispossession" policy, involving the transfer and dispersion of the Kurdish people; (2) a tajhil or "obscurantist" policy of depriving Kurds of any education whatsoever, even in Arabic; (3) a tajwii or "famine" policy, depriving those affected of any employment possibilities; (4) an "extradition" policy, which meant turning the survivors of the uprisings in northern Kurdistan over to the Turkish government; (5) a "divide and rule" policy, setting Kurd against Kurd; (6) a hizam or cordon policy similar to the one proposed in 1962; (7) an iskan or "colonization" policy, involving the implementation of "pure and nationalist Arabs" in the Kurdish regions so that the Kurds could be "watched until their dispersion"; (8) a military policy, based on "divisions stationed in the zone of the cordon" who would be charged with "ensuring that the dispersion of the Kurds and the settlement of Arabs would take place according to plans drawn up by the government"; (9) a "socialization" policy, under which "collective forms", mazarii jama'iyya, would be set up for the Arabs implanted in the regions. These new settlers would also be provided with "armament and training"; (10) a ban of "anybody ignorant of the Arabic language exercising the right to vote or stand for office"; (11) sending the Kurdish ulemas to the south and "bringing in Arab ulemas to replace them"; (12) finally, "launching a vast anti-Kurdish campaign amongst the Arabs".

[:0-8] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. Many of the measures listed above were put into practice. The 120,000 Kurds classified as non-Syrian by the "census" suffered particularly heavily. Although they were treated as foreigners and suspects in their own country, they were nonetheless liable for military service and were called up to fight on in the Golan Heights. However, they were deprived of any other form of legitimate status. They could not legally marry, enter a hospital or register their children for schooling.

[9] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The euphemistically renamed "Plan to establish model state farms in the Jezireh Province", the so-called "Arab Cordon" plan, was not dropped in the years that followed. Under the cover of "socialism" and agrarian reform, it envisaged the expulsion of the 140,000 strong peasantry, who would be replaced with Arabs. In 1966, there were even thoughts of applying it seriously, and perhaps extending it to the Kurd-Dagh. But those Kurdish peasants who had been ordered to leave refused to go. In 1967 the peasants in the Cordon zone were informed that their lands had been nationalized. The government even sent in a few teams to build "model farms" until the war against Israel forced it momentarily to drop its plans.

[10] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The little town of Derik lost its Kurdish name and was officially restyled Al-Malikiyyeh.

[11] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. The plan was carried out gradually, so as not to attract too much attention from the outside world. The Kurds were subjected to regular administrative harassment, police raids, firings and confiscation orders. Kurdish literary works were seized, as were records of Kurdish folk music played in public places.

[12] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. Syrian KDP leaders were imprisoned for years, charged with "anti-Arabist actions".

[13] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. True the Assembly retained a certain number of Kurdish deputies, but they could not stand as such since the official fiction decreed that all Syrian citizens are Arabs. In all the official publications of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Kurds - and every other non-Arab group - are never mentioned. Since the Republic is Arab, the Kurds must be as well.

[:1-14] Nazdar, Mustafa (1993) [1978]. "The Kurds in Syria". In Chaliand, Gérard (ed.). Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan [A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan]. Translated by Pallis, Michael. London: Zed Books. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5. However in 1976, President Assad officially renounced any further implementation of the plan to transfer the population, and decided "to leave things as they are". The Kurdish peasants would not be harassed any more, and no further Arab villages would be built on their lands. But the villages which had already been built would stay, as would the newcomers transplanted from the Euphrates Valley. The radio began to broadcast Kurdish music and the Kurds in the country felt much safer. They wondered, however, if this was the beginning of a new policy vis-a-vis the Kurds of Syria or if it was just as government maneuver predicated on the rivalry between Damascus and the Iraqi Government.

[15] O'Shea, Maria T. (2004). Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan. New York and London: Routledge. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-415-94766-4. In 1961, 120,000 Kurds in the Jazireh region of Syria were declared foreigners by government decree, and they and their children are still denied passports or identity cards, although military service is still an obligation.

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+{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}The '''Arab Belt''' ({{lang-ar|الحزام العربي}}, ''al-hizām al-ʿarabī''; {{lang-ku|Kembera Erebî, که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی}}) was an [[Arabization]] and ethnic cleansing policy in [[Syrian Kurdistan]] carried out by the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region]] government of [[Syria]]. The policy was carried out in the north of the [[Al-Hasakah Governorate]] and intended to change the ethnic composition of the population in favor of [[Arabs]] to the detriment of other [[Ethnic groups in Syria|ethnic groups]], particularly [[Kurds in Syria|Kurds]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|year=2009 |publisher=Routledge|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lh9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT250|isbn=978-0-203-89211-4|page=61}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=David L. Phillips |title=The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East |date=2017 |isbn=9781351480369 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nh8xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT150 |access-date=25 November 2019}}</ref> It involved the seizure of Kurds' land, which was then settled with Arabs displaced by the creation of [[Lake Assad]]; the denial of Syrian identity documents to hundreds of thousands of Kurds which endured for decades, and the suppression of Kurdish language, culture, and politics. The policy was part of the [[Arab nationalist]] ideology of the Ba'ath Party, which renamed the Syrian Republic the Syrian Arab Republic.
-{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
-The '''Arab Belt''' ({{lang-ar|الحزام العربي}}, ''al-hizām al-ʿarabī''; {{lang-ku|Kembera Erebî, که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی}}) was [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region|the Syrian Baath government]]'s project of [[Arabization]] of the north of the [[Al-Hasakah Governorate]] to change its ethnic composition of the population in favor of [[Arabs]] to the detriment of other [[Ethnic groups in Syria|ethnic groups]], particularly [[Kurds]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|year=2009 |publisher=Routledge|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lh9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT250|isbn=978-0-203-89211-4|page=61}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=David L. Phillips |title=The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East |date=2017 |isbn=9781351480369 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nh8xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT150 |access-date=25 November 2019}}</ref> It involved the seizure of land which was then settled with Arabs displaced by the creation of [[Lake Assad]].
-[[File:Sketch map of North Mesopotamia to illustrate the paper by Mark Sykes, the central portions compiled by the author – The Geographical Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, September 1907, pp. 237-254.png|thumb|Map drawn for [[Mark Sykes]] in 1907 showing the route of the proposed Aleppo–Baghdad section of the [[Berlin–Baghdad railway]] and the regional telegraph lines, published. The map shows alterations to the route of the railway line proposed by the author and the routes taken on his own journey through the Ottoman Empire.]]
+The Baath party came to power in [[1963 Syrian coup d'état|1963 in Syria]] and decided in 1965 to build the 350 km long and 10-15 km wide Arabic belt along the [[Syria–Turkey border]]. The planned belt stretched from the [[Iraq–Syria border|Iraqi border]] in the east to [[Ras al-Ayn]] in the west. After another coup within the Baath party, [[Hafez al-Assad]] succeeded in becoming the head of Syria in 1970 and began to implement the plan in 1973. The project's name was officially changed to "Plan for the establishment of state model farms in the [[Upper Mesopotamia|Jazira region]]".{{r|"jAD34"}}
-== Background ==
+== History ==
-Until the beginning of the 20th century, al-Hasakah Governorate (then called Jazira province) was a "no man's land" primarily reserved for the grazing land of nomadic and semi-sedentary tribes.<ref name="Algun">Algun, S., 2011. [https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/205821 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.</ref> During [[World War I]] and subsequent years, thousands of [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] fled their homes in Anatolia after [[massacres]]. After that, massive waves of Kurds fled their homes in the mountains of [[Turkey]]<ref name="Gibert and Févret" /> due to conflict with Kemalist authorities and settled in Syria, where they were granted citizenship by the [[French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate authorities]]<ref name="Chatty2010">{{cite book|author=[[Dawn Chatty]]|title=Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OsgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA230|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-48693-4|pages=230–232}}</ref> and enjoyed considerable rights as the French Mandate authority 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.<ref name=Yildiz25>{{cite book|last=Yildiz|first=Kerim|title=The Kurds in Syria : the forgotten people|url=https://archive.org/details/kurdssyriaforgot00yild|url-access=limited|year=2005|publisher=Pluto Press, in association with Kurdish Human Rights Project|location=London [etc.]|page=[https://archive.org/details/kurdssyriaforgot00yild/page/n29 25]|isbn=0745324991|edition=1. publ.}}</ref> The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920's was estimated at 20,000<ref name="The Refugee Problem">{{cite book|last=Simpson|first=John Hope|title=The Refugee Problem: Report of a Survey |year=1939 |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|asin=B0006AOLOA|page=458|edition=First|url-access=registration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SxR8uwEACAAJ}}</ref> to 25,000 people<ref name=McDowell>{{cite book|last=McDowell|first=David|title=A Modern History of the Kurds |year=2005|publisher=Tauris|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=1-85043-416-6|pages=469|edition=3. revised and upd. ed., repr.}}</ref> [[French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate authorities]] encouraged their immigration and granted them Syrian citizenship.<ref name=Kreyenbroek1>{{cite book|last=Kreyenbroek|first=Philip G.|title=The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0-415-07265-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/147 147]|author2=Sperl, Stefan|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/147}}</ref> 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.<ref name=tejel3 /> The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800.<ref name=tejel3>{{cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|year=2009 |publisher=Routledge|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lh9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT250|isbn=978-0-203-89211-4|page=144}}</ref>  These continuous waves swelled the number of Kurds in the area, and French geographers Fevret and Gibert<ref name="fevret">{{cite journal|last=Fevret|first=Maurice |author2=Gibert, André |year=1953|title=La Djezireh syrienne et son réveil économique |journal=Revue de géographie de Lyon|issue=28|pages=1–15|language=fr|url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/geoca_0035-113x_1953_num_28_1_1294|access-date=2012-03-29}}</ref> estimated that in 1953 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.<ref name=fevret />
+Events in Iraqi Kurdistan and the discovery of oil in Syrian Kurdistan in the 1960s coincided with a marked worsening for the Kurdish population.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|page=199|pages=|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=The Kurds were suspected of being "in league" with the Kurds of Iraq, who had just launched the September 1961 insurrection aimed at securing autonomous status within an Iraqi framework. On August 23, 1961, the government promulgated a decree (no. 93) authorizing a special population census in Jezireh Province. It claimed that Kurds from Turkish Kurdistan were "illegally infiltrating" the Jezireh in order to "destroy its Arab character". The census was carried out in November of that year; when its results were released, some 120,000 Jezireh Kurds were discounted as foreigners and unjustly stripped of their rights as Syrian nationals. In 1962, to combat the "Kurdish threat" and "save Arabism" in the region, the government inaugurated the so-called "Arab Cordon plan" (''Al Hizam al-arabi''), which envisaged the entire Kurdish population living along the border with Turkey. They were to be gradually replaced by Arabs and would be resettled, and preferably dispersed, in the south. The discovery of oil at Qaratchok, right in the middle of Kurdish Jezireh, no doubt had something to do with the government's policy.|orig-year=1978}}</ref> In August 1961, the government decreed an extraordinary census of [[al-Jazira Province]], which was undertaken in November, by which time the uprising for Kurdish autonomy in Iraq had begun.<ref name=":2" /> As part of this census, 120,000 Kurds in the province were stripped of Syrian nationality and civil rights, on the pretext that they were foreigners – the August decree stated that Kurds were "illegally infiltrating" from Turkish Kurdistan into Syria, aiming to "destroy its Arab character". The following year, the Syrian government adopted the Arab Belt (''al-Hizam al-Arabi'') policy in order and "save Arabism" and defeat the "Kurdish threat" by expelling all the Kurdish inhabitants from the area of the Syria–Turkey border, dispersing and resettling them, and replacing them with Arabs.<ref name=":2" /> Oil had been discovered at Qaratchok, and the desire the control the Kurdish region's resources was connected with the policy.<ref name=":2" /> The region of the planned belt are rich in oil deposits and fertile agricultural land. About 50 to 60 per cent of the Syrian petroleum caves are estimated to be located in the district of [[Derik, Syria|Derik]].{{r|"YEP4e"}} The Kurdish situation worsened again when, in March 1963, [[Ba'ath Party]] of [[Michel Aflaq]] took power in Damascus.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=199|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=In March 1963, Michel Aflaq's Baath Party came to power. Its socialism was soon shown to be mainly of the national variety. The Kurds' position worsened. In November 1963, in Damascus, the Baath published a ''Study of the Jezireh Provnce in its National, Social, and Political Aspects'', written by the region's chief of police, Mohamed Talab Hilal. ... Hilal had set out to "prove scientifically", on the basis of various "anthropological" considerations, that the Kurds, "do not constitute a nation". His conclusion was that "the Kurdish people are a people without history or civilization or language or even definite ethnic origin of their own. Their only characteristics are those shaped by force, destructive power and violence, characteristics which are, by the way, inherent in all mountain populations." Furthermore: "The Kurds live from civilization and history of other nations. They have taken no part in these civilizations or in the history of these nations."|orig-year=1978}}</ref> In November the party published ''Study of the Jezireh Provnce in its National, Social, and Political Aspects'', a pamphlet written by the al-Jazira Province's chief of police, Mohamed Talab Hilal.<ref name=":3" /> An [[Arab nationalist]], Hilal claimed to use "anthropological" reasoning to "prove scientifically" Kurds "do not constitute a nation".<ref name=":3" /> His view was that "the Kurdish people are a people without history or civilization or language or even definite ethnic origin of their own. Their only characteristics are those shaped by force, destructive power and violence, characteristics which are, by the way, inherent in all mountain populations".<ref name=":3" /> It was also his opinion that "The Kurds live from civilization and history of other nations. They have taken no part in these civilizations or in the history of these nations."<ref name=":3" /> Hilal produced a twelvefold strategy to achieve the Arabization of the al-Jazira Province. The steps were:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=199-200|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=A zealous nationalist, Hilal proposed a twelve-point plan, which would first be put into operation against the Jezireh Kurds: (1) a ''batr'' or "dispossession" policy, involving the transfer and dispersion of the Kurdish people; (2) a ''tajhil'' or "obscurantist" policy of depriving Kurds of any education whatsoever, even in Arabic; (3) a ''tajwii'' or "famine" policy, depriving those affected of any employment possibilities; (4) an "extradition" policy, which meant turning the survivors of the uprisings in northern Kurdistan over to the Turkish government; (5) a "divide and rule" policy, setting Kurd against Kurd; (6) a ''hizam'' or cordon policy similar to the one proposed in 1962; (7) an ''iskan'' or "colonization" policy, involving the implementation of "pure and nationalist Arabs" in the Kurdish regions so that the Kurds could be "watched until their dispersion"; (8) a military policy, based on "divisions stationed in the zone of the cordon" who would be charged with "ensuring that the dispersion of the Kurds and the settlement of Arabs would take place according to plans drawn up by the government"; (9) a "socialization" policy, under which "collective forms", ''mazarii jama'iyya'', would be set up for the Arabs implanted in the regions. These new settlers would also be provided with "armament and training"; (10) a ban of "anybody ignorant of the Arabic language exercising the right to vote or stand for office"; (11) sending the Kurdish ''ulemas'' to the south and "bringing in Arab ''ulemas'' to replace them"; (12) finally, "launching a vast anti-Kurdish campaign amongst the Arabs".|orig-year=1978}}</ref>
+* (1) ''batr'' (dispossession) {{endash}} eviction and resettlement of Kurds
-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.<ref name=Tachjian>Tachjian Vahé, [https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/expulsion-non-turkish-ethnic-and-religious-groups-turkey-syria-during-1920s-and-early-1930s 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</ref> Consequently, the border areas in al-Hasakah Governorate started to have a Kurdish majority, while Arabs remained the majority in river plains and elsewhere.
+* (2) ''tajhil'' (obscurantist) {{endash}} deprivation of all education for Kurds, including in Arabic
+* (3) ''tajwii'' (famine) {{endash}} removal of Kurds from employment
+* (4) extradition {{endash}} expulsion of refugees from Turkish Kurdistan into Turkish custody
+* (5) encouragement of intra-Kurdish factionalism in order to [[divide and rule]]
+* (6) ''hizam'' (Arab cordon) {{endash}} Arab settlement of former Kurdish lands, much as proposed in 1962
+* (7) ''iskan'' (colonization) {{endash}} "pure and nationalist Arabs" to be settled in Syrian Kurdistan so Kurds might be "watched until their dispersion"
+* (8) military involvement by "divisions stationed in the zone of the cordon" would guaranty "that the dispersion of the Kurds and the settlement of Arabs would take place according to plans drawn up by the government"
+* (9) "socialization" {{endash}} "[[collective farms]]", (''mazarii jama'iyya''), to be established in the Kurds' stead by Arab settlers equipped with "armament and training"
+* (10) prohibition of "anybody ignorant of the Arabic language exercising the right to vote or stand for office"
+* (11) Kurdish ''[[ulemas]]'' were to be expelled to the south and replaced with Arabs
+* (12) "a vast anti-Kurdish campaign amongst the Arabs" to be undertaken by the state
+Though the 120,000 Kurds of al-Jazira Province deemed non-Syrians were unable to vote or marry or receive education or healthcare, they were nevertheless eligible to be conscripted for military service, and could be sent to fight on the [[Golan Heights]]; they were particular victims of the Arab Belt policy, which continued to set the Kurdish agenda of the Syrian government and many of whose provisions were implemented in the following years.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=Many of the measures listed above were put into practice. The 120,000 Kurds classified as non-Syrian by the "census" suffered particularly heavily. Although they were treated as foreigners and suspects in their own country, they were nonetheless liable for military service and were called up to fight on in the Golan Heights. However, they were deprived of any other form of legitimate status. They could not legally marry, enter a hospital or register their children for schooling.|orig-year=1978}}</ref> The strategy called for the eviction of 140,000 Kurdish peasants and their replacement with Arabs; possibly even extending the expulsions to the Kurds of the Kurd Mountains was under consideration in 1966.<ref name=":0" /> In the decade following 1965, around 30,000 Kurds left al-Jazira Province to find work or escape persecution elsewhere in Syria or in Lebanon.<ref name=":0" /> In 1967, the land of the Kurds in al-Jazira Province was nationalized under the ''Plan to establish model state farms in the Jezireh Province'', a euphemism for the Arab Belt concept, and those who had been ordered out refused to leave but the events of the [[Six-Day War]] temporarily prevented its implementation from being completed.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=The euphemistically renamed "Plan to establish model state farms in the Jezireh Province", the so-called "Arab Cordon" plan, was not dropped in the years that followed. Under the cover of "socialism" and agrarian reform, it envisaged the expulsion of the 140,000 strong peasantry, who would be replaced with Arabs. In 1966, there were even thoughts of applying it seriously, and perhaps extending it to the Kurd-Dagh. But those Kurdish peasants who had been ordered to leave refused to go. In 1967 the peasants in the Cordon zone were informed that their lands had been nationalized. The government even sent in a few teams to build "model farms" until the war against Israel forced it momentarily to drop its plans.|orig-year=1978}}</ref> The construction and flooding of the [[Tabqa Dam]] displaced Arabs who were then resettled in Kurdish al-Jazira. 40 "model villages" were constructed in 1975 and populated with 7,000 armed Arab peasant families; these settlements stretched from [[Amuda]] to [[Derik, Syria|Derik]], a town whose Kurdish name was replaced with the Arabic ''[[al-Malikiyah]]'' at that time.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=The little town of Derik lost its Kurdish name and was officially restyled Al-Malikiyyeh.|orig-year=1978}}</ref> Proceeding slowly to avoid international criticism, the Syrian government suppressed Kurdish culture and harassed Kurdish people, and Kurdish literature and music was confiscated.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=The plan was carried out gradually, so as not to attract too much attention from the outside world. The Kurds were subjected to regular administrative harassment, police raids, firings and confiscation orders. Kurdish literary works were seized, as were records of Kurdish folk music played in public places.|orig-year=1978}}</ref> Members of the [[Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria]] were given lengthy prison sentences for "anti-Arabist" crimes.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=Syrian KDP leaders were imprisoned for years, charged with "anti-Arabist actions".|orig-year=1978}}</ref> In official government documents, mention of Kurds (along with all other non-Arabs) is omitted, and while there were Kurdish members of the legislative [[People's Council of Syria]], official identity was exclusively Arab.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=True the Assembly retained a certain number of Kurdish deputies, but they could not stand as such since the official fiction decreed that all Syrian citizens are Arabs. In all the official publications of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Kurds - and every other non-Arab group - are never mentioned. Since the Republic is Arab, the Kurds must be as well.|orig-year=1978}}</ref>
-In 1939, [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French mandate]] authorities reported the following population numbers for the different ethnic and religious groups in al-Hasakah city centre.<ref>Algun, S., 2011. [https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/205821 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.</ref>
+In 1976, the policy of the Arab Belt , never fully realized, were abandoned, with [[Hafez al-Assad]] preferring "to leave things as they are", remitting the official harassment and ceasing to build new settlements.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Nazdar|first=Mustafa|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W78I4hK0JLQC|title=Les Kurdes et le Kurdistan|publisher=Zed Books|year=1993|isbn=978-1-85649-194-5|editor-last=Chaliand|editor-first=Gérard|location=London|pages=200-201|language=en|translator-last=Pallis|translator-first=Michael|trans-title=A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan|chapter=The Kurds in Syria|quote=However in 1976, President Assad officially renounced any further implementation of the plan to transfer the population, and decided "to leave things as they are". The Kurdish peasants would not be harassed any more, and no further Arab villages would be built on their lands. But the villages which had already been built would stay, as would the newcomers transplanted from the Euphrates Valley. The radio began to broadcast Kurdish music and the Kurds in the country felt much safer. They wondered, however, if this was the beginning of a new policy ''vis-a-vis'' the Kurds of Syria or if it was just as government maneuver predicated on the rivalry between Damascus and the Iraqi Government.|orig-year=1978}}</ref> Existing Arab colonies and settlers remained in place, and while Kurdish music was again heard, the position of Kurds in Syria remained dependent to developments in relations between Syria and Iraq.<ref name=":1" /> The descendants of the 120,000 continued to be denied passports and documents and were still nevertheless the subject to conscription into the 21st century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=O'Shea|first=Maria T.|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Trapped_Between_the_Map_and_Reality.html?id=SvEfmAEACAAJ|title=Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0-415-94766-4|location=New York and London|pages=176|language=en|quote=In 1961, 120,000 Kurds in the Jazireh region of Syria were declared foreigners by government decree, and they and their children are still denied passports or identity cards, although military service is still an obligation.}}</ref>
-{| class="wikitable sortable"
-|+ Syrian census of 1939
-|-
-! District !! Arab !! Kurd !! Christian !! Armenian !! Yezidi !! Assyrian
-|-
-| [[Hasakah]] city centre || 7,133 || 360 || 5,700 || 500 || ||
-|-
-| [[Tell Tamer]] ||  ||  ||  ||  || || 8,767
-|-
-| [[Ras al-Ayn]] || 2,283 || 1,025 || 2,263 ||  || ||
-|-
-| [[Al-Shaddadah|Shaddadi]] || 2,610 ||  || 6 ||  ||  ||
-|-
-| [[Tell Brak]] || 4,509 || 905 ||  || 200 || ||
-|-
-| [[Qamishli]] city centre || 7,990 || 5,892 || 14,140 || 3,500 || 720 ||
-|-
-| [[Amuda]] ||  || 11,260  || 1,500 ||  || 720 ||
-|-
-| [[Al-Darbasiyah]] || 3,011 || 7,899 || 2,382 ||  || 425 ||
-|-
-| [[Chagar Bazar]] || 380 || 3,810 || 3 ||  || ||
-|-
-| Ain Diwar || || 3,608 || 900 ||  || ||
-|-
-| Derik (later renamed [[Al-Malikiyah]]) || 44 || 1,685 || 1,204 ||  || ||
-|-
-| Mustafiyya || 344 || 959 || 50 ||  || ||
-|-
-| Derouna Agha || 570 || 5,097 || 27 ||  || ||
-|-
-| Tel Koger (later renamed [[Al-Yaarubiyah]])|| 165 || || ||  || ||
-|}
-Due to the successive immigration waves, the population of northeastern Syria has seen several unnatural, big jumps (as shown in the table) fueled by the arrival of Kurds from Turkey.<ref name="Gibert and Févret">La Djezireh syrienne et son réveil économique. André Gibert, Maurice Févret, 1953. [https://www.persee.fr/doc/geoca_0035-113x_1953_num_28_1_1294 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 29 June 2020.</ref> For example, the Jazira population jumped by 42.7% between 1931 and 1932. Likewise, the population jumped by 45.8% between 1933 and 1935. Another very significant jump happened in 1953 when the population swelled by 30.8% compared to the year before.<ref>De Vaumas Étienne. [https://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1956_num_65_347_14375 Population actuelle de la Djézireh]. In: Annales de Géographie, t. 65, n°347, 1956. pp. 72-74; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/geo.1956.14375.</ref>
-{{Historical populations
-|type =
-|1929|40000|1931|44153 |1932|63000 |1933|64886 |1935|94596 |1937|98144 |1938|103514 |1939|106052 |1940|126508 |1941|129145|1942|136107 |1943|146001 |1946|151137 |1950|159300|1951|162145 |1952|177388 |1953|232104 |1954|233998
-|<ref>De Vaumas Étienne. [https://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1956_num_65_347_14375 Population actuelle de la Djézireh]. In: Annales de Géographie, t. 65, n°347, 1956. pp. 72-74; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/geo.1956.14375.</ref>
-}}
-The French geographer Robert Montagne summarized the situation in 1932 as follows:<ref>De Vaumas Étienne. [https://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1956_num_65_347_14375 Population actuelle de la Djézireh]. In: Annales de Géographie, t. 65, n°347, 1956. pp. 72-74; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/geo.1956.14375.</ref>
-{{Quote|We are seeing an increase in village establishment that are either constructed by the Kurds descending from the Anatolian mountains (north of the border) to cultivate or as a sign of increasing settlement of Arab groups with the help of their Armenian and Yezidi farmers.}}
-==Planning==
-The Baath party came to power in [[1963 Syrian coup d'état|1963 in Syria]] and decided in 1965 to build the 350 km long and 10-15 km wide Arabic belt along the [[Syria–Turkey border]]. The planned belt stretched from the [[Iraq–Syria border|Iraqi border]] in the east to [[Ras al-Ayn]] in the west. After another coup within the Baath party, [[Hafez al-Assad]] succeeded in becoming the head of Syria in 1970 and began to implement the plan in 1973. The project's name was officially changed to "Plan for the establishment of state model farms in the [[Upper Mesopotamia|Jazira region]]".{{r|"jAD34"}}
-==Execution==
 Arab villages were built in the course of time, and all the Kurdish village names of the area were replaced by Arabic names. About 4,000 Arab families from the provinces of Al-Raqqa and Aleppo, where they had previously lost their houses by the construction of the Tabqa dam, were accommodated in the new villages. These Arabs are named as Maghmurin (مغمورين Maġmūrīn, which is affected by flooding).
-==Background==
-The region of the planned belt are rich in oil deposits and fertile agricultural land. About 50 to 60 per cent of the Syrian petroleum caves are estimated to be located in the district of [[Al-Malikiyah]].{{r|"YEP4e"}}
 ==References==