Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by AnomieBOT (talk | contribs) at 14:11, 13 November 2020 (Substing templates: {{2020}} and {{October}}. See User:AnomieBOT/docs/TemplateSubster for info.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (November 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Syrian Kurdistan or Western Kurdistan (Template:Lang-ku), often shortened to Rojava, is regarded by many Kurds and some regional experts as the part of Kurdistan in Syria, much as they view southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), and northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan). There is ambiguity about its geographical extent, and the term has different meanings depending on context. Around 80% of Syrian Kurds live in Kurdish-majority regions along the Syria-Turkey border.

History of the term

Although Kurdish nationalism has a long history, the extent of Kurdistan has been disputed over time. Kurds have lived in territory which is now part of the Syrian Arab Republic for centuries, and following the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Kurdish population was divided between its successor states Turkey, Mandatory Iraq andthe Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. Before the 1980s, Kurdish-inhabited areas of Syria were usually regarded as "Kurdish regions of Syria". Local Kurdish parties generally maintained ideologies which stayed in a firmly Syrian nationalist framework, and did not aspire to an independent Kurdish state. In the 1920s, there were two separate demands for autonomy for the areas with a Kurdish majority, from Nouri Kandy, an influential Kurd from the Kurd Mountains, and another from the Kurdish tribal leaders of the Barazi confederation. Neither was taken into consideration by the French authorities of the Mandate, which included Syrian Kurdistan in its short-lived State of Aleppo instead.

References to Syrian territory being part of Kurdistan became more widespread among Syrian Kurds in the 1980s and 1990s, a development fueled by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which was based in Syria after Hafez al-Assad had given it safe haven after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. The PKK presence strengthened Kurdish nationalism in Syria, where 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 encouraging aspirations toward an independent Kurdistan, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) (the Syrian successor of the PKK) and the PKK no longer aspire to an independent Kurdish state. Today they call for the removal of state borders in general, as the two parties, along with the rest of the Kurdistan Communities Union, believe that there is no need for the creation of a separate Kurdish state, as their internationalist project would allow for the removal of the borders that divide Kurdistan through indirect means.

The idea of a Syrian Kurdistan gained even more relevance after the start of the Syrian Civil War, 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 sometimes called 'Rojava' or 'West Kurdistan'. By 2014, many Syrian Kurds used these names to refer to northeastern Syria. Kurdish nationalist parties, such as the Kurdish National Council (KNC), began to raise demands for the establishment of a Syrian Kurdish state, raising concerns from Syrian nationalists and some observers. 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, although the polity continued to be called Rojava by locals and international observers, with journalist Metin Gurcan noting that "the concept of Rojava a brand gaining global recognition" by 2019.

Extent

Syrian Kurdistan, like the rest of Kurdistan, is not clearly defined, and its extent is subject to varying interpretations. Following the partition of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Ottoman Kurdish population was divided between its successor states Turkey, the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, and Mandatory Iraq. Syrian Kurdistan is adjacent to Turkish Kurdistan in the north and Iraqi Kurdistan in the east. Depending on their different interpretations, most ethnographic maps show two or three separate Kurdish-majority regions along the Syria-Turkey border.

The most generous portrayals of Syrian Kurdistan are those of Kurdish nationalists, who have produced maps that show what they consider to be Syrian Kurdistan. This is usually a narrow strip along the Syria-Turkey border that thickens toward the east. Two maps by Ekurd Daily from 2012 and 2013 included all of northern Syria, including the entire al-Hasakah Governorate, the north of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, northern Raqqa Governorate, and northern Aleppo Governorate, as well as the areas of the Idlib Governorate bordering Turkey's Hatay Province, in 'Western Kurdistan'. 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. A 2015 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, thus giving this version of Western Kurdistan access to the Mediterranean. These maps include the large swaths of Arab-majority areas in between the major Kurdish regions.

Demographic history and its effects on government policy

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, and make up between 5 and 16 percent of the Syrian population as of 2011—between 1.6 and 2.5 million people, although these figures don't include Arabized Kurds. The Kurdish population in Syria is relatively small in comparison to the Kurdish populations in nearby countries, such as Turkey (14.4–16 million), Iran (7.9 million), and Iraq (4.7–6.2 million). The majority of Syrian Kurds speak Kurmanji, a Kurdish dialect spoken in Turkey and northeastern Iraq and Iran. Many of Syria's Kurds live in Aleppo and Damascus, which are not considered part of Kurdistan.

It is estimated that at the beginning of the 20th century an unknown number of Kurds lived in the Kurd-Dagh region; 16,000 Kurds lived in the Jarabulus region; and an unknown number lived in the Jazira province, where they were likely the majority. In the 1920s after the failed Kurdish rebellions in Kemalist Turkey, there was a large migration of Kurds to Syria's Jazira province. It is estimated that 25,000 Kurds fled at this time to Syria. According to Stefan Sperl, these Kurdish newcomers constituted no more than 10% of the Kurdish population of Jazira at the time. All were granted citizenship by the French mandate authorities, who recognized their agricultural skills. French official reports show the existence of 45 Kurdish villages in Jazira prior to 1927. A new wave of refugees arrived in 1929. The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish migration to Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800. Sperl's estimation contradicts the estimates of the French geographers Fevret and Gibert, who estimated that in 1953 out of the total 146,000 inhabitants of Jazira, agriculturalist Kurds made up 60,000 (41%), nomad Arabs 50,000 (34%), and a quarter of the population were Christians.

Even though Kurds have a long history in Syria, the Syrian government has used the fact that many Kurds fled to Syria during the 1920s to claim that Kurds are not indigenous to the country and to justify its discriminatory policies against them. Many Arabic-speaking Kurds are classified as Arabs by the Arab nationalist Syrian government.

Controversies

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. Extremist Kurdish nationalists have used the concept of Syrian Kurdistan to portray Arabs in Upper Mesopotamia as foreign "settler herds", sometimes using the relatively small 1970s migration involved in the Arab Belt (similar to the government's use of the 1920s Kurdish migration) as justification, thus contributing to regional ethnic tensions. A book review by PhD candidate Mustapha Hamza of 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", an Arab nationalist stance common among Syria's Arab citizens.

References

1. ^ "Special Report: Amid Syria's violence, Kurds carve out autonomy". Reuters. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
2. ^ 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. ^ Tejel (2009), p. 95. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
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. Khalil, Fadel (1992). Kurden heute (in German). Europaverlag. pp. 5, 18–19. ISBN 3-203-51097-9.
17. Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland, (2014), by Ofra Bengio, University of Texas Press, p. 1.
18. "KURDISH POPULATION IN SYRIA". Sahipkıran Stratejik Araştırmalar Merkezi - SASAM (in Turkish). 2014-08-05. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
19. Tejel (2009), p. 69. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
20. Meri (2006), p. 445.
21. Vanly (1992), pp. 115–116.
22. Gunter, Michael M. (2016), p.87
23. Tejel (2009), p. 86. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
24. Tejel (2009), pp. 27–28. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
25. Tejel (2009), pp. 93–95. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
26. Tejel (2009), p. 93. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
27. Allsopp & van Wilgenburg (2019), p. 28.
28. Tejel (2009), p. 123. sfnp error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFTejel2009 (help)
29. 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
30. ^ "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.".
31. ^ Mohamed Al Hussein (21 February 2020). "Map of proposed Syrian Kurdistan provoke questions". zamanalwsl. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
32. Allsopp & van Wilgenburg (2019), pp. 89, 151–152.
33. "Turkey's military operation in Syria: All the latest updates". al Jazeera. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
34. ^ Metin Gurcan (7 November 2019). "Is the PKK worried by the YPG's growing popularity?". al-Monitor. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
35. "The Communist volunteers fighting the Turkish invasion of Syria". Morning Star. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
36. "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.
37. The Kurdish Project. "Syria (Rojava or Western Kurdistan)". Retrieved 8 November 2020.
38. Gunter, Michael M. (2016). The Kurds: A Modern History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-558766150.
39. "Kurdish autonomy in Syria troubling for rebels, Turkey". Ekurd Daily. 7 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
40. Jonathan Spyer (9 March 2013). "Syrian Kurdistan: The Kurds Are for the Kurds". Ekurd Daily. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
41. Fabrice Balance (2018). Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War (PDF) (Online ed.). Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved 25 June 2019. In this atlas, French geographer Balanche suggests that "As of 2010, Syria’s population was roughly 65% Sunni Arab, 15% Kurdish, 10% Alawite, 5% Christian, 3% Druze, 1% Ismaili, and 1% Twelver Shia." (page 13) "The number of Kurds in Syria is often underestimated by analysts, who tend to cap them at 10% of the population. In fact, they are closer to 15%."(page 16) The 2018 breakdown is 1% Sunni Arab, 16% Kurdish, 13% Alawite, 3% Christian, 4% Druze, 1% Ismaili, 1% Twelver Shia, 1% Turkmen (page 22) Balanche also refers to his Atlas du ProcheOrient Arabe (Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011), p. 36."
42. Darke, Diana (2010-01-01). Syria. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1-84162-314-6.
43. "Who are the Kurds?" (Online ed.). BBC News. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017. Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population.
44. "Who are Syria's minority groups?" (Online ed.). Special Broadcasting Service. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2017. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, constituting around 10 per cent of the population - around 2 million of the pre-conflict population of around 22 million.
45. "Kurdish Population in Syria" (Online ed.). 5 August 2014. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2017. Various proportions are predicted for Kurds. For example McDowall and O’shea predict 8%, Bruinessen predicts 8.5%, Chailand predicts 10%. Vanly, Kurdish writer, stated that Kurds must be at least 7% of Syrian population
46. ^ World Factbook (Online ed.). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2019. ISSN 1553-8133. Retrieved 25 June 2019. CIA estimates are as of June 2019 "Ethnic groups: Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)"
47. Tejel, Jordi (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 0-203-89211-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
48. Jordi Tejel, translated from the French by Emily Welle; Welle, Jane (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society (1. publ. ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 10. ISBN 0-203-89211-9.
49. McDowell, David (2005). A Modern History of the Kurds (3. revised and upd. ed., repr. ed.). London : Tauris. p. 469. ISBN 1-85043-416-6.
50. Kreyenbroek, Philip G.; Sperl, Stefan (1992). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. London: Routledge. pp. 147. ISBN 0-415-07265-4.
51. ^ Tejel, Jordi (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge. p. 144. ISBN 0-203-89211-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
52. ^ 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.
53. Yildiz, Kerim (2005). The Kurds in Syria: The Forgotten People (1. publ. ed.). London : Pluto Press, in association with Kurdish Human Rights Project. pp. 25. ISBN 0-7453-2499-1.
54. Youssef M. Choueiri (2005). A Companion to the History of the Middle East (Hardcover ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. p. 475. ISBN 1-4051-0681-6.
55. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/rojavas-sustainability-and-the-pkks-regional-strategy
56. ^ Hamza Mustapha, 2018 Review: The Issue of the Kurds in Syria: Facts, History and Myth

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

• Arab irredentism
• Eastern Mediterranean
• Geography of Kurdistan
• Geography of Syria
• Kurdistan
• Kurds in Syria
• Levant
• Politics of Syria
• Subdivisions of Syria
• Syrian Kurdistan
• Upper Mesopotamia