page_title: Kurds in Syria
section_title: Ottoman period
hierarchical_section_title: Kurds in Syria / History / Ottoman period
caption_attribution_description: English: Kurdish-inhabited area, by CIA (1992) Français&#160;: Zone habitée par les kurdes, d'après la CIA (1992) Ελληνικά: Περιοχές κατοικούμενες από Κούρδους κατά τη CIA (1992)
context_page_description: The Kurdish population of Syria is that country's largest ethnic minority, estimated at between 5% and 16% of the country's population. In 2019, the New York Times estimated the proportion of Kurds in Syria between 5 and 10%.
  The eastern Kurdish-inhabited region covers the greater part of the Jazira Region. Other regions with significant Kurdish populations are the western Afrin District and the central Euphrates Region. All are on the Syrian-Turkish border.
  Human rights organizations have accused the Syrian government of routinely discriminating and harassing Syrian Kurds. Many Kurds seek political autonomy for what they regard as Western Kurdistan, similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, or outright independence as part of Kurdistan. In the context of the Syrian Civil War, Kurds established the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
context_section_description: During the Ottoman period (1516–1922), some large Kurdish tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia. The largest of these tribal groups was the Reshwan confederation, which was initially based in the Adiyaman region but eventually also settled throughout Anatolia. The Milli confederation, which was documented in Ottoman sources from the year 1518 onward, was the most powerful tribal group and dominated the entire northern Syrian steppe in the second half of the 18th century. The Kurdish dynasty of Janbulads ruled the region of Aleppo as governors for the Ottomans from 1591 to 1607 and its most notable member, Ali Janbulad, allied with the Medici of Tuscany. At the beginning of the 17th century, districts of Jarabulus and Seruj  on the left bank of the Euphrates were settled by Kurds. In the mid-18th century, Ottomans recognized Milli tribal leaders as iskan başi or chief of sedentarization in Raqqa area. They were given taxing authority and controlling other tribes in the region. In 1758, Milli chief  and iskan başi Mahmud bin Kalash entered Khabur valley, subjugated the local tribes and brought the area under control of Milli confederation and attempted to set up an independent principality. In 1800, the Ottoman government appointed the Milli chief Timur as governor of Raqqa (1800–1803).
  The Danish writer Carsten Niebuhr, who traveled to Jazira in 1764, recorded five nomadic Kurdish tribes (Dukurie, Kikie, Schechchanie, Mullie and Aschetie) and six Arab tribes (Tay, Kaab, Baggara, Geheish, Diabat and Sherabeh). According to Niebuhr, the Kurdish tribes were settled near Mardin in Turkey, and paid the governor of that city for the right of grazing their herds in the Syrian Jazira. These Kurdish tribes gradually settled in villages and cities and are still present in Jazira (modern Syria's Hasakah Governorate).
  The demographics of this area underwent a huge shift in the early part of the 20th century. Ottoman authorities with the cooperation of Kurdish troops (and to a lesser degree,  Circassian and Chechen tribes) persecuted Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Upper Mesopotamia and were granted their victims' land as a reward. Kurds were responsible for most of the atrocities against Assyrians, and Kurdish expansion happened at the expense of Assyrians (due to factors like proximity). Kurdish as well as Circassian and Chechen tribes cooperated with the Ottoman (Turkish) authorities in the massacres of Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Upper Mesopotamia, between 1914 and 1920, with further attacks on unarmed fleeing civilians conducted by local Arab militias.
  In 1936, there French forces bombarded Amuda . On 13 August 1937, in a revenge attack, about 500 Kurds from the Dakkuri, Milan, and Kiki tribes attacked the then predominantly Christian Amuda and burned the mostly Assyrian town.  The town was destroyed and the Christian population, about 300 families, fled to the towns of Qamishli and Hasakah.
  In other parts of the country during this period, Kurds became local chiefs and tax farmers in Akkar (Lebanon) and the Qusayr highlands between Antioch and Latakia in northwestern Syria. The Afrin Plateau northwest of Aleppo, just inside what is today Syria, was officially known as the "Sancak of the Kurds" in Ottoman documents. The Millis revolted against the Ottoman government after the death of their leader Ibrahim Pasa and some of them eventually settled for the most part on the Syrian side of the newly drawn Turkish-Syrian border of 1922.
  The immigration of some Kurds to Syria began in 1926 following the failure of the rebellion of Saed Ali Naqshbandi against the Turkish authorities. They were granted citizenship by the French mandate authorities. During the great war, Kurdish tribes attacked and sacked and villages in Albaq District immediately to the north of Hakkari mountains. According to Lieutenant Ronald Sempill Stafford, large numbers of Assyrians and Armenians were killed.
caption: Kurdish-inhabited areas
exif: {}