page_title: Syrian Kurdistan
section_title: Demographic background
hierarchical_section_title: Syrian Kurdistan / Demographic background
caption_attribution_description: العربية: خارطة عُثمانيَّة تُظهر الإيالات الشرقيَّة لِلدولة العُثمانيَّة سنة 1803م. الخارطة مأخوذة من الأطلس الجديد (وهي واحدة من أصل 24 ورقة). هذا الأطلس هو أوَّل أطلسٍ جُغرافي يُطبع في العالم الإسلامي، ولم يُطبع منه سوى 50 نسخة، وبهذا فهو يُعتبر أحد أندر الأطالس الجُغرافيَّة ذات القيمة التاريخيَّة على المُستويان العالمي والشرق أوسطي. English: The Middle East sheet of the 1803 Cedid Atlas (one of 24 sheets in total). It is the first published atlas in the Muslim world, and only 50 copies were printed at the press, as such it is one of the rarest printed atlases of historical value and of great importance to Middle Eastern history.
context_page_description: Syrian Kurdistan or Western Kurdistan, often shortened to Rojava, is the area of northern Syria regarded by many Kurds and some regional experts as one of the four parts of Kurdistan. In this conception, northern Syria is joined by southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran. 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.
context_section_description: Northern Syria is an ethnically diverse region. Kurds constitute one of several groups which have lived there since antiquity or the Middle Ages. The first Kurdish communitites constituted a minority and mostly consisted of nomads or military colonists. During the Ottoman Empire (1516–1922), large Kurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia. The last years of Ottoman rule witnessed extensive demographic changes in northern Syria as a result of the Assyrian Genocide and mass migrations. During WWI, Kurdish tribes cooperated with the 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. Many Assyrians fled to Syria during the genocide and settled mainly in the Jazira area.
  Starting in 1926, the region saw another immigration of Kurds following the failure of the Sheikh Said rebellion against the Turkish authorities. Waves of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey and settled in Syrian Al-Jazira Province, where they were granted citizenship by the authorities of the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920's was estimated at 20,000 to 25,000 people, out of 100,000 inhabitants, with the remainder of the population being Christians (Syriac, Armenian, Assyrian) and Arabs.
  French mandate authorities gave the new Kurdish refugees considerable rights and encouraged minority autonomy as part of a divide and rule strategy and recruited heavily from the Kurds and other minority groups, such as Alawite and Druze, for its local armed forces. French Mandate authorities encouraged their immigration and granted them Syrian citizenship. The French official reports show the existence of at most 45 Kurdish villages in Jazira prior to 1927. A new wave of refugees arrived in 1929. The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and by 1939, the villages numbered between 700 and 800. The French authorities themselves generally organized the settlement of the refugees. One of the most important of these plans was carried out in Upper Jazira in northeastern Syria where the French built new towns and villages (such as Qamishli) were built with the intention of housing the refugees considered to be "friendly". This has encouraged the non-Turkish minorities that were under Turkish pressure to leave their ancestral homes and property, they could find refuge and rebuild their lives in relative safety in neighboring Syria. Consequently, the border areas in al-Hasakah Governorate started to have a Kurdish majority, while Arabs remained the majority in river plains and elsewhere. The population of the governorate reached 155,643 in 1949, including about 60,000 Kurds. These continuous waves swelled the number of Kurds in the area who represented 37% of the Jazira population in a 1939 French authorities census. In 1953, French geographers Fevret and Gibert estimated that out of the total 146,000 inhabitants of Jazira, agriculturalist Kurds made up 60,000 (41%), semi-sedentary and nomad Arabs 50,000 (34%), and a quarter of the population were Christians.
  Another demographic shift took place after Syria's independence, as the governing Ba'ath Party implemented Arabization policies in northern Syria, settling additional Arabs in the area, while displacing Kurds. Mass migration also took place during the Syrian civil war. Accordingly, estimates as to the ethnic composition of northern Syria vary widely, ranging from claims about a Kurdish majority to claims about Kurds being a small minority. In addition, the Kurdish population of Syria has been highly segmented due the different backgrounds and lifestyles of Kurdish groups.
caption: 1803 Cedid Atlas showing "Kurdistan" in blue.
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