Arab Belt

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The Arab Belt (Arabic: الحزام العربي, al-hizām al-ʿarabī; Kurdish: Kembera Erebî, که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی) was 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, particularly Kurds.[1][2] It involved the seizure of land which was then settled with Arabs displaced by the creation of Lake Assad.

Background

Main article: Kurdish immigration into Syria

The Kurdish rebellion against the Iraqi government led by Mustafa Barzani[3] and the discovery of oil in Al-Jazira Province in the 1960s coincided with a marked worsening for the Kurdish population.[4] On 23 August 1962, the government decreed an extraordinary census of al-Jazira Province.[4] If a person was not able to produce a document that proved they lived in Syrian before 1940, they were deemed illegal immigrants, mainly from Turkey.[5] As part of this census on the 5 October 1962, 120,000 Kurds in the province were deprived of their Syrian citizenship.[6] The Syrian Government later admitted mistakes were made during the census, but didn't reinstate citizenry.[5] In view of the Kurdish uprising in Iraq, the Syrian bureaucrat Muhammad Talab Hilal warned of similar a development in Syria and produced a twelvefold strategy to achieve the Arabization of the al-Jazira Province. The steps were:[7][8][9][10]

  • (1) eviction and resettlement of Kurds
  • (2) deprivation of all education for Kurds
  • (3) removal of Kurds from employment
  • (4) the reevaluation of the Syrian citizenships of Kurds also holding a Turkish citizenship
  • (5) encouragement of intra-Kurdish factionalism in order to divide and rule
  • (6) Arab settlements in former Kurdish lands
  • (7) 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) collective farms are to be established 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 religious dignitaries 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

In 1962 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 in Northern Syria and the desire the control the Kurdish region's resources was connected with the policy.[4] 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.[2]

Execution

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.[11] The project's name was changed to Plan to establish model state farms in the Jazira region.[12][13] Villages were built into which were to be settled 4000 Arab families coming from the land which was to be submerged following the completion of the Tabqa dam and the filling of Lake Assad.[2] The Arabs were provided with weapons and divided between more than 50 so-called model farms in the Jazira Region and to the north of Raqqa.[2] Twelve were built each around Qamishli and Al-Malakiyah and sixteen around Ras al Ayn.[14] The Kurdish village names of the area were replaced by Arabic names not necessarily related to the traditions and history of the region.[14] These Arabs are named as Maghmurin (مغمورين Maġmūrīn, which is affected by flooding).[14] The campaign has eventually faded out under Hafez al Assad in 1976, but Kurds were not allowed to return.[2]

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.[15]

References

  1. ^ David L. Phillips (2017). The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East. ISBN 9781351480369. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e Tejel, Jordi (2009). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. Routledge. pp. 61–62. ISBN 9780203892114.
  3. ^ Maisel, Sebastian (21 June 2018).p.343
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b McDowall, David (2020). "A Modern History of the Kurds". Bloomsbury, I.B. Tauris. p. 469. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  6. ^ Hasan, Mohammed (December 2020), p.6
  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".
  8. ^ Hasan, Mohammed (December 2020). "Kurdish Political and Civil Movements in Syria and the Question of Representation" (PDF). London School of Economics. pp. 4–5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  9. ^ Maisel, Sebastian (21 June 2018). The Kurds: An Encyclopedia of Life, Culture, and Society. ABC-CLIO. pp. 344–345. ISBN 978-1-4408-4257-3.
  10. ^ Chaliand, Gérard (1993). A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan. Zed Books. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5.
  11. ^ Gunter, Michael (15 November 2014). Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-84904-531-5.
  12. ^ November 2009. "Group Denial: Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  13. ^ Paul, James A.; Watch (Organization), Middle East (1990). Human Rights in Syria. Human Rights Watch. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-929692-69-2.
  14. ^ a b c Hasan, Mohamed (December 2020). "Kurdish Political and Civil Movements in Syria and the Question of Representation" (PDF). London School of Economics. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  15. ^ 20 March 2013 (20 March 2013). "Syria's Oil Resources Are a Source of Contention for Competing Groups". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
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