Kurds in Syria

{{Short description|Ethnic group}} {{protection padlock|small=yes}} {{Use American English|date = February 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

{{Infobox ethnic group | group = Kurds in Syria | image = Population map Syria & Liban (1935).jpg | image_caption = A map of religious and ethnic communities of Syria and Lebanon (1935). | population = Estimates from 1.6&nbsp;million to 2.5&nbsp;million<ref name="CIAonline">{{cite book |title=World Factbook |edition=Online |date=2019 |publisher=US Central Intelligence Agency |location=Langley, Virginia |issn=1553-8133 |url= https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070601020457/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ |url-status= dead |archive-date= 1 June 2007 |access-date=25 June 2019}} CIA estimates are {{as of|lc=y|2019|06}} "Ethnic groups: Sunni Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)"</ref><ref name="BBC-Who_are_the_Kurds">{{cite web|title=Who are the Kurds?|edition=Online |date=31 October 2017 |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29702440 |access-date=25 November 2017}}</ref><ref name="HeritageforPeace">{{cite web |title=Demographics of Syria|url=https://www.heritageforpeace.org/syria-country-information/geography/ |publisher=Heritage for Peace |access-date=4 April 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241205182626/https://www.heritageforpeace.org/syria-country-information/geography/|archive-date=5 December 2024|quote=''Around 1.5 million Kurds form Syria’s largest ethnic minority. About a third of them live in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains north of Aleppo, and an equal number along the Turkish border in the Jazirah. A further 10 per cent can be found in the vicinity of Jarabulus northeast of Aleppo, and from 10-15 per cent in the Hayy al-Akrad (Quarter of the Kurds) on the outskirts of Damascus.''}}</ref> Kurds make up between 5% and 10% of Syria's population.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jv2jHT_GRe0C |title=Syria |last=Darke|first=Diana |date= 2010|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=9781841623146|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syria rejects Russian proposal for Kurdish federation|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/10/turkey-russia-mediates-between-kurds-and-assad.html|access-date=9 November 2016|work=Al-Monitor|date=24 October 2016|language=en-us}}</ref> | popplace = Northeastern Syria, Afrin, Kobani<ref name="Vanly" /> | languages = Mainly Kurdish (Kurmanji);<ref>{{cite news |title=Syrian Kurds celebrate Kurdish Language Day |url=https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/85b3daab-5daa-4c3a-901d-b9ed24fe20cc/Syrian-Kurds-celebrate-Kurdish-Language-Day |access-date=13 July 2019 |work=Kurdistan24 |date=16 May 2016 |language=en}}</ref> also Arabic (North Levantine Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic) | religions = Majority Sunni Islam<ref>{{cite web | url=https://minorityrights.org/communities/kurds-5/ | title=Kurds in Syria | work=Minority Rights Group | date=16 October 2023 }}</ref><br>Minority Yazidism, and Shia Islam<ref>{{cite news|title=Alawite Kurds in Syria: Ethnic discrimination and dectarian privileges. By Maya Ehmed|url=http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/7/syriakurd268.htm|access-date=25 November 2016|website=Ekurd.net|archive-date=14 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014184025/http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/7/syriakurd268.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> | related = }} {{Life in Kurdistan}} The Kurdish population of Syria is the country's largest ethnic minority,<ref name=Shoup>{{citation |last=Shoup|first=John A.|year=2018|chapter=Syria|title=The History of Syria|page=6|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1440858352|quote=Syria has several other ethnic groups, the Kurds... they make up an estimated 9 percent...Turkomen comprise around 4–5 percent of the total population. The rest of the ethnic mix of Syria is made of Assyrians (about 4 percent), Armenians (about 2 percent), and Circassians (about 1 percent).}}</ref> usually estimated at 10% of the Syrian population<ref>{{cite news|title=Turkey's Syria offensive explained in four maps|website=BBC.com|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49973218|access-date=14 October 2019|quote=Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population.}}</ref><ref name="SBS">{{cite news|title=Who are Syria's minority groups?|newspaper=SBS News |edition=Online |date=11 September 2015 |publisher=Special Broadcasting Service |url=http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/09/11/who-are-syrias-minority-groups |access-date=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&nbsp;million.</ref><ref name=Shoup/><ref name="NYT">{{cite web|last=Kingsley|first=Patrick|date=14 October 2019|title=Who Are the Kurds, and Why Is Turkey Attacking Them in Syria?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/world/middleeast/the-kurds-facts-history.html|access-date=5 August 2020|work=New York Times|quote=Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up between 5 and 10 percent of the Syrian population of 21 million in 2011|edition=Online}}</ref><ref name="Balanche">{{cite book |title=Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War |author=Fabrice Balanche |edition=Online |date=2018 |publisher=The Washington Institute for Near East Policy |location=Washington, DC |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/SyriaAtlasCOMPLETE.pdf |access-date=25 June 2019 |archive-date=26 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626145902/https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/SyriaAtlasCOMPLETE.pdf |url-status=dead }} 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." (p. 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%."(p. 16) The 2018 breakdown is 1% Sunni Arab, 16% Kurdish, 13% Alawite, 3% Christian, 4% Druze, 1% Ismaili, 1% Twelver Shia, 1% Turkmen (p. 22) Balanche also refers to his ''Atlas du ProcheOrient Arabe'' (Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011), p. 36."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Radpey|first=Loqman|date=September 2016|title=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|journal=Japanese Journal of Political Science|language=en|volume=17|issue=3|pages=468–488|doi=10.1017/S1468109916000190|issn=1468-1099|quote=Some 15% to 17% of the Syrian population is Kurdish. Whether they can achieve statehood will depend on a reading of international law and on how the international community reacts.|doi-access=free}}</ref> and 9% of the Kurdish population.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

The majority of Syrian Kurds are originally Turkish Kurds who have crossed the border during different events in the 20th century.<ref name="Storm">{{cite book|last1=Storm|first1=Lise|title=A Companion to the History of the Middle East|date=2005|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|location=Utrecht|isbn=1-4051-0681-6 |page=475 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qgKE_-HtfoAC&q=kurds+in+Syria&pg=PA475 |chapter=Ethnonational Minorities in the Middle East Berbers, Kurds, and Palestinians}}</ref> There are three major centers for the Kurdish population in Syrian, the northern part of the Jazira, the central Euphrates Region around Kobanî and in the west the area around Afrin.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Krajeski|first=Jenna|date=2016|title=The future of Kurdistan|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44214818|journal=Great Decisions|pages=30|jstor=44214818|issn=0072-727X}}</ref> All of these are on the Syria-Turkey border, and there are also substantial Kurdish communities in Aleppo and Damascus further south.

During Ba'athist rule, human rights organizations accused the Syrian government of routinely discriminating and harassing Syrian Kurds.<ref name=HRW112609>{{cite web|title=Syria: End Persecution of Kurds|date=26 November 2009|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/11/26/syria-end-persecution-kurds|publisher=Human Rights Watch|access-date=4 October 2011}}</ref><ref name=GUARD>{{cite news|author=Ian Black |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/16/syrian-human-rights-unchanged-assad |title=Syrian human rights record unchanged under Assad, report says] |work=The Guardian |date=16 July 2010}}</ref> Many Kurds seek political autonomy for what they regard as Western Kurdistan, similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, or to be part of an independent state of Kurdistan. In the context of the Syrian Civil War, Kurds established<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-president-bashar-alassad-accused-of-arming-kurdish-separatists-for-attacks-against-turkish-government-8026990.html | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Loveday | last=Morris | title=Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused of arming Kurdish separatists for attacks against Turkish government | date=9 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian Kurdish moves ring alarm bells in Turkey |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE86N12W20120724|publisher=Reuters|access-date=17 August 2012|date=24 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Kurds seek autonomy in a democratic Syria |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-19291072|publisher=BBC World News|access-date=16 August 2012|date=16 August 2012}}</ref> the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Kurds are creating a state of their own in northern Syria |url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/05/23/the-kurds-are-creating-a-state-of-their-own-in-northern-syria |access-date=29 June 2019 |newspaper=The Economist |date=23 May 2019}}</ref>

==Demographics== Syrian Kurds live mainly in three Kurdish pockets in northern Syria adjacent to Turkey.<ref name="Vanly">{{Cite journal |last1=Vanly |first1=Ismet Chérif |last2=Vanly |first2=Ismet Cheriff |date=1977 |title=Coup d'oeil sur la culture nationale Kurde |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25816505 |journal=Oriente Moderno |volume=57 |issue=9/10 |page=445 |doi=10.1163/22138617-0570910007 |jstor=25816505 |issn=0030-5472|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Many Kurds also live in the large cities and metropolitan areas of the country, for example, in the neighborhood Rukn al-Din in Damascus, which was formerly known as ''Hayy al Akrad'' (Kurdish Quarter), and the Aleppo neighborhoods of al Ashrafiya<ref>Tejel (2009) p. 100</ref> and Sheikh Maqsood.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schmidinger|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omsMMQAACAAJ|title=Krieg und Revolution in Syrisch-Kurdistan: Analysen und Stimmen aus Rojava|date=22 March 2017|publisher=Mandelbaum Verlag|isbn=978-3-85476-665-0|page=160|language=de}}</ref>

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, and make up between 5 and 10 percent of the Syrian population.<ref>{{cite news|title=Who Are the Kurds, and Why Is Turkey Attacking Them in Syria?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/world/middleeast/the-kurds-facts-history.html|access-date=14 December 2020|work=New York Times| date=14 October 2019 | last1=Kingsley | first1=Patrick }}</ref><ref name="Balanche" /><ref name="BBC-Who_are_the_Kurds" /><ref name="SBS" /><ref name="CIAonline" /> The estimates are diluted due to the effects of the Syrian civil war and the permeability of the Syrian-Turkish border.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tank|first=Pinar|date=2017|title=Kurdish Women in Rojava: From Resistance to Reconstruction|journal=Die Welt des Islams|volume=57|issue=3–4|page=412|doi=10.1163/15700607-05734p07|jstor=26568532|issn=0043-2539|doi-access=free}}</ref> The Kurdish population in Syria is relatively small in comparison to the Kurdish populations in nearby countries, such as Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. The majority of Syrian Kurds speak Kurmanji, a Kurdish dialect spoken in Turkey and northeastern Iraq and Iran.<ref name=Tejel1>{{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=g4f54qsU618C|isbn=978-0-203-89211-4|page=8}}</ref>

It is estimated that at the beginning of the 20th century around 12,000 Kurds lived in Damascus; 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.<ref name=Tejel2>{{cite book|last=Jordi Tejel |first=translated from the French by Emily Welle|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|url=https://archive.org/details/syriaskurdshisto00teje |url-access=limited |year=2009|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-203-89211-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/syriaskurdshisto00teje/page/n24 10]|edition=1st |author2=Welle, Jane}}</ref> The extension of the railway and road to Nusaybin in 1918 intensified the immigration of Kurds southwards into the Syrian foothills and plains along rivers.<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|volume=28 |issue=28|pages=1–15|doi=10.3406/geoca.1953.1294 |language=fr|url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/geoca_0035-113x_1953_num_28_1_1294|access-date=29 March 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref name=McDowell/> The French official reports show the existence of 45 Kurdish villages in Jazira prior to 1927. A new wave of refugees arrived in 1929.<ref name=Tejel3 /> The French authorities continued to allow Kurdish migration into the Mandate, 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> The French geographers Fevret and Gibert 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.<ref name=fevret />

Even though some Kurdish communities have a long history in Syria,<ref name=Yildiz1>{{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.]|isbn=0-7453-2499-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/kurdssyriaforgot00yild/page/n29 25]|edition=1st}}</ref> most Syrian Kurds originate from Turkey and have immigrated during the 20th century to escape the harsh repression of the Kurds in that country.<ref name="Storm" /> Kurds were later joined in Syria by a new large group that drifted out of Turkey throughout the interwar period during which the Turkish campaign to assimilate its Kurdish population was at it highest.<ref name="Storm" /> The government has used the fact that some 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.<ref name="Storm"/>

== History ==

=== Late Antiquity === In the year 568, a place called "Tella de-Qurdaye" was recorded near Damascus in Syriac sources, which was probably a military settlement and denoted the "Kurdish hill" according to Theodor Nöldeke.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nöldeke |first=Theodor |year=1898 |title=Kardū und Kurden |journal=Beiträge zur alten Geschichte und Geographie |location=Berlin |publisher=Dietrich Reimer |page=79 |lang=de}}</ref> The Syriac scholar and Archbishop of Damascus Iqlīmyus Yūsuf Dāwūd stated that Kurds were present in Damascus before the seventh century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dāwūd |first=Iqlīmyus Yūsuf |title=Kitāb al-quṣārā fī ḥall thalāth masāʾil tārīkhīyah |publisher=al-Maṭbaʿah al-Adabīyah |year=1887 |location=Beirut |page=39}}</ref>{{verification needed |date=May 2026}}

Contact between Kurds and the Ghassanids goes back at least to Ghassanid raids into Sasanian territory during the reign of Shapur II (309–379 CE). Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh describes the Ghassanid commander Ṭāʾir leading a coalition of Romans, Cadusians, Baḥrainis, Kurds, and Persians against the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon. These early encounters in the Jazīra probably fed later Arab legends about Kurdish origins.<ref>{{cite report |url= |title=The Monasteries of the Kurds in Syria in the Letter of the Archimandrites of Arabia, c. 570 CE |last=Arwandi |first=Hemdad M. |date=January 13, 2026 |location=Erbil |pages=1–16 |institution=Kurdistan Center for Iranian Studies}}</ref> Both Al-Masudi and al-Bakri recorded traditions claiming the Kurds had once been Arabs who fell out with the Ghassanids, retreated into the mountains and gradually lost their Arabic.<ref>{{cite book |last=al-Masʿūdī |title=Murūj al-dhahab wa-maʿādin al-jawhar |publisher=Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya |year=2012 |volume=2 |location=Beirut |page=133}}</ref> Al-Bakrī, citing al-Jayhānī, placed the original Kurdish homeland between the land of Judea in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, while Ibn Gharsiya noted that the Christian Arab tribe of Banū Salīḥ in southern Syria had intermarried with Kurds and Nabataeans. The Kurds attested in southern Syria most likely arrived either as nomadic groups from Upper Jazīra, helped by good relations with Arab tribes, or as soldiers serving in Roman or Sasanian armies.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Minorsky |first=Vladimir |year=1940 |title=Les origines des Kurdes |journal=Actes du XXe Congrès international des orientalistes |location=Louvain |publisher=Bureaux du Muséon |page=151}}</ref>

=== Middle Ages === Al-Masudi noted in ''The Meadows of Gold'' that Kurdish tribes, including al-Danabila, had settled in the Levant, and later records mention Kurdish princes governing parts of the region, among them Mir Muhammad (d. 997).<ref>{{cite book |last=al-Masudi |first=Ali ibn al-Husayn |title=Murūj aḏ-Ḏahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar |publisher=Dar al-Fikr |year=2000 |editor-last=al-Laham |editor-first=Said |volume=2 |location=Beirut |pages=130 |trans-title=Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems}}</ref> Al-Muzhiri in ''al-Mafatih'' and al-Tibi both asserting that the Kurds of the Levant descended from the Prophet Isaac, a claim raised in the course of interpreting a hadith concerning the conquest of Constantinople.<ref>{{cite book |last=al-Mazhari |first=Husayn ibn Mahmud |author-link= |title=Al-Mafatih fi Sharh al-Masabih |publisher=Dar al-Nawadir, Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf |year=2012 |edition=1st |volume=5 |pages=378}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Islamic Portal |date=2025-03-22 |title=Sahih Muslim Hadith: 70000 warriors from Bani Ishaq or Bani Ismail |url=https://islamicportal.co.uk/sahih-muslim-hadith-70000-warriors-from-bani-ishaq-or-bani-ismail/ |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251211052718/https://islamicportal.co.uk/sahih-muslim-hadith-70000-warriors-from-bani-ishaq-or-bani-ismail/ |archive-date=2025-12-11 |access-date=2026-04-21 |website=Islamic Portal |language=en-GB}}</ref>

A separate account preserved by Ihsan Abbas describes a military engagement near Apamea between Kurds under Abu al-Hajjar al-Mu’ammal ibn Musbih and the Hamdanid governor of Homs, suggesting an established Kurdish presence deep within Syrian territory well before the Ayyubid period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Abbas |first=Ihsan |title=Shadharat min Kutub Mafquda fi al-Tarikh |publisher=Dar al-Gharb al-Islami |year=1988 |edition=1st |location=Beirut |pages=98 |trans-title=}}</ref> Al Wahrani referred to the Kurds in his literary ''Manamāt'', placing the judge Ibn Darbas al-Kurdi alongside the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Muawiya in a single fictional vision, a deliberate anachronism in service of his polemical purposes, though the work remains a useful mirror of the social landscape of the Levant in his era.<ref>{{cite book |last=al-Wahrani |first=Rukn al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhriz |title=Manamat al-Wahrani wa Maqamatuhu wa Rasailuhu |publisher=Dar al-Katib al-Arabi |others=Reviewed by Abd al-Aziz al-Ahwani |year=1968 |editor1-last=Shaalan |editor1-first=Ibrahim |location=Cairo |trans-title= |editor2-last=Naghsh |editor2-first=Muhammad}}</ref>

Kurdish ties to Aleppo consolidated during the Hamdanid period through intermarriage on both sides. A Hamdanid emir married Fatima bint Ahmad Hazarmardi, while the Marwanid ruler of Diyarbakir Said ibn Marwan wed the granddaughter of Sayf al-Dawla. These unions opened Aleppo to a growing Kurdish presence, and Kurdish relatives of the Hamdanids were a familiar sight at court. That presence is perhaps best illustrated by an exchange at Sayf al-Dawla’s majlis, where a discussion arose comparing the standing of Arabs and Kurds, prompting the prince to ask his poet al-Mutanabbi for his view, a question whose very framing speaks to how visible and consequential the Kurdish element had become in Hamdanid political life.<ref>{{cite book |last=al-Farqi |first=Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Ali |title=Tarikh al-Farqi |publisher=Dar al-Fikr al-Hadith |others=Reviewed by Hasan al-Zayn |year=1988 |location=Beirut |pages=19}}</ref>​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Mirdasids had established Hisn al-Akrad (Krak des Chevaliers), a fortress situated roughly forty kilometers west of Homs, and came to rely on Kurds from 1031 onward to protect the roads connecting Homs and Hama to the coastal ports of Tartus and Tripoli, after whom the fortress took its name, meaning “Fortress of the Kurds”.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ibn Shaddad |first=Izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali |title=Al-Alaq al-Khatira fi Dhikr Umara al-Sham wa al-Jazira |publisher=Institut Français de Damas |year=1962 |editor-last=al-Dahan |editor-first=Sami |volume=2 |location=Damascus |pages=115}}</ref>

Under the Burids in Damascus, Kurdish figures assumed more prominent roles in military and civic life. The Kurdish emir Buzan ibn Mamin led Kurdish troops and founded two mosques in Damascus, one near Bab al-Khawwassin and another outside Bab al-Faradis, along with the Mujahidiyah Madrasa.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ibn Shaddad |first=Izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali |title=Al-Alaq al-Khatira fi Dhikr Umara al-Sham wa al-Jazira |publisher=Institut Français de Damas |year=1956 |location=Damascus |pages=232 |trans-title=}}</ref> Hama was governed by a Kurdish figure known as Ali Kurd.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​<ref>{{cite book |last=Mouton |first=Jean-Michel |title=Damas et sa principauté sous les Seldjoukides et les Bourides, 468-549/1076-1154 |publisher=Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO) |year=1994 |location=Cairo |pages=10, 180–181, 238, 240 |language=fr}}</ref> Ibn al-Qalanisi records that in 1134, Emir Shams al-Muluk enlisted a Kurdish man from the Homs region named Badran al-Kafir to oversee the confiscation of funds from state officials.<ref>{{cite book |last=Le Tourneau |first=Roger |title=Traduction annotée d'un fragment de l'histoire de Damas d'Ibn al-Qalânisî |publisher=Institut Français d'Études Arabes de Damas (IFEAD) |year=1952 |location=Damascus |pages=217 |language=fr}}</ref>

==== Zengid and Ayyubid Periods ==== As early as 1127, when Imad al-Din Zengi became atabeg of Mosul, Kurdish tribes were drawn into a massive recruitment process as the Zengids consolidated control over the Kurdish-dominated mountains north of Mosul, with their fortresses seized and their warriors integrated into Zengid armies. This policy deepened under Nur al-Din, who systematically relied on Kurdish military expertise to confront the Crusaders, resulting in a steady flow of Kurdish fighters into the cities and garrisons of the Levant, including the Kurdish Ayyubid family, as Najm al-Din Ayyub served as governor of Baalbek and later Damascus, while his brother Shirkuh served as a military commander and led Zengid armies into Egypt in 1169.<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=Boris |title=Atlas des mondes musulmans médiévaux |publisher=CNRS Éditions |year=2022 |isbn=978-2-271-13949-8 |editor1-last=Denoix |editor1-first=Sylvie |location=Paris |pages=92–93 |language=fr |chapter=Les Kurdes, des contreforts du Zagros aux palais d'Égypte |editor2-last=Renel |editor2-first=Hélène |chapter-url=https://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/88133}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=AYYUBIDS |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ayyubids/ |access-date=2026-05-11 |website=Encyclopaedia Iranica |language=en-US}}</ref>

This presence deepened further under the Ayyubid dynasty (1171–1341), with Damascus serving as its Syrian administrative centre. The Kurdish tribes and regiments that accompanied Saladin, among them the Ḥumaydiyya, Mihrāniyya, Hakkāriyya, and Zarzāriyya, established distinct settlements in and around Damascus,<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Gorgas|first=Jordi Tejel|title=Le mouvement kurde de Turquie en exil: continuités et discontinuités du nationalisme kurde sous le mandat français en Syrie et au Liban (1925–1946)|date=2007|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-03911-209-8|page=41|language=fr}}</ref> which evolved into neighborhoods including Hayy al-Akrad (the Kurdish quarter) and al-Salihiyah on the northeastern slopes of Mount Qasioun.<ref name="Yildiz">{{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.]|isbn=0745324991|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kurdssyriaforgot00yild/page/n29 25]|edition=1st}}</ref> In Aleppo, Ibn Shaddad recorded in ''Al-a’laq al-khatira'' four Kurdish mosques clustered in a single district near al-Ḥāḍir al-Sulaymānī, among them the Mihrani mosque, the Zarzari mosque, the mosque of the Bashnawiyya, and a mosque in Harat al-Akrad.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ibn Shaddad |first=Muhammad ibn Ali |last2=Sourdel |first2=Dominique |title=Al-Alaq al-Khatira fi Dhikr Umara al-Sham wa al-Jazira |url=https://altair.imarabe.org//notice.php?q=id:11266&lang=fr |website=altair.imarabe.org |date=1953 |access-date=2026-04-19 |language=ar |pages=72}}</ref> Ibn Tulun listed the village of Tell Kurdi among the settlements of Ghuta.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kurd ʿAlī |first=Muḥammad |title=Ghūṭat Dimashq |publisher=Maṭbaʿat al-Taraqqī |year=1952 |location=Damascus |page=20}}</ref>

==== Emirate of Kilis ==== The ''Sharafnama'' describes the Kurdish Emirate of Kilis that encompassed Afrin, Harem, Azaz, Kilis, and the northern reaches of Kurd Mountain. Its founder Mand built his authority under Ayyubid patronage, receiving the fortress of al-Qusayr west of Aleppo as a fief, around which the local Kurds gradually coalesced under his rule. He went on to unite the dispersed Kurdish communities between Hama and Maraş, bringing even the Kurdish Yazidi sheikhs of the region to heel after initial resistance.<ref name=":5">{{cite book |last=Bidlisi |first=Sharaf Khan |title=Sharafnama: History of Kurdish Dynasties and Principalities |publisher=Dar al-Zaman |year=1958 |volume=1 |location=Damascus |pages=224–225 |language=ar |translator-last=Awni |translator-first=Muhammad Ali}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Zaki |first=Muhammad Amin |title=Tarikh al-Duwal wa al-Imarat al-Kurdiyya fi al-Ahd al-Islami |trans-title=History of Kurdish Dynasties and Principalities in the Islamic Era |pages=376–380 |url=http://archive.org/details/al.imarat.al.kordya |access-date=2018-06-03 |language=ar}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ali |first=Muhammad Abdo |title=Mintaqat Jabal al-Akrad (Afrin) |trans-title=The Region of Jabal al-Akrad (Afrin) |pages=18–20 |language=ar}}</ref> The mountainous district of Mount Simeon still retains Yazidi villages to this day.<ref>{{cite book |last=Guest |first=John |title=The Yezidis: A Study in Survival |publisher=KPI |location=London |year=1987 |pages=43}}</ref>

The Mamluks proved hostile after the fall of the Ayyubids, assassinating the ruling emir Habib Bek by luring him to Aleppo, and later engineering the downfall of Qasim Bek by delegating Kurdish authority to his rival Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Kurdi. When the Ottoman Sultan Selim I conquered the region, Qasim Bek declared his loyalty, but Izz al-Din accused him of treachery before the governor of Aleppo, leading to his execution and the transfer of the emirate to Izz al-Din.<ref name=":5" />

==== Mamluk period ==== Ottoman tax registers record a mosque known as the “Mosque of the Kurds” in Jableh, endowed with agricultural revenues, pointing to the existence of a Kurdish landowning class in the region since the Circassian Mamluk period.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Winter |first=Stefan |title=Les Kurdes de Syrie dans les archives ottomanes (XVIIIe siècle) |journal=Études kurdes |volume=10 |year=2009 |pages=133 |language=fr}}</ref> The plateau surrounding Jableh and Latakia continued to be known as Jabal al-Akrad, and several villages in the area still bear names that reflect this heritage, among them Duwayr al-Akrad, Mazraat al-Akrad, and Bayt al-Kurdi.

Under the Mamluks, the Qaymariyya Kurdish emirs, who had played a decisive role in delivering Damascus to An-Nasir Yusuf in 1250 by opening the city’s gates to his army, continued to wield military influence in Syria during the early Mamluk period, as documented by the historian al-Khazraji. Kurds also occupied prominent judicial positions across Syria and Egypt throughout this period.<ref name=":6" />

The Armenian historian Hayton of Corycus, dictating his ''Flos Historiarum Terre Orientis'' in 1307, recounts that following his defeat by the Mamluks in 1277, the Ilkhan Abaqa launched a retaliatory raid in which he seized two thousand Saracen cavalry along with five thousand Kurdish families who had been settled in northern Syria.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Houtsma |last2=Arnold |last3=Basset |last4=Hartmann |title=Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al-Islamiyya |trans-title=Encyclopaedia of Islam (Abridged Arabic Edition) |volume=27 |pages=8557 |publisher=Markaz al-Shariqah lil-Ibda al-Fikri |year=1998 |edition=1st |url=http://archive.org/details/89412_202012 |language=ar}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Shnorhokian |first=Roubina |title=Hayton of Korykos and La Flor des Estoires: Cilician Armenian Mediation in Crusader-Mongol Politics, c.1250–1350 |year=2015 |pages=263 |url=https://www.academia.edu/72311270 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260306000924/https://www.academia.edu/72311270/Hayton_of_Korykos_and_La_Flor_Des_Estoires_Cilician_Armenian_Mediation_in_Crusader_Mongol_Politics_C_1250_1350 |archive-date=2026-03-06}}</ref>

===Ottoman period=== The Kurdish community's role in the military continued under the Ottomans. Kurdish soldiers and policeman from the city were tasked with both maintaining order and protecting the pilgrims’ route toward Mecca.<ref name=":2" /> Many Kurds from Syria's rural hinterland joined the local Janissary corps in Damascus. Later, Kurdish migrants from diverse areas, such as Diyarbakir, Mosul and Kirkuk, also joined these military units which caused an expansion of the Kurdish community in the city.<ref name=Tejel3/> [[File:Islambooly Sabat.png|thumb|The first licensed female doctors in India, Syria and Japan. Anandibai Joshee (Indian), Kei Okami (Japanese), Sabat Islambooly (Kurdish Jew from Syria)<ref>{{cite news|title=Community Post: 5 Trailblazing Medical Students Of The 19th Century|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jaivirdidhesi/5-trailblazing-medical-students-of-the-19th-centur-nxdx|access-date=25 November 2016|work=BuzzFeed Community}}</ref> – 10 October 1885]] The Kurdish dynasty of Janbulads ruled the region of Aleppo as governors for the Ottomans from 1591 to 1607.<ref>{{cite book|title=A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered|last=Salibi|first=Kamal S.|publisher=University of California Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-520-07196-4|page=154}}</ref> At the beginning of the 17th century, Kurdish tribes were forcefully settled in the vicinity of Jarabulus and Seruj by the Ottoman sultans.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|isbn=978-1-134-09643-5|page=10}}</ref> In the mid-18th century, Ottomans recognized Milli tribal leaders as ''iskan başı'' 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 başı'' 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).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Winter|first=Stefan|title=The Other 'Nahḍah': The Bedirxans, the Millîs and the Tribal Roots of Kurdish Nationalism in Syria|date=2006|jstor=25818086|journal=Oriente Moderno|volume=25 (86)|issue=3|pages=461–474|doi=10.1163/22138617-08603003}}</ref><ref name=Tejel>{{cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|title=Syria's Kurds: history, politics and society|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-42440-0|page=9|edition=1st}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Stefan |last=Winter |title=Les Kurdes de Syrie dans les archives ottomanes (XVIIIe siècle) |journal=Études Kurdes |volume=10 |year=2009 |pages=125–156 }}</ref>

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).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yltUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA419|title=Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern. (Mit Kupferstichen u. Karten.) – Kopenhagen, Möller 1774–1837|author=Carsten Niebuhr|date=1778|page=419|language=de}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yltUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA389|title=Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern. (Mit Kupferstichen u. Karten.) – Kopenhagen, Möller 1774–1837|author=Carsten Niebuhr|date=1778|page=389|language=de}}</ref> These Kurdish tribes gradually settled in villages and cities and are still present in Jazira (modern Syria's Hasakah Governorate).<ref name=Sperl145>{{cite book|author1=Stefan Sperl|author2=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|title=The Kurds a Contemporary Overview.|url=https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=Routledge |location=London|isbn=0-203-99341-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/145 145–146]}}</ref>

In the mid-1800s, the Emirate of Bohtan of Bedir Khan Beg span over parts of present-day northeastern Syria.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Özoğlu|first=Hakan|date=2001|title="Nationalism" and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/259457|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=33|issue=3|page=389|doi=10.1017/S0020743801003038|jstor=259457|s2cid=154897102|issn=0020-7438|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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{{verify source|date=December 2019}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hovannisian |first1=Richard G. |title=The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies |date=2011 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=9781412835923 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3monyE4CVQC&q=Amuda&pg=PA271 |language=en}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2019}}<ref name="R. S. Stafford 2006 25">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSzuzsRh37gC&pg=PA25|title= The Tragedy of the Assyrians|author= R. S. Stafford|pages= 24–25|year= 2006|publisher= Gorgias Press, LLC|isbn= 9781593334130}}</ref> Kurds were responsible for most of the atrocities against Assyrians, and Kurdish expansion happened at the expense of Assyrians (due to factors like proximity).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UM3BMtn6TmcC&q=Kurds+were+granted+Assyrian+land&pg=PA199|title=On the Margins of Nations: Endangered Languages and Linguistic Rights|author= Joan A. Argenter, R. McKenna Brown|page= 199|year= 2004|publisher=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |isbn=9780953824861}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Travis2">Travis, Hannibal. ''Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan''. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010, 2007, pp. 237–77, 293–294. {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hovannisian |first=Richard G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3monyE4CVQC&q=Amuda&pg=PA271 |title=The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies |year=2011 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-3592-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="R. S. Stafford 2006 25"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tejel |first1=Jordi |title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134096435 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4f54qsU618C&pg=PA147 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|pages=25–29|url=http://www.kurdipedia.org/books/74488.PDF|access-date=3 May 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001038/http://www.kurdipedia.org/books/74488.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Stefan |last=Winter |chapter=Les Kurdes du Nord-Ouest syrien et l’État ottoman, 1690–1750 |editor-first=Mohammad |editor-last=Afifi |title=Sociétés rurales ottomanes |location=Cairo |publisher=IFAO |year=2005 |pages=243–258 |isbn=2724704118}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Stefan |last=Winter |title=The Other Nahdah: The Bedirxans, the Millîs, and the Tribal Roots of Kurdish Nationalism in Syria |journal=Oriente Moderno |volume=86 |year=2006 |issue=3 |pages=461–474 |doi=10.1163/22138617-08603003}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Janet |last=Klein |title=The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone |location=Stanford |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8047-7570-0 }}</ref>

When Maurice Abadie, a French general, was overseeing the French occupation of Syria, he made some observations on the settlements of Kurds in 1920:

{{blockquote|''Over the course of the past century the Kurds have migrated and spread throughout northern Syria.''}}

{{blockquote|''Those who have spread to the west of the Euphrates have come from the valleys of Kurdistan. They have gradually settled in and live alongside the Turks, Turkmen, Christians and Arabs, all of whose customs they have adopted to some degree.''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abadie |first1=Maurice |title=Türk Verdünü, Gaziantep: Antep'in dört muhasarası |date=1959 |publisher=Gaziantep Kültür Derneği |location=Aintab |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6w1AAAAIAAJ |access-date=12 June 2022}}</ref>}}

===Treaty of Sèvres and colonial borders===

Following World War I, the victorious Allied powers and the defeated Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sèvres of 10 August 1920. The treaty stipulated that Ottoman Kurdistan, which included Kurdish inhabited areas in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq to be given autonomy within the new Turkish Republic, with the choice for full independence within a year. The Kemalist victory in Turkey and subsequent territorial gains during the Turkish War of Independence led to the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923, which made no mention of a future Kurdish state. The majority of Ottoman Kurdish territory was given to Turkey and the rest in British Mandate of Iraq.<ref name=Yildiz1315>{{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.]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kurdssyriaforgot00yild/page/n17 13]–15|isbn=0745324991|edition=1. publ.}}</ref> Two small pockets with Kurdish majority at the border with Turkey (Afrin and Ayn al-Arab) were included in the State of Aleppo who, in contrast to the Druzes, the Alawites, and the Christians, did not receive their own state.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schmidinger|first=Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omsMMQAACAAJ|title=Krieg und Revolution in Syrisch-Kurdistan: Analysen und Stimmen aus Rojava|date= 2017|publisher=Mandelbaum Verlag|isbn=978-3-85476-665-0|page=160|language=de}}</ref>

thumb|right|Provisions of the Treaty of Sèvres for an independent Kurdistan (in 1920). thumb|300px|Provisions of the Treaty of Sèvres

===Immigration from Turkey=== Waves of Kurdish Tribes and their families arrived into Syria originally came from Turkey in the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qgKE_-HtfoAC&q=kurds+in+Syria&pg=PA475|title=A companion to the history of the Middle East|author=Youssef M. Choueiri|edition=Hardcover|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2005|isbn=1405106816|page=475}}</ref> Kurdish immigration waves to Syria's Jazira province started immediately after WWI. After the war, the construction of road networks and the railway extension to Nusaybin have intensified the Kurdish immigration from the Anatolian mountains to Syrian Jazirah.<ref name="fevret" /> After that, massive waves of Kurds fled their homes in the mountains of Turkey<ref name="fevret" /> after the failed Kurdish rebellions in Kemalist Turkey. It is estimated that 25,000 Kurds fled at this time to Syria, under French Mandate authorities, who encouraged their immigration,<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|page=469|edition=3rd}}</ref> 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. In 1927, Hadjo Agha, the chief of the powerful Kurdish tribe Havergan, arrived with more than 600 families in Qubour el-Bid (later renamed al-Qahtaniyah).<ref name="fevret" /> The mandatory authorities continued to encourage Kurdish immigration into Syria, and a new significant wave of refugees arrived in 1929.<ref name=Tejel3 /> The number of Kurds settled in the Jazira province during the 1920s was estimated between 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> and 25,000.<ref name=McDowell/> With the continuous intensive immigration the villages numbered between 700 and 800 in 1939.<ref name=Tejel3/> Consequently, Kurds became majority in the districts of Tigris (later renamed al-Malikiyah and Qamishli, while Arabs remained the majority in Hasakah district.<ref name="fevret" /> Immigration from Turkey was not limited to the Jazira area. In the 1930s, Kurdish Alevis who fled the persecution of the Turkish army during the Dersim massacre, settled in Mabeta.<ref name="derStandard">{{Cite web|title=derStandard.at|url=https://apps.derstandard.at/privacywall/2000076385176/Angriff-auf-Afrin-Vertreibung-vom-Berg-der-Kurden|website=Der Standard |access-date=14 December 2020|archive-date=6 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706064125/https://apps.derstandard.at/privacywall/2000076385176/Angriff-auf-Afrin-Vertreibung-vom-Berg-der-Kurden|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== French Mandate === Under the French Mandate of Syria, newly arriving Kurds were granted citizenship by French 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> In 1936, the French forces bombarded Amuda. On 13 August 1937, in a revenge attack, Kurdish tribes sided with Damascus and about 500 men from the Dakkuri, Milan, and Kiki tribes led by the Kurdish tribal leader Sa'ed Agha al-Dakkuri attacked the then predominantly Christian Amuda<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.kurdipedia.org/books/74488.PDF|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|pages=25–29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001038/http://www.kurdipedia.org/books/74488.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> and burned the town.<ref name="Princeton University Press">{{cite book|last1=Watenpaugh|first1=Keith David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Zw8BQAAQBAJ|title=Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Arab Middle Class|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-6666-3|page=270}}</ref> The town was destroyed and the Christian population, about 300 families, fled to the towns of Qamishli and Hasakah.<ref name="John Joseph p107">John Joseph, ''Muslim-Christian Relations and Inter-Christian Rivalries in the Middle East'', p. 107.</ref>

=== Kurdish demands for autonomy === Early demands for a Kurdish autonomy came from the Kurdish deputy Nuri Kandy of Kurd Dagh, who asked the authorities of the French mandate to grant an administrative autonomy to all the areas with a Kurdish majority in 1924. Also the Kurdish tribes of the Barazi Confederation demanded autonomy for the Kurdish regions within the French Mandate.<ref>Tejel, pp. 27–28</ref> But their requests were not fulfilled by the French at the time.<ref>Tejel, p. 28</ref> Between December 1931 and January 1932, the first elections under the new Syrian constitution were held.<ref name="giannini">The 1930 Constitution is integrally reproduced in: {{cite web|last=Giannini|first=A.|year=1931|title=Le costituzioni degli stati del vicino oriente|url=http://www.dircost.unito.it/cs/docs/Siria%20franc.htm|access-date=31 March 2012|publisher=Istituto per l’Oriente|language=fr}}</ref> Among the deputies there were three members of the Syrian Kurdish nationalist Xoybûn (Khoyboun) party from the three different Kurdish enclaves in Syria: Khalil bey Ibn Ibrahim Pacha (Jazira province), Mustafa bey Ibn Shahin (Jarabulus) and Hassan Aouni (Kurd Dagh).<ref name="tachjian">{{cite book|last=Tachjian|first=Vahé|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HskA1EvlOd8C&pg=354|title=La France en Cilicie et en Haute-Mésopotamie: aux confins de la Turquie, de la Syrie et de l'Irak, 1919–1933|publisher=Editions Karthala|year=2004|isbn=978-2-84586-441-2|location=Paris|page=354|language=fr|access-date=1 April 2012}}</ref>

In the mid-1930s, there arose a new autonomist movement in the Jazira province among Kurds and Christians. The Kurdish leaders Hajo Agha, Kaddur Bey, and Khalil Bey Ibrahim Pasha. Hajo Agha was the Kurdish chief of the Heverkan<ref name="fevret" /> tribal confederation and one of the leaders of the Kurdish nationalist party Xoybûn (Khoyboun). He established himself as the representative of the Kurds in Jazira<ref name="fevret" /> maintaining the coalition with the Christian notables, who were represented by the Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni and Michel Dôme the Armenian Catholic president of the Qamishli municipality. The Kurdish-Christian Coalition wanted French troops to stay in the province in case of Syrian independence, as they feared the nationalist Damascus government would replace minority officials by Muslim Arabs from the capital. The French authorities, although some in their ranks had earlier encouraged this anti-Damascus movement, refused to consider any new status of autonomy inside Syria and even annexed the Alawite State and the Jabal Druze State to the Syrian Republic.<ref>Jordi Tejel Gorgas, "[http://remmm.revues.org/6481 Les territoires de marge de la Syrie mandataire : le mouvement autonomiste de la Haute Jazîra, paradoxes et ambiguïtés d’une intégration" nationale" inachevée (1936–1939)]" (The territory margins of the Mandatory Syria : the autonomist movement in Upper Jazîra, paradoxs and ambiguities of an uncompleted "national" integration, 1936–39), ''Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée'', 126, November 2009, pp. 205–222</ref>

=== Post-independence === Two early presidents, Husni al-Za'im and also Adib Shishakli, were of Kurdish origin, but they didn't identify as Kurds nor did they speak Kurdish.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Gunter|first=Michael M.|title=The Kurds: A Modern History|publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers|year=2016|isbn=978-1-558766150|location=Princeton|pages=95|language=en}}</ref> Shishakli even initiated the policy of prohibiting the Kurdish culture.<ref name=":3" /> Osman Sabri and Hamza Diweran along with some Kurdish politicians, founded the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=48360|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203155211/http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=48360|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 February 2014|title=The Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria (al-Parti)|website=Carnegie Middle East Center|language=en|access-date=17 March 2019}}</ref> The objectives of KDPS were promotion of Kurdish cultural rights, economic progress and democratic change. Following their demands for the recognition of the Kurdish cultural rights, the Party got suppressed by the United Arab Republic and the possession of Kurdish publications or music was enough to be sent to be detained.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan|last=Hassanpour|first=Amir|publisher=Mellen Research University Press|year=1992|isbn=0773498168|location=San Francisco|page=137}}</ref> KDPS was never legally recognized by the Syrian state and remains an underground organization, especially after a crackdown in 1960 during which several of its leaders were arrested, charged with separatism and imprisoned. After the failure of Syrian political union with Egypt in 1961,<ref name=":0" /> Syria was declared an ''Arab Republic'' in the interim constitution.

==== Jazira census ==== On 23 August 1962, the government conducted a special population census only for the province of ''Jazira'' based on reports of illegal infiltration of tens of thousands of Turkish Kurds into Syria.<ref>McDowall, David. ''Modern History of the Kurds'', I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, 2004. pp. 473–474. {{ISBN?}}</ref> As a result, around 120,000 Kurds in Jazira (20% of Syrian Kurds) were stripped of their Syrian citizenship even though they were in possession of Syrian identity cards.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan|last=Hassanpour|first=Amir|publisher=Mellen Research University Press|year=1992|isbn=0773498168|location=San Francisco|pages=137–138}}</ref><ref name=":4">Gunter, Michael M. (2016), p.97</ref> The inhabitants who had Syrian identity cards were told to hand them over to the administration for renewal. However, many of those Kurds who submitted their cards received nothing in return. Many were arbitrarily categorized as ''ajanib'' ('foreigners'), while others who did not participate in the census were categorized as ''maktumin'' ('unregistered'), an even lower status than the ''ajanib''; for all intents and purposes,<ref name=":4" /> these unregistered Kurds did not exist in the eyes of the state. They could not get jobs, become educated, own property or participate in politics.<ref name=":4" /> In some cases, classifications varied even within Kurdish families: parents had citizenship but not their children, a child could be a citizen but not his or her brothers and sisters. Those Kurds who lost their citizenship were often dispossessed of their lands, which were given by the state to Arab and Assyrian settlers.<ref>Tejel, p. 51</ref> A media campaign was launched against the Kurds with slogans such as ''Save Arabism in Jazira!'' and ''Fight the Kurdish Menace!''.<ref>Tejel, p. 52</ref>

These policies in the Jazira region coincided with the beginning of Barzani's uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan and discovery of oilfields in the Kurdish inhabited areas of Syria. In June 1963, Syria took part in the Iraqi military campaign against the Kurds by providing aircraft, armoured vehicles and a force of 6,000 soldiers. Syrian troops crossed the Iraqi border and moved into the Kurdish town of Zakho in pursuit of Barzani's fighters<ref>I. C. Vanly, ''The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon'', In ''The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview'', Edited by P.G. Kreyenbroek, S. Sperl, Ch. 8, Routledge, 1992, {{ISBN|0-415-07265-4}}, pp. 151–52</ref>

==== Arab cordon ==== {{Main|Arabic Belt}} The Ba'athist government's policies in the 1970s led to Arabs resettling in majority Kurdish areas.<ref name="KreyenbroekSperl1992">{{cite book|author1=Philip G. Kreyenbroek|author2=Stefan Sperl|title=The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview|url=https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-07265-6|chapter=Chapter 8: The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon |pages=[https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/157 157], 158, 161}}</ref> In 1965, the Syrian government decided to create an Arab cordon (''Hizam Arabi'') in the Jazira region along the Turkish border. The cordon was along the Turkish-Syrian border and 10–15 kilometers wide,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan|last=Hassanpour|first=Amir|publisher=Mellen Research University Press|year=1992|isbn=0773498168|location=San Francisco|pages=139}}</ref> stretched from the Iraqi border in the east to ''Ras Al-Ain'' in the west. The implementation of the ''Arab cordon'' plan began in 1973 and Bedouin Arabs were brought in and resettled in Kurdish areas. The toponymy of the area such as village names were Arabized. According to the original plan, some 140,000 Kurds had to be deported to the southern desert near ''Al-Raad''. Although Kurdish farmers were dispossessed of their lands, they refused to move and give up their houses. Among these Kurdish villagers, those who were designated as alien were not allowed to own property, to repair a crumbling house or to build a new one.<ref>I. C. Vanly, ''The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon'', In ''The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview'', Edited by P.G. Kreyenbroek, S. Sperl, Ch. 8, Routledge, 1992, {{ISBN|0-415-07265-4}}, pp. 157, 158, 161</ref> In 1976 the further implementation of the arabization policy along the Turkish border was officially dropped by Hafez al Assad. The achieved demographic changes were not reverted,<ref name=":1" /> and in 1977 a ban on non-Arabic place names was issued.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-09643-5|page=65|language=en}}</ref>

==== Newroz protests ==== In March 1986, a few thousand Kurds wearing Kurdish costume gathered in the Kurdish part of Damascus to celebrate the spring festival of Newroz. Police warned them that Kurdish dress was prohibited and they fired on the crowd leaving one person dead. Around 40,000 Kurds took part in his funeral in Qamishli. Also in Afrin, three Kurds were killed during the Newroz demonstrations.<ref>I. C. Vanly, ''The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon'', In ''The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview'', Edited by P.G. Kreyenbroek, S. Sperl, Ch. 8, Routledge, 1992, {{ISBN|0-415-07265-4}}, pp. 163–164</ref> After the protests, the Syrian government prohibited the Newroz festivities and established a new holiday on the same day, honoring the mothers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4f54qsU618C&q=arab+place+names+in+syria+banned+in+1977&pg=PA65|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|date= 2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-09643-5|language=en}}</ref>

==== Qamishli riots ==== [[File:Flag of Kurdistan.svg|thumb|The flag of Kurdistan is banned in Syria, but it has begun to be flown during the Syrian uprising and civil war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amude.net/Nuce_Kurdi_deep.php?newsId=5069|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714040018/http://www.amude.net/Nuce_Kurdi_deep.php?newsId=5069|url-status=usurped|archive-date=14 July 2006|title=www.amude.com|access-date=24 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/04/05/150064912/with-a-dose-of-caution-kurds-oppose-syrian-regime|title=With A Dose Of Caution, Kurds Oppose Syrian Regime|date=5 April 2012|work=NPR.org|access-date=24 April 2016}}</ref>]] {{main|2004 Qamishli riots}} After an incident in a football stadium in Qamishli, 65 people were killed and more than 160 were injured in days of clashes starting from 12 March. Kurdish sources indicated that Syrian security forces used live ammunition against civilians after clashes broke out at a football match between Kurdish fans of the local team and Arab supporters of a visiting team from the city of Deir al-Zor. The international press reported that nine people were killed on 12 March. According to Amnesty International hundreds of people, mostly Kurds, were arrested after the riots. Kurdish detainees were reportedly tortured and ill-treated. Some Kurdish students were expelled from their universities, reportedly for participating in peaceful protests.<ref>[http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/03/19/syria8132.htm Syria: Address Grievances Underlying Kurdish Unrest], HRW, 19 March 2004.</ref>

==== KNAS (Kurdnas) formation ==== The Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria was formed to represent Syrian Kurds based on two major conferences, one at the US Senate in March 2006 and the other at the EU parliament in Brussels in 2006. The Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KNAS) seeks democracy for Syria and supports granting equal rights to Kurds and other Syrian minorities. They seek to transform Syria into a federal state, with a democratic system and structure for the federal government and provincial governments.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

=== Syrian Civil War === {{Main|Syrian Civil War}} [[File:Serekani (Ra's al-'Ayn) Kurdish Syria.jpg|thumb|On 22 July 2012, the Arab town of Ras al-Ayn (pictured above) and a series of other towns in the northeastern Syria were captured by the People's Protection Units (YPG).]] Following the Tunisian Revolution and the Egyptian Revolution, 4 February 2011 was declared a ''Day of Rage'' in Syria by activists through Facebook. Few turned out to protest, but among the few were Kurdish demonstrators in the northeast of the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/02/201129103121562395.html|title=Syria: 'A kingdom of silence'|author=Cajsa Wikstrom|access-date=24 April 2016}}</ref> On 7 October 2011, Kurdish leader Mashaal Tammo was gunned down in his apartment by masked men widely believed to be government agents. During Tammo's funeral procession the next day in the town of Qamishli, Syrian security forces fired into a crowd of more than 50,000 mourners, killing five people.<ref name=Huff>[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/08/syria-funeral-shooting_n_1001354.html ''Syria Funeral Shooting: Forces Open Fire On Mashaal Tammo Mourners''], Huffington Post, 10/8/11</ref> According to Tammo's son, Fares Tammo, "My father's assassination is the screw in the regime's coffin. They made a big mistake by killing my father."<ref name=awaken>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8816825/Thousands-of-Kurds-could-awaken-against-Syrian-regime.html Thousands of Kurds could awaken against Syrian regime], By Adrian Blomfield, 9 October 2011</ref> Since then, Kurdish demonstrations became a routine part of the Syrian uprising.<ref> [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/26/syrias-kurds-part-of-revolution "Syria's Kurds: part of the revolution?"], ''Guardian'', by Thomas McGee, 26 April 2012</ref> In June 2012, the Syrian National Council (SNC), the main opposition group, announced Abdulbaset Sieda, an ethnic Kurd, as their new leader.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/world/middleeast/syrian-forces-shell-cities-as-opposition-picks-leader.html | work=The New York Times | first=Neil | last=MacFarquhar | title=Syrian Forces Shell Cities as Opposition Picks Leader | date=10 June 2012}}</ref>

==== Kurdish rebellion ==== {{Main|Rojava Revolution|Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria}} [[File:Fighters with the YPJ.jpg|thumb|YPG's female units were fighting against ISIS in Syria]] Protests in the Kurdish inhabited areas of Syria evolved into armed clashes after the opposition Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Kurdish National Council (KNC) signed a cooperation agreement on 12 July 2012 that created the Kurdish Supreme Committee as the governing body of all Kurdish controlled areas.<ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian Kurds Try to Maintain Unity |url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4964.html |access-date=27 July 2012 |newspaper=Rudaw |date=17 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723012730/http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4964.html |archive-date=23 July 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syria: Massive protests in Qamishli, Homs|url=http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20110519/103075.shtml|access-date=27 July 2012|newspaper=CNTV|date=19 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513192725/http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20110519/103075.shtml|archive-date=13 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Syrian Kurdish Official: Now Kurds are in Charge of their Fate |url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/5010.html |access-date=30 July 2012 |newspaper=Rudaw |date=27 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801020239/http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/5010.html |archive-date= 1 August 2012 }}</ref>

Under the administration of the Kurdish Supreme Committee, the People's Protection Units (YPG) were created to control the Kurdish inhabited areas in Syria. On 19 July, the YPG captured the city of Kobanê, and the next day captured Amuda and Afrin.<ref name=liberated>{{cite news|title=More Kurdish Cities Liberated As Syrian Army Withdraws from Area|url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/4978.html|access-date=27 July 2012|newspaper=Rudaw|date=20 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721142617/http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/4978.html |archive-date=21 July 2012}}</ref> The KNC and PYD afterwards formed a joint leadership council to run the captured cities.<ref name=liberated/> By 24 July, the Syrian towns of Al-Malikiyah, Ras al-Ayn, Al-Darbasiyah and Al-Muabbada had also come under the control of the People's Protection Units. The only major cities with significant Kurdish populations that remained under government control were Hasaka and Qamishli.<ref name=casualties>{{cite news|title=Armed Kurds Surround Syrian Security Forces in Qamishli|url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4984.html|access-date=27 July 2012|newspaper=Rudaw|date=22 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724224808/http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4984.html |archive-date=24 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="girkelege">{{cite news|title=Girke Lege Becomes Sixth Kurdish City Liberated in Syria|url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4992.html|access-date=27 July 2012|newspaper=Rudaw|date=24 July 2012|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121129100410/http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4992.html |archive-date=29 November 2012 }}</ref>

==== Turkish occupation and displacement ==== Kurdish-inhabited Afrin Canton has been occupied by the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army since the Turkish military operation in Afrin in early 2018.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-assad-regime-turkey-afrin-kurds-eastern-ghouta-us-allies-militia-a8252456.html |title=Syria's war of ethnic cleansing: Kurds threatened with beheading by Turkey's allies if they don't convert to extremism |publisher=The Independent |date=12 March 2018 }}</ref> Between 150,000 and 200,000 people were displaced due to the Turkish intervention.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Displaced-Kurds-from-Afrin-need-help-activist-says-547096 |title=Displaced Kurds from Afrin need help, activist says |publisher=The Jerusalem Post |date=26 March 2018 }}</ref>

On 9 October 2019, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, a cross‑border offensive with Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish‑backed Free Syrian Army factions targeting Kurdish‑led forces in northern Syria, particularly around Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad.<ref>{{cite news |title=Tens of thousands flee as Turkey presses Syria offensive |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/tens-of-thousands-flee-as-turkey-presses-syria-offensive-1.4046183 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=10 October 2019}}</ref> Turkish forces quickly seized control of Ras al‑Ayn and surrounding villages and established a security zone east of the Euphrates, prompting mass displacement of civilians and allegations of human rights abuses.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2019/10/operation-peace-spring-how-far-did-turkish-forces-progress-in-east-of-euphrates/ |title=Operation 'Peace Spring': How Far Did Turkish Forces Progress In East Of Euphrates? |publisher=enabbaladi.net |date=10 October 2019 }}</ref>

During the Operation Dawn of Freedom, SDF forces withdrew from Manbij and the surrounding Tell Rifaat region, evacuating their positions in the face of advancing opposition and Turkish-aligned forces.<ref>{{cite news |title="Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham" and "National Army" control the towns of Khanaser and Al-Safira, Kuweires Airport in the Aleppo countryside, and military sites on the outskirts of Aleppo |url=https://www.syriahr.com/الهيئة-والجيش-الوطني-يسيطران-على-بلد/738575/ |access-date=1 December 2024 |website=SOHR |date=1 December 2024 |language=Arabic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.syriahr.com/en/350959/|title=Following fierce clashes {{!}} Turkish-backed factions take control of Manbij and 50 militiamen and members of "Manbij Military Council Forces" ki*lled|work=SOHR|date=9 December 2024|access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref>

==== Conflict with the Syrian transitional government ==== In early January 2026, clashes between the Syrian transitional government forces and Kurdish‑led forces in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighbourhoods resulted in government control of those districts and the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and civilians under a ceasefire agreement brokered by international mediators.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/aleppo-syria-kurds-sdf-fighting-4cb2f16a58436205aea2cd8503a85296 |title=Kurdish fighters evacuated from Aleppo after days of violent clashes |publisher=AP News |date=11 January 2026 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2p84xleg2o |title=Last Kurdish forces leave Aleppo after ceasefire deal reached |publisher=BBC News |date=11 January 2026 }}</ref> That further offensive in northeastern Syria caused additional mass displacement among Kurdish civilians, with renewed fighting in parts of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Al-Hasakah provinces forcing thousands of families to flee toward Qamishli and other urban centers. Overcrowding in shelters, winter conditions, and limited humanitarian capacity intensified living conditions for displaced populations, while repeated ceasefire violations sustained insecurity and hindered stabilization efforts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/220120263 |title=Kurds in agony as Damascus offensive on Rojava triggers mass winter displacement |publisher=Rudaw |date=22 January 2026 }}</ref> These developments led to intensified negotiations, culminating in the announcement of a 14-point ceasefire and integration agreement with the SDF on 18 January 2026,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dw.com/en/syria-announces-new-ceasefire-deal-with-kurdish-led-sdf/live-75553804 |title=Syria announces new ceasefire deal with Kurdish-led SDF |publisher=DW |date=18 January 2026 }}</ref> which was finalized by 30 January and formally ended the fighting.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dw.com/en/sdf-ypg-syria-ceasefire-integration-al-sharaa/a-75724282 |title=Syria: Kurdish-led SDF and government agree integration deal |publisher=DW |date=30 January 2026 }}</ref>

== Ba'athist-era oppression and subsequent recognition == {{See also|Human rights in Syria}} International and Kurdish human rights organizations have accused the Syrian government of discriminating against the Kurdish minority.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://supportkurds.org/news/the-suppression-of-the-kurdish-people-in-syria-list-of-names-the-kurdish-soldiers/|title=Support Kurds|date=14 May 2010 |access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref><ref>"Kurdish Organization for Human Rights in Austria," 14 December 2010 ''Memorandum of Kurds in syria'' {{cite web |url=http://www.mesop.de/2010/12/14/memorandum-of-kurds-in-syria/ |title=Mesopotamische Gesellschaft « Memorandum of Kurds in Syria |access-date=26 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321195743/http://www.mesop.de/2010/12/14/memorandum-of-kurds-in-syria/ |archive-date=21 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>''For Zion's sake'' Yehuda Zvi Blum, Associated University Presse, {{ISBN|0-8453-4809-4}} (1987) p. 220</ref> Amnesty International also reported that Kurdish human rights activists are mistreated and persecuted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/regions/middleeast/document.do?id=80256DD400782B8480256F63006435DB|title=amnestyusa.org|access-date=13 November 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310231931/http://www.amnestyusa.org/regions/middleeast/document.do?id=80256DD400782B8480256F63006435DB|archive-date=10 March 2007}}</ref>

=== Language === thumb|Geographic distribution of the Kurdish languages spoken by Kurds {{col-begin}} {{col-break}} {{legend|#ef6662|Northern Kurdish}} {{legend|#c63143|Central Kurdish}} {{legend|#c8a65d|Southern Kurdish (Gorani is included)}} {{col-break}} {{legend|#a56c24|Zazaki}} {{legend|#b3d423|mixed dialect areas}} {{col-end}} The Kurdish language is the second most spoken language in Syria, after Arabic.<ref name=Behnstedt>{{citation |last=Behnstedt|first=Peter|year=2008|chapter=Syria|title=Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics|volume=4|page=402|publisher=Brill Publishers|isbn=978-90-04-14476-7}}</ref>

The Kurds often speak the Kurdish language in public, unless all those present do not. According to the Human Rights Watch, Kurds in Syria are not allowed to officially use the Kurdish language, are not allowed to register children with Kurdish names, are prohibited to start businesses that do not have Arabic names, are not permitted to build Kurdish private schools and are prohibited from publishing books and other materials written in Kurdish.<ref name="hrw.org">{{cite web|url=http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Syria.htm|title=hrw.org|access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref> In 1988 it was prohibited also to sing in non-Arabic language at weddings or festivities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Syria.htm|title=Syria, The silenced Kurds|website=Human Rights Watch|access-date=20 April 2020}}</ref>

There are also some "nawar people" (gypsies) who speak Kurdish and call themselves Kurds in some regions.<ref name=Vuraletal>{{citation|year=2017|title=The Dom, The 'Other' Asylum Seekers From Syria: Discrimination, Isolation and Social Exclusion: Syrian Dom Asylum Seekers in the Crossfire|editor-last=Tarlan|editor-first=Kemal Vural|url=http://panel.stgm.org.tr/vera/app/var/files/t/h/the-dom-the-other-asylum-seekers-from-syria-report.pdf|page=21|publisher=Kırkayak Kültür Sanat ve Doğa Derneği|access-date=17 June 2018|archive-date=18 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618052434/http://panel.stgm.org.tr/vera/app/var/files/t/h/the-dom-the-other-asylum-seekers-from-syria-report.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Decree 768 ==== The decree 768 of the year 2000, prohibited shops to sell cassettes or videos in Kurdish language. The decree also encouraged to implement older restrictions of the Kurdish language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tejel|first=Jordi|title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society|date= 2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-09643-5|pages=63–64|language=en}}</ref>

=== Citizenship === In 1962, 20 percent of Syria's Kurdish population were stripped of their Syrian citizenship following a very highly controversial census raising concerns among human rights groups. According to the Syrian government, the reason for this enactment was due to groups of Kurds infiltrating the Al-Hasakah Governorate in 1945. The Syrian government claims that the Kurds came from neighboring countries, especially Turkey, and crossed the Syrian border illegally. The government claims that these Kurds settled down, gradually, in the region in cities like Amuda and Qamishli until they accounted for the majority in some of these cities. The government also claims that many Kurds were capable of registering themselves illegally in the Syrian civil registers. The government further speculated that Kurds intended to settle down and acquire property, especially after the issue of the agricultural reform law, to benefit from land redistribution.<ref name="hrw.org"/> However, according to Human Rights Watch, the Syrian government falsely claimed that many of the Kurds who were the original inhabitants of the land were foreigners, and in turn, violated their human rights by stripping them of their Syrian citizenship.<ref name="silenced1996">{{cite web|url=http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Syria.htm|title=Syria Silenced Kurds, Human Rights Watch|access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref> thumb|215px|The flag of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria As a result of government claims of an increase in illegal immigration, the Syrian government decided to conduct a general census on 5 October 1962 in the governorate with claims that its sole purpose was to purify registers and eliminate the alien infiltrators. As a result, the verified registrations of the citizens of Syria were included in the new civil registers. The remaining, which included 100,000 Kurds, were registered as foreigners (or "ajanib") in special registers.<ref name="hrw.org"/><ref name=rudaw>{{cite news |url=http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4003.html |url-status=dead |title=Documentary On The non-citizens Kurds of Syria |newspaper=Rudaw |date=26 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511094112/http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/4003.html |archive-date=11 May 2012 }} </ref> Many others did not participate in the census through choice or other circumstances; they are known as "maktoumeen", meaning "unrecorded".<ref name=rudaw /> Since then, the number of stateless Kurds has grown to more than 200,000.<ref>[http://voanews.com/english/archive/2005-09/2005-09-02-voa15.cfm?CFID=46444555&CFTOKEN=26238763 voanews.com] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080914200349/http://voanews.com/english/archive/2005-09/2005-09-02-voa15.cfm?CFID=46444555&CFTOKEN=26238763 |date=14 September 2008 }}</ref> According to Refugees International, there are about 300,000 Kurdish non-citizens in Syria; however, Kurds dispute this number and estimate about 500,000. An independent report has confirmed that there are at least 300,000 non-citizen Kurds living in Syria.<ref name=rudaw />

According to the Human Rights Watch, by many accounts, the special census was carried out in an arbitrary manner separating members of the same families and classifying them differently. HRW claims that some Kurds in the same family became citizens while others became foreigners suggesting an inaccuracy in the Syrian government's process; HRW also alleges that some of the Kurds who had served in the Syrian army lost citizenship while those who bribed officials kept theirs.<ref name="silenced1996"/> Stateless Kurds also do not have the option of legally relocating to another country because they lack passports or other internationally recognized travel documents. In Syria, other than in the governorate of Al-Hasakah, foreigners cannot be employed at government agencies and state-owned enterprises; they may not legally marry Syrian citizens. Kurds with foreigner status do not have the right to vote in elections or run for public office, and when they attend universities they are often persecuted and cannot be awarded with university degrees.<ref name=rudaw /> non-citizens Kurds living in Syria are not awarded school certificates and are often unable to travel outside of their provinces.<ref name=rudaw />

In April 2011, the President signed Decree 49 which provides citizenship for Kurds who were registered as foreigners in Hasaka.<ref>[http://sana.sy/eng/21/2011/04/08/pr-340560.htm Legislative Decree on Granting Syrian Nationality to People Registered in Registers of Hasaka Foreigners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005094231/http://sana.sy/eng/21/2011/04/08/pr-340560.htm |date=5 October 2011 }}, ''SANA'', 8 April 2011</ref> However, a recent independent report has suggested that the actual number of non-citizens Kurds who obtained their national ID cards following the decree does not exceed 6,000, leaving the remainder of 300,000 non-citizens Kurds living in Syria in a state of uncertainty.<ref name=rudaw /> One newly nationalized Kurd has been reported as saying: ‘I’m pleased to have my ID card .... But not until the process is completed will I truly trust the intentions of this action. Before my card is activated, I must have an interview, no doubt full of interrogation and intimidation, with State Security. Citizenship should not be a privilege. It is my right.’<ref name=rudaw /> According to one researcher, the Kurdish street perceived the measure of providing citizenship as 'not well-intentioned, but simply an attempt to distance Kurds from the developing protest movement of the Syrian Revolution.'<ref>[http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/docserver/journals/22112596/19/1-2/22112596_019_01-02_S019_text.pdf?expires=1478913973&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=30821BEA6013853425608F39303C2E0C The Stateless Kurds of Syria: Ethnic Identity and National I.D., Thomas McGee, 2014]</ref>

=== Post-Assad regime === On 16 January 2026, interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a presidential decree recognising Kurdish Syrians as an integral part of the nation, granting citizenship to stateless Kurds, officially recognising the Kurdish language as a national language that can be taught in schools, and declaring Newroz a national holiday.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sana.sy/en/politics/2290787/ |title=President al-Sharaa issues decree that confirms Kurds as basic part of Syrian people |publisher=SANA |date=16 January 2026 }}</ref>

==Influential Syrian Kurds== ===Politicians=== * Ibrahim Hananu (1869–1935), Ottoman municipal official and later a leader of a revolt against the French presence in northern Syria. * Adib Shishakli (1909–1964), Syrian military leader and President of Syria (1953–1954). * Ata Bey al-Ayyubi (1877–1951), Prime Minister of Syria (1936) and President of Syria (1943). * Husni al-Za'im (1897–1949), Prime Minister and President of Syria (1949). * Husni al-Barazi (1895–1975), Prime Minister of Syria (1942–1943) * Muhsin al-Barazi (1904–1949), Prime Minister of Syria (1949). * Khalid Bakdash (1912–1995), leader (1936–1995) of the Syrian Communist Party. * Qadri Jamil (born 1952), Kurdish politician and one of the leaders of the People's Will Party and the Popular Front for Change and Liberation. * Mahmoud al-Ayyubi (born 1932), Prime Minister of Syria (1972–1976) * Muhammad Mustafa Mero (born 1941), Prime Minister of Syria (2000–2003). * Daham Miro (1921–2010), Kurdish political leader and former chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria. * Mashaal Tammo (1958–2011), Kurdish Political leader and founder of the Kurdish Future Movement.

===Singers=== * Ciwan Haco (born 1957), Kurdish singer.

===Authors=== * Cigerxwîn (1903–1984), influential Kurdish writer and poet. * Osman Sabri (1905–1993), Kurdish poet, writer and journalist. * Haitham Hussein (born 1978), novelist and journalist. * Helîm Yûsiv (born 1967), novelist and lawyer. * Salim Barakat (born 1951), novelist and poet.

===Scholars=== * Ahmed Kuftaro (1915–2004), Grand Mufti (1964–2004), the highest Sunni authority in the country. * Mohamed Said Ramadan Al-Bouti (1929–2013), influential Islamic scholar. * Muhammad Kurd Ali (1876–1953), historian and literary critic.

===Actors=== * Muna Wassef (born 1942), actress. * Khaled Taja (1939–2012), actor. * Karess Bashar (born 1976), actress of Kurdish origin.

===Sports=== * Jwan Hesso (born 1982), Syrian footballer. * Kawa Hesso (born 1984), Syrian footballer. * Haytham Kajjo (1976–2002), Syrian footballer. * Muhammad Albicho (born 1985), Syrian footballer. * Ahmad Al Salih (born 1989), Syrian footballer.

== See also == * Al-Jazira province * History of the Kurdish people * Arabic Belt * National Organization of Kurdish Youth * A Modern History of the Kurds by David McDowall

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading == *Holmes, Amy Austin (2024). ''Statelet of Survivors: The Making of a Semi-Autonomous Region in Northeast Syria''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN?}} *{{Cite book |first=Jordi |last=Tejel |year=2009 |title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415424400 }}

==External links== *[http://supportkurds.org/ Support Kurds in Syria] *[http://kurdishrights.org/ The Alliance for Kurdish Rights] *[http://www.kurdnetwork.com The Kurdish Social Network]

{{Syrian Kurdistan topics}} {{Demographics of Syria}} {{Kurdish diaspora}} {{Asia topic |Kurds in}}

Category:Kurds in Syria Syria Category:Ethnic groups in Syria