Kurds in Syria

Kurds in Syria
Total population
Estimates from 1.6 million to 2.5 million[1][2] Kurds make up between 5% and 10% of Syria's population.[3][4]
Regions with significant populations
Northeastern Syria, Afrin, Kobani[5]
Languages
Mainly Kurdish (Kurmanji);[6] also Arabic (North Levantine Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic)
Religion
Majority Sunni Islam and Yazidism, also Shia Islam, Christianity[7]
A map of religious and ethnic communities of Syria and Lebanon (1935).

The Kurdish population of Syria is the country's largest ethnic minority,[8] usually estimated at around 10% of the Syrian population[9][10][8][11][12][13] and 5% of the Kurdish population. [citation needed]

The majority of Syrian Kurds are originally Turkish Kurds who have crossed the border during different events in the 20th century.[14] 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.[15] All of these are on the Syria-Turkey border, and there are also substantial Kurdish communities in Aleppo and Damascus further south.

Human rights organizations have accused the Syrian government of routinely discriminating and harassing Syrian Kurds.[16][17] 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[18][19][20] the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.[21]

  1. ^ World Factbook (Online ed.). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2019. ISSN 1553-8133. Archived from the original on 1 June 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2019. CIA estimates are as of June 2019 "Ethnic groups: Sunni Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)"
  2. ^ "Who are the Kurds?". BBC News (Online ed.). 31 October 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  3. ^ Darke, Diana (1 January 2010). Syria. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 9781841623146.
  4. ^ "Syria rejects Russian proposal for Kurdish federation". Al-Monitor. 24 October 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  5. ^ Vanly, Ismet Chérif; Vanly, Ismet Cheriff (1977). "Coup d'oeil sur la culture nationale Kurde". Oriente Moderno. 57 (9/10): 445. doi:10.1163/22138617-0570910007. ISSN 0030-5472. JSTOR 25816505.
  6. ^ "Syrian Kurds celebrate Kurdish Language Day". Kurdistan24. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  7. ^ "Alawite Kurds in Syria: Ethnic discrimination and dectarian privileges. By Maya Ehmed". Ekurd.net. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  8. ^ a b Shoup, John A. (2018), "Syria", The History of Syria, ABC-CLIO, p. 6, ISBN 978-1440858352, 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).
  9. ^ "Turkey's Syria offensive explained in four maps". BBC.com. Retrieved 14 October 2019. Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population.
  10. ^ "Who are Syria's minority groups?". SBS News (Online ed.). Special Broadcasting Service. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2017. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, constituting around 10 per cent of the population – around 2 million of the pre-conflict population of around 22 million.
  11. ^ Kingsley, Patrick (14 October 2019). "Who Are the Kurds, and Why Is Turkey Attacking Them in Syria?". New York Times (Online ed.). Retrieved 5 August 2020. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up between 5 and 10 percent of the Syrian population of 21 million in 2011
  12. ^ Fabrice Balanche (2018). Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War (PDF) (Online ed.). Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019. In this atlas, French geographer Balanche suggests that "As of 2010, Syria’s population was roughly 65% Sunni Arab, 15% Kurdish, 10% Alawite, 5% Christian, 3% Druze, 1% Ismaili, and 1% Twelver Shia." (page 13) "The number of Kurds in Syria is often underestimated by analysts, who tend to cap them at 10% of the population. In fact, they are closer to 15%."(page 16) The 2018 breakdown is 1% Sunni Arab, 16% Kurdish, 13% Alawite, 3% Christian, 4% Druze, 1% Ismaili, 1% Twelver Shia, 1% Turkmen (page 22) Balanche also refers to his Atlas du ProcheOrient Arabe (Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011), p. 36."
  13. ^ Radpey, Loqman (September 2016). "Kurdish Regional Self-rule Administration in Syria: A new Model of Statehood and its Status in International Law Compared to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq". Japanese Journal of Political Science. 17 (3): 468–488. doi:10.1017/S1468109916000190. ISSN 1468-1099. 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.
  14. ^ Storm, Lise (2005). "Ethnonational Minorities in the Middle East Berbers, Kurds, and Palestinians". A Companion to the History of the Middle East. Utrecht: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 475. ISBN 1-4051-0681-6.
  15. ^ Krajeski, Jenna (2016). "The future of Kurdistan". Great Decisions: 30. ISSN 0072-727X. JSTOR 44214818 – via JSTOR.
  16. ^ "Syria: End Persecution of Kurds". Human Rights Watch. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  17. ^ Ian Black (16 July 2010). "Syrian human rights record unchanged under Assad, report says]". The Guardian.
  18. ^ Morris, Loveday (9 August 2012). "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused of arming Kurdish separatists for attacks against Turkish government". The Independent. London.
  19. ^ "Syrian Kurdish moves ring alarm bells in Turkey". Reuters. 24 July 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  20. ^ "Kurds seek autonomy in a democratic Syria". BBC World News. 16 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  21. ^ "The Kurds are creating a state of their own in northern Syria". The Economist. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.