Arabic Belt

Arabic Belt (Arabic: الحزام العربي al-hizām al-'arabi, Kurdish: Kembera Erebî که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی) was the Syrian Baath government's project of Arabization of the north of the Al-Hasakah Governorate that aimed to change the ethnic population composition in the Kurdish regions of Syria in favor of the Arabs.

Planning

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 Belt was stretched from the Iraqi border in the east to Ras al-Ayn (Kurdish: Serê Kaniyê) in the west. 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. The project's name was officially changed to "Plan for the establishment of state model farms in the Jazira region".^[1]

Execution

41 Arab villages were built in the course of time, and all the Kurdish village names of the area were replaced by Arabic names. About 4,000 Arab families from the provinces of Al-Raqqa and Aleppo, where they had previously lost their houses by the construction of the Tabqa dam, were accommodated in the new villages. These Arabs are named as Maghmurin (مغمورين Maġmūrīn, which is affected by flooding). In these measures, approximately 2 million hectares of Kurdish cultivated land were expropriated and awarded to the newly settled Arabs. According to the original plan, about 140,000 Kurds must also be deported to the southern near deserts at Al-Raad. Although the Kurdish peasants were expropriated, they refused to move away and give up their houses. Among these peasants, those who had been declared foreigners were not allowed to have property, to repair houses, or to build new houses.

Background

The Kurdish regions affected by the "Arab 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.^[2]

References