Background , Northern Syria has several Neolithic sites such as
Tell Halaf. exposed by excavations (6th century AD) Northern Syria is part of the
Fertile Crescent, and includes archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic, such as
Tell Halaf. In antiquity, the area was part of the
Mitanni kingdom, its centre being the Khabur river valley in modern-day Jazira Region. It was then part of
Assyria, with the last surviving Assyrian imperial records, from between 604 BC and 599 BC, being found in and around the Assyrian city of
Dūr-Katlimmu. Later, it was ruled by different dynasties and empires – the
Achaemenids of
Iran, the
Hellenistic empires who succeeded
Alexander the Great, the
Artaxiads of
Armenia,
Rome, the Iranian
Parthians and
Sasanians, then by the
Byzantines and successive Arab Islamic caliphates. In course of these regimes, different groups settled in northern Syria, often contributing to population shifts. Arab tribes have been present in the area for millennia. Under the Hellenistic
Seleucid Empire (312–63 BC), different tribal groups and mercenaries were settled in northern Syria as military colonists; these included Arabs and possibly Kurds. Jan Retso argued that Abai, an Arab settlement where the Seleucid king
Antiochus VI Dionysus was raised, was located in northern Syria. By the 3rd century, the Arab tribe of the Fahmids lived in northern Syria. By the 9th century, northern Syria was inhabited by a mixed population of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds,
Turkic groups, and others. Kurdish tribes in the area often operated as soldiers for hire, and were still placed in specific military settlements in the northern Syrian mountains. There existed a Kurdish elite of which
Saladin, the founder of the
Ayyubid dynasty and the Emir of
Masyaf in the 12th century were part of. Under Saladin's rule, northern Syria experienced a mass immigration of Turkic groups who came into conflict with Kurdish tribes, resulting in clashes that wiped out several Kurdish communities. During the
Ottoman Empire (1516–1922), large
Kurdish-speaking tribal groups both settled in and were deported to areas of northern Syria from
Anatolia. Many Assyrians fled to Syria during the genocide and settled mainly in the Jazira area. Starting in 1926, the region saw another immigration of Kurds following the failure of the
Sheikh Said rebellion against the
Turkish authorities. While many of the Kurds in Syria have been there for centuries, waves of Kurds fled their homes in Turkey and settled in Syrian
Al-Jazira Province, where they were granted citizenship by the
French Mandate authorities. The number of Turkish Kurds settled in al-Jazira province during the 1920s was estimated at 20,000 people, out of 100,000 inhabitants, with the remainder of the population being Christians (Syriac, Armenian, Assyrian) and Arabs.
Syria's independence and rule of the Ba'ath Party under
Hafez al-Assad (pictured 1987) implemented
Arabization policies in northern Syria. Following
Syria's independence, policies of
Arab nationalism and attempts at forced
Arabization became widespread in the country's north, to a large part directed against the Kurdish population. The region received little investment or development from the central government and laws discriminated against Kurds owning property, driving cars, working in certain professions and forming political parties. Property was routinely confiscated by government loansharks. After the
Ba'ath Party seized power in the
1963 Syrian coup d'état, non-Arab languages were forbidden at Syrian public schools. This compromised the education of students belonging to minorities like Kurds, Turkmen, and Assyrians. Some groups like Armenians, Circassians, and Assyrians were able to compensate by establishing private schools, but Kurdish private schools were also banned. Northern Syrian hospitals lacked equipment for advanced treatment and instead patients had to be transferred outside the region. Numerous place names were arabized in the 1960s and 1970s. Kurdish cultural festivals like
Newroz were effectively banned. in Girê Tertebê, near Qamishli, in 1997 In many instances, the Syrian government arbitrarily deprived ethnic Kurdish citizens of their citizenship. The largest such instance was a consequence of a census in 1962, which was conducted for exactly this purpose. 120,000 ethnic Kurdish citizens saw their citizenship arbitrarily taken away and became
stateless. This status was passed to the children of a "stateless" Kurdish father. In 1973, the Syrian authorities confiscated of fertile agricultural land in
Al-Hasakah Governorate, which was owned and cultivated by tens of thousands of Kurdish citizens, and gave it to Arab families brought in from other provinces. attempted to work within the system, hoping to bring about changes through soft pressure. In general, parties that openly represented certain ethnic and religious minorities were not allowed to participate in elections, but their politicians were occasionally allowed to run as Independents. Some Kurdish politicians won seats during the
Syrian elections in 1990. The government also recruited Kurdish officials, in particular as mayors, to ease ethnic relations. Regardless, northern Syrian ethnic groups remained deliberately underrepresented in the bureaucracy, and many Kurdish majority areas were run by Arab officials from other parts of the country. Security and intelligence agencies worked hard to suppress dissidents, and most Kurdish parties remained underground movements. The government monitored, though generally allowed this "sub-state activity" because the northern minorities including the Kurds rarely caused unrest with the exception of the
2004 Qamishli massacre. The situation improved after the death of Hafez al-Assad and the election of his son,
Bashar al-Assad, under whom the number of Kurdish officials grew. Despite the
Ba'athist internal policies which officially suppressed a Kurdish identity, the Syrian government allowed the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to set up training camps from 1980. The PKK was a militant Kurdish group led by
Abdullah Öcalan which was
waging an insurgency against Turkey. Syria and Turkey were hostile toward each other at the time, resulting in the use of the PKK as proxy group.
Establishment of de facto autonomy and war against ISIL report about Kurdish aspirations for autonomy in Syria In 2011, a
civil uprising erupted in Syria, prompting hasty government reforms. One of the issues addressed during this time was the status of Syria's stateless Kurds, as President Bashar al-Assad granted about 220,000 Kurds citizenship. In course of the next months, the crisis in Syria
escalated into a civil war. The armed
Syrian opposition seized control of several regions, while security forces were overstretched. In mid-2012 the government responded to this development by withdrawing its military from three mainly Kurdish areas Doing so, the YPG and its female wing, the
Women's Protection Units (YPJ), mostly battled factions of the
Free Syrian Army, and Islamist militias like the
al-Nusra Front and
Jabhat Ghuraba al-Sham. It also eclipsed rival Kurdish militias, and absorbed some government loyalist groups. According to researcher Charles R. Lister, the government's withdrawal and concurrent rise of the PYD "raised many eyebrows", as the relationship between the two entities was "highly contentious" at the time. The PYD was known to oppose certain government policies, but had also strongly criticised the Syrian opposition. Following a deadly PYD repression of opposition demonstrations in Amuda, the Kurdish National Council withdrew from the Kurdish Supreme Committee. Unopposed, the PYD's political coalition,
Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), controlled the Kurdish Supreme Committee until the latter was dissolved by the cantonal Democratic Autonomous Administration. On 19 July 2013, the PYD announced that it had written a constitution for an "autonomous Syrian Kurdish region", and planned to hold referendum to approve the constitution in October 2013. Qamishli served as first
de facto capital of the PYD-led governing body, which was official called the "Interim Transitional Administration". The announcement was widely denounced by both moderate as well as Islamist factions of the Syrian opposition. In January 2014, three areas declared their autonomy as cantons (later
Afrin Region,
Jazira Region and
Euphrates Region) and an interim
constitution (also known as
social contract) was approved. The Syrian opposition and the Kurdish parties belonging to the KNC condemned this move, regarding the canton system as illegal, authoritarian, and supportive of the Syrian government. The PYD countered that the constitution was open to review and amendment, and that the KNC had been consulted on its drafting beforehand. From September 2014 to spring 2015, the YPG forces in Kobanî Canton, supported by some Free Syrian Army militias and leftist international and
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) volunteers, fought and finally repelled an assault by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the
Siege of Kobanî, and in the YPG's
Tell Abyad offensive of summer of 2015, the regions of Jazira and Kobanî were connected. fighter, November 2014 After the YPG victory over ISIL in Kobanî in March 2015, an alliance between YPG and the United States was formed, which greatly worried Turkey, because Turkey stated the YPG was a clone of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which Turkey (and the U.S. and the E.U.) designate as
terrorists. The declaration was quickly denounced by both the Syrian government and the
National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. Yousef said the decision to set up a federal government was in large part driven by the expansion of territories captured from Islamic State: "Now, after the liberation of many areas, it requires us to go to a wider and more comprehensive system that can embrace all the developments in the area, that will also give rights to all the groups to represent themselves and to form their own administrations". In July 2016, a draft for the new constitution was presented, based on the principles of the 2014 constitution, mentioning all ethnic groups living in Northern Syria and addressing their cultural, political and linguistic rights. The main political opposition to the constitution have been
Kurdish nationalists, in particular the KNC, who have different ideological aspirations than the TEV-DEM coalition. On 28 December 2016, after a meeting of the 151-member Syrian Democratic Council in
Rmelan, a new constitution was resolved; despite objections by 12 Kurdish parties, the region was renamed the "Democratic Federation of Northern Syria", removing the name "Rojava".
Turkish military operations and occupation sniper in defense of Northern Syria from Turkey,
Afrin Since 2012, when the first YPG pockets appeared, Turkey had been alarmed by the presence of PKK-related forces at its southern border and grew concerned when the YPG entered into an alliance with the US to oppose ISIS forces in the region. The Turkish government refused to allow aid to be sent to the YPG during the Siege of Kobanî. This led to the
Kurdish riots, the breakdown of the
2013–2015 peace process in July 2015 and the renewal of
armed conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces. According to the Turkish pro-government newspaper
Daily Sabah, the YPG's parent organisation, the PYD, provided the PKK with militants, explosives, arms and ammunition. In August 2016, Turkey launched
Operation Euphrates Shield to prevent the YPG-led
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from linking Afrin Canton (now Afrin Region) with the rest of Rojava and to capture
Manbij from the SDF. Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces prevented the linking of Rojava's cantons and captured all settlements in
Jarabulus previously under SDF control. The SDF handed over part of the region to the Syrian government to act as a buffer zone against Turkey. Manbij remained under SDF control. In early 2018, Turkey launched
Operation Olive Branch alongside the Turkish-backed
Syrian National Army to capture the Kurdish-majority
Afrin and oust the YPG/SDF from the region.
Afrin Canton, a subdivision of the region, was occupied and over 100,000 civilians were displaced and relocated to Afrin Region's
Shahba Canton which remained under SDF, then joint SDF-
Syrian Arab Army (SAA) control. The remaining SDF forces later launched an
ongoing insurgency against the Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces. shelling during the
2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria. In 2019, Turkey launched
Operation Peace Spring against the SDF. On 9 October, the
Turkish Air Force launched airstrikes on border towns. On 6 October
President of the United States Donald Trump had ordered United States troops to withdraw from northeastern Syria where they had been
providing support to the SDF. Journalists called the withdrawal "a serious betrayal to the Kurds" and "a catastrophic blow to US credibility as an ally and Washington's standing on the world stage"; one journalist stated that "this was one of the worst US foreign policy disasters since the
Iraq War". Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian rebel forces captured 68 settlements, including
Ras al-Ayn,
Tell Abyad,
Suluk,
Mabrouka and
Manajir during the 9-day operation before a 120-hour ceasefire was announced. The operation was condemned by the international community, and human rights violations by Turkish forces were reported. Media outlets labelled the attack "no surprise" because Turkish president
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had for months warned that the presence of the YPG on the Turkish-Syrian border despite the
Northern Syria Buffer Zone was unacceptable. the SDF
captured the southeastern city of
Deir ez-Zor. SDF forces withdrew from Deir ez-Zor following protests of local population and the city was swiftly occupied by
Tahrir al-Sham. On 12 December, DAANES announced that it had adopted the
flag of the Syrian revolution as the official flag of Syria. Despite the collapse of the Assad regime, Turkey and Turkish-backed
SNA fighters in northern Syria launched an
offensive against SDF forces. On 9 December, SNA fighters captured the city of
Manbij. The Turkish/SNA offensive continued with the
2024 Kobani clashes which ended in a victory for the SDF. This came following a US mediated truce and an SNA failure to capture Tishrin Dam and Qara-Qowzak Bridge. This was followed by a counter-offensive in the
East Aleppo offensive (2024–2025). A ceasefire was signed to, the
10 March agreement, had been agreed too brokered by the
International Coalition keeping the disputed dams under SDF control until the agreement expired on January 1, 2026. During the
Aleppo clashes, the SDF and the Syrian Army clashed over the SDF and DAANES' control over the Kurdish-majority
Sheikh Maqsood and
Ashrafiyah neighborhoods of Aleppo. The status quo was maintained following an initial ceasefire on 7 October 2025. Despite these clashes, on 18 December 2025 the
United Nations issued a report that the SDF and DAANES should agree on a roadmap for integration into the new Syrian government. Talks were agreed too, however, negotiations with the new government quickly stalled due to DAANES criticism of the interim government's inclusivity. By 25 December the Syrian government had announced it was suspending all communications with the SDF and DAANES. On 3 January 2026, Maryam Ibrahim, a spokesmen for the DAANES Negotiation Committee stated that although relations remain "a bit weak" that both sides are prioritizing military integration, and that there would be a finalized time-frame for such "in the coming days." However, on 6 January, the Syrian government announced that SDF forces had opened fire on their troops in Aleppo, resulting in the death of one government soldier. A large scale combined arms assault would take place against the enclave on 7 January, and an infiltration attempt on 8 January, before the SDF forces in Sheikh Maqsood agreed to a government ceasefire on 9 January, that saw the SDF fighters, and those civilians that wished to accompany them, being bussed out of the enclave to the DAANES. A final government assault would take place on 10 January, seeing five
Asayish operatives performing a suicide bombing against advancing government forces, as by the end of the day the enclave was in Government hands, with remaining SDF forces surrendering. On 13 January 2026, the newly reorganized
Syrian Army expanded its operation, launching
a major offensive against the DAANES' holdings in
Raqqa and
Deir ez-Zor Governorates. The new government offensive saw Arab elements of the SDF disintegrate, as the
Arab Tribal and Clan Forces waged a guerilla war against them in Deir-ez-Zor that secured strategic oil fields while Arab SDF units in predominantly Arab cities such as Raqqa defected en masse. On 18 January, a 14-point ceasefire agreement with the SDF, negotiated through the US envoy
Tom Barrack, was announced, under which the SDF is set to be integrated into the Syrian government, and the governorates of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor immediately handed over to the government, leaving the DAANES as a rump state in
Al-Hasakah Governorate. == Politics ==