ruler
Nur al-Din unified Syria after he took
Damascus in 1154. Turkic migration to Syria began in the 11th century during the rule of the
Seljuk Empire. The Ottoman administration encouraged Turcoman families from
Anatolia The first recorded entry of free Turkmen troops into Syria was in 1064 when the Turkmen prince
Ibn Khan and 1,000 of his archers entered
Aleppo. He came at the request of the
Arab Mirdasid emir
Atiyya ibn Salih to assist him against his own
Banu Kilab tribesmen who backed a rival Mirdasid emir,
Mahmud ibn Nasr. By the 12tn century the Turkic
Zengid dynasty (a
vassal of the Seljuk Empire) continued to settle Turkmen in the
wilayah of
Aleppo to confront attacks from the
Crusaders. In return for their military service, the Turkic rulers distributed
fiefs in the area to the Turkmen. Hence, by the thirteenth century, the Turkmen formed a part of the armies of Damascus and
Aleppo, and permanently settled in these regions. The late Mamluk-era writer
Ahmad al-Qalqashandi noted that Turkmen formed contingents in the regular armies of greater Syria. By the 15th century, the Muslim writer Khalil az-Zahiri recorded 180,000 Turkmen soldiers and 20,000 Kurdish soldiers in Syria. Thereafter, the Ottoman administration encouraged Turkish nomads from
Anatolia to settle in strategic areas of the region. By the sixteenth century the Ottomans continued to settle Turkmen in the rural areas around
Homs and
Hama to keep the
Bedouin in check and serve as
mütesellim. , in modern-day northwestern Syria, in
Atlas histórico de Tierra Santa (1840) Turkish migration from
Anatolia to
Ottoman Syria was continuous for almost 400 years, until Ottoman rule ended in 1918. According to
Dawn Chatty, these Turkmen settlers (alongside
Circassian and
Chechen refugees) became loyal subjects to the sultan and were "driven to succeed in agriculture and ready to defend themselves against any
Bedouin claims to the land on which they had built their villages". In September 1936, France announced that it would grant full independence to Syria, which would also include Alexandretta. The President of the
Republic of Turkey,
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, responded with a demand that Alexandretta be given its own independence. The issue was brought before the
League of Nations, which sent a mission to the district in January 1937. The mission concluded that the Turks constituted a majority and by July 1938 elections were held in the province; the Turks formed a majority of 22 seats in a 40-seat parliament of the newly established
Hatay State, which remained a joint Franco-Turkish protectorate. The Hatay State began using
Turkish flags, and petitioned
Ankara to unify Hatay to the Republic of Turkey. France finally agreed to the Turkish annexation on 23 July 1939.
Syrian Republican era , of Turkish origin, was the first
President of Syria. After the
Sanjak of Alexandretta became the province of
Hatay in the
Republic of Turkey, in 1939, some Turkish families immigrated into the new borders of Syria, settling in the provinces of
Aleppo and
Damascus. Hence, new "Turkish streets" began to emerge, such as in the
al-Salihia district in
Damascus. Family unifications of Turkmen families living on both sides of the Syrian-Turkish border continued for more than 70 years until the outbreak of the Syrian revolution. Thus, a mass exodus of Syrian Turkmen migration to Turkey took place between 1945 and 1953, many of which settled in
Kirikhan,
Alexandretta and
Adana, in southern Turkey. whilst the stated that estimates ranged between 800,000 and 1 million. Numerous academics placed the
Turkish-speaking
Sunni Muslim population (i.e. not including Arabized or Alevi/Shia Turkmen) at approximately 3% of Syria's population, including Professor
Daniel Pipes Professor
Itamar Rabinovich, Professor Moshe Ma'oz, Dr.
Nikolaos van Dam, Dr Henry Munson, Professor
Alasdair Drysdale and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch.
Syrian Civil War (2011–present) Since the beginning of the
Syrian civil war in 2011, large numbers of Syrian Turkmen have been displaced from their homes and many have been killed due to attacks by President
Bashar al-Assad's government, as well as the terrorist attacks carried out by "
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL). Whilst Turkmen villages in
Hama,
Homs, and
Latakia have been destroyed by the Syrian government, Turkmen villages in
Aleppo were occupied by ISIL. Syrian Turkmen, with the support of the
Republic of Turkey, have taken up arms against the Syrian government. as well as several
Western European countries and
Australia. Moreover, many Syrian Turkmen have also been internally displaced from their homes, forcing them to settle in other parts of Syria. . In 2012 the
UN Refugee Agency had stated that Syrian Turkmen formed a significant number of the first wave of refugees who entered
Turkey. An article published by
Reuters in 2015, reporting the Russian raids hitting Syrian Turkmen areas (after a Russian plane was shot down on the
Turkey-Syria border), said that "Officials estimate 300,000 Turkmen used to live in northern
Latakia" before the Russians "heavily targeted ethnic Turkmen areas."
Al Jazeera English has also reported that the "Russian escalation of attacks on Turkmen areas" displaced "300,000 Turkmen from northern Latakia alone."
By the Syrian Government The Syrian Government of president
Bashar al-Assad, backed by
Russia since 2015, have targeted several areas populated by Syrian Turkmen, as they were largely involved in anti-government attacks. On 2 February 2016, at least seven women and children were killed by Russian air strikes in a Syrian Turkmen village in the northern countryside of
Homs. In the same month Russian warplanes had staged 600 strikes on Syrian Turkmen villages, displacing approximately 10,000 people.
By the YPG There were also reports of forced displacement of Arabs, Syrian Turkmen and Kurdish civilians at the hands of the
YPG from their homes in areas in the
Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. In June 2015 there was concern expressed by the UN Human Rights Council regarding displacement of Syrian Turkmen from their homes in villages south of
Hasakah and
Tal Abyad during fighting with ISIL. Approximately 200 Syrian Turkmen refugees fled to
Urfa, in southern Turkey, while 700 more fled to the eastern areas of Tal Abyad, once the YPG seized the town of Tell Hammam al-Turkman from
ISIL, and there were claims that the YPG had accused the locals of collaborating with ISIL. == Current population ==