Arab Belt

The Arab Belt (Arabic: الحزام العربي, al-hizām al-ʿarabī; Kurdish: Kembera Erebî, که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی) was the Syrian Ba'athist government's project of Arabization of the north of the Al-Hasakah Governorate to change its ethnic composition of the population in favor of Arabs to the detriment of other ethnic groups, particularly Kurds.

Arab Belt
الحزام العربي
Al-Hasakah Governorate highlighted in red
Date23 August 1962 – 1976
LocationAl-Hasakah Governorate, Syria
TypeForced deportations
MotiveArab nationalism, Ba'athification
Perpetrator Syrian Arab Republic
Organized by Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Syrian Arab Armed Forces
Outcome
  • 120,000 Kurds deprived of Syrian citizenship in 1962
  • Hilal report internal memo issued in 1963
  • Ba'ath party adopts the proposals of Hilal report in1965
  • Hafez al-Assad orders the launch of Arab Belt programme in 1973
  • Deportation of 140,000 Kurds and replacement with Arab settlers from Raqqa
  • 4,000 Arab families settled in new villages in 1973
  • Tabqa Dam built in 1973
TargetSyrian Kurds

It involved the seizure of land which was then settled with Arabs displaced by the creation of Lake Assad. The programme was implemented in 1973; forcibly deporting around 140,000 Kurds and confiscating their lands around a 180-mile strip. Thousands of Arab settlers coming from Raqqa were then granted these lands to establish settlements.

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