Federalization of Syria

The federalization of Syria has been controversially proposed as a possible solution to end the Syrian Civil War. In the broadest sense, it means turning the centralized Syrian Arab Republic into a federal republic with autonomous subdivisions. Many powers and actors involved in the Syrian Civil War have entertained the idea of "federal division", not least among them Russia, United Nations representatives, the United States and Israel. Bashar al-Assad has publicly rejected the idea of federalism, asserting that the Arab majority in Syria is opposed to such proposals. Most of the neighbouring countries in the region have also dismissed the proposal, including the members of the Arab League and Turkey.

Due to the fact that federalization would more or less follow ethnic and possibly also religious-sectarian lines, it has been dismissed as "division of the country" and "Balkanization" by its opponents. Most factions of the Syrian opposition, such as the Syrian National Council and the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, have consistently rejected the idea of federalization. On the other hand, Kurdish opposition parties have strongly promoted the idea. The Egypt-based opposition party Syria's Tomorrow Movement takes an intermediate position.