Estimates from 1.6 million to 2.5 million[1][2] Kurds make up between 5% and 10% of Syria's population.[3][4]
Regions with significant populations
Northeastern Syria, Afrin, Kobani[5]
Languages
Mainly Kurdish (Kurmanji);[6] also Arabic (North Levantine Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic)
Religion
Majority Sunni Islam and Yazidism, also Shia Islam, Christianity[7]
The Kurdish population of Syria is the country's largest ethnic minority,[8] usually estimated at around 10% of the Syrian population[9][10][8][11][12][13] and 5% of the Kurdish population. [citation needed]
The majority of Syrian Kurds are originally Turkish Kurds who have crossed the border during different events in the 20th century.[14] There are three major centers for the Kurdish population in Syrian, the northern part of the Jazira, the central Euphrates Region around Kobanî and in the west the area around Afrin.[15] All of these are on the Syria-Turkey border, and there are also substantial Kurdish communities in Aleppo and Damascus further south.
Human rights organizations have accused the Syrian government of routinely discriminating and harassing Syrian Kurds.[16][17] Many Kurds seek political autonomy for what they regard as Western Kurdistan, similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, or to be part of an independent state of Kurdistan. In the context of the Syrian Civil War, Kurds established[18][19][20] the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.[21]
^World Factbook (Online ed.). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2019. ISSN 1553-8133. Archived from the original on 1 June 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2019. CIA estimates are as of June 2019[update] "Ethnic groups: Sunni Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)"
^"Who are the Kurds?". BBC News (Online ed.). 31 October 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
^Darke, Diana (1 January 2010). Syria. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 9781841623146.
^"Syria rejects Russian proposal for Kurdish federation". Al-Monitor. 24 October 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
^Vanly, Ismet Chérif; Vanly, Ismet Cheriff (1977). "Coup d'oeil sur la culture nationale Kurde". Oriente Moderno. 57 (9/10): 445. doi:10.1163/22138617-0570910007. ISSN 0030-5472. JSTOR 25816505.
^"Syrian Kurds celebrate Kurdish Language Day". Kurdistan24. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
^"Alawite Kurds in Syria: Ethnic discrimination and dectarian privileges. By Maya Ehmed". Ekurd.net. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
^ abShoup, John A. (2018), "Syria", The History of Syria, ABC-CLIO, p. 6, ISBN 978-1440858352, Syria has several other ethnic groups, the Kurds... they make up an estimated 9 percent...Turkomen comprise around 4-5 percent of the total population. The rest of the ethnic mix of Syria is made of Assyrians (about 4 percent), Armenians (about 2 percent), and Circassians (about 1 percent).
^"Turkey's Syria offensive explained in four maps". BBC.com. Retrieved 14 October 2019. Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population.
^"Who are Syria's minority groups?". SBS News (Online ed.). Special Broadcasting Service. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2017. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, constituting around 10 per cent of the population – around 2 million of the pre-conflict population of around 22 million.
^Kingsley, Patrick (14 October 2019). "Who Are the Kurds, and Why Is Turkey Attacking Them in Syria?". New York Times (Online ed.). Retrieved 5 August 2020. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up between 5 and 10 percent of the Syrian population of 21 million in 2011
^Fabrice Balanche (2018). Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War(PDF) (Online ed.). Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019. In this atlas, French geographer Balanche suggests that "As of 2010, Syria’s population was roughly 65% Sunni Arab, 15% Kurdish, 10% Alawite, 5% Christian, 3% Druze, 1% Ismaili, and 1% Twelver Shia." (page 13) "The number of Kurds in Syria is often underestimated by analysts, who tend to cap them at 10% of the population. In fact, they are closer to 15%."(page 16) The 2018 breakdown is 1% Sunni Arab, 16% Kurdish, 13% Alawite, 3% Christian, 4% Druze, 1% Ismaili, 1% Twelver Shia, 1% Turkmen (page 22) Balanche also refers to his Atlas du ProcheOrient Arabe (Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011), p. 36."
^Radpey, Loqman (September 2016). "Kurdish Regional Self-rule Administration in Syria: A new Model of Statehood and its Status in International Law Compared to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq". Japanese Journal of Political Science. 17 (3): 468–488. doi:10.1017/S1468109916000190. ISSN 1468-1099. Some 15% to 17% of the Syrian population is Kurdish. Whether they can achieve statehood will depend on a reading of international law and on how the international community reacts.
^Storm, Lise (2005). "Ethnonational Minorities in the Middle East Berbers, Kurds, and Palestinians". A Companion to the History of the Middle East. Utrecht: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 475. ISBN 1-4051-0681-6.
^Krajeski, Jenna (2016). "The future of Kurdistan". Great Decisions: 30. ISSN 0072-727X. JSTOR 44214818 – via JSTOR.
^"Syria: End Persecution of Kurds". Human Rights Watch. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
^Ian Black (16 July 2010). "Syrian human rights record unchanged under Assad, report says]". The Guardian.
^Morris, Loveday (9 August 2012). "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused of arming Kurdish separatists for attacks against Turkish government". The Independent. London.
^"Syrian Kurdish moves ring alarm bells in Turkey". Reuters. 24 July 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
^"Kurds seek autonomy in a democratic Syria". BBC World News. 16 August 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
^"The Kurds are creating a state of their own in northern Syria". The Economist. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
[citation needed] The majority of SyrianKurds are originally Turkish Kurds who have crossed the border during different events in the 20th century. There are...
of Syria's stateless Kurds, as President Bashar al-Assad granted about 220,000 Kurds citizenship. In course of the next months, the crisis inSyria escalated...
provision, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Recent history of the Kurds includes numerous genocides...
'land of the Kurds'; [ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn] ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent...
of Kurds by British and French imperialists. The first encounter between the French Armed Forces and KurdsinSyria came in late 1919 in the Kurd Mountains...
communities. The majority of Syrians are Muslims, of which the Sunnis are the most numerous (formed mostly of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, and Circassians)...
conflict taking place in northern Syria, known among Kurds as Western Kurdistan or Rojava. During the Syrian civil war that began in 2011, a Kurdish-dominated...
military academies were closed to Kurds. 120,000 Kurds (40% of the SyrianKurd population) were stripped of their citizenship in the 1962 Census when the government...
among which the Iraqi Kurds make up the largest group of Kurdsin Canada, exceeding the numbers of Kurds from Turkey, Iran and Syria. Kurdish immigration...
of the larger minorities, such as the Kurds and Turkmen. The KurdsinSyria are the second largest ethnic group in the country (forming around 10.6% of...
were an uprising by SyrianKurdsin the northeastern city of Qamishli in March 2004, which culminated in a massacre by the Syrian Arab Armed Forces. Relations...
the Syrian Democratic Forces – an umbrella group dominated by the Kurds of the PYD, on whom the US are relying to fight IS on the ground. "UAE, Kurds Standing...
Syria has occurred since ancient times. Today Kurds form about 10% of Syria's population, numbering around 2 million. The majority of KurdsinSyria immigrated...
Vanly, Ismet Chériff (1992). "The KurdsinSyria and Lebanon". In Philip G. Kreyenbroek; Stefan Sperl (eds.). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. New York...
the Syrian Democratic Forces – an umbrella group dominated by the Kurds of the PYD, on whom the US are relying to fight IS on the ground. "UAE, Kurds Standing...
Kurdish civilians. In October 2019, thousands of German Kurds protested against the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria. In November 2023, around...
Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syriain Peace and War. Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9781849044356. "Syria: The Silenced Kurds". Human Rights Watch...
Genetically, Syrian Arabs are a variety of diverse Semitic-speaking groups indigenous to the region. With around 10% of the population, Kurds are the second...
20 million Kurdsin Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq, and northwest and northeast Iran. Sorani is spoken by an estimated 6 to 7 million Kurdsin much of Iraqi...
these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria. In February 2006, however, sources reported that Syria was now planning to grant these Kurds citizenship...
on Kurds". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-10-18. "THE KURDS OF TURKEY: KILLINGS, DISAPPEARANCES AND TORTURE" (PDF). HRW: The Kurds of Turkey:...
Zāḡa) "The Future of the KurdsinSyria". Council on Foreign Relations. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2021-02-16. "Have the SyrianKurds Committed War Crimes?"...
"having a couple of Kurds" in the committee did not mean that the SyrianKurds were properly represented in it. The co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council...
establish a "safe zone" in Rojava to keep the Kurds and Turks from clashing, to prevent pro-Syrian government forces from attacking the Kurds, and to keep up...