Kurds

Some Kurdish tribal groups have lived in Syria for generations, notably in the Kurd Dagh hills north-west of Aleppo and in the Hayy al-Akrad quarter of Damascus. Many Kurds of the Jazira descend from people who fled the Turkish Republic in the 1920s and 1930s. Under the French Mandate Kurds were recruited into the Troupes spéciales, and Arab nationalist governments after independence increasingly restricted Kurdish political and cultural life. A 1960s census in the Jazira classed many Kurds as foreigners, leaving tens of thousands stateless; MRG reports that about 150,000 'maktumin' (unregistered) Kurds were still stateless in 2011.

Sources and details

Kurds in Syria speak Kurmanji Kurdish, and most also speak Arabic; some long-settled families in Damascus speak only Arabic. The large majority are Sunni Muslims, with small Christian and Alawi minorities. Yazidis, who also speak Kurmanji, are sometimes counted as Kurds (see Yazidis). Kurdish teaching was banned before 2011; Newroz celebrations were repeatedly suppressed, including in Qamishli in 2008 and 2010, and riots after a football match in 2004 were met with lethal force.

Estimates put the Kurdish population at about 2–2.5 million (estimate; MRG, cited by EUAA 2025). From 2012 Kurdish-led forces took control of much of the north-east, and in 2014 an autonomous administration was declared in the Jazira, Kobani and Afrin cantons; Kobani was besieged by ISIS in 2014. Afrin came under Turkish-backed factions in 2018, and EUAA (2025) reports continued arrests and property seizures there and in Manbij. On 10 March 2025 the transitional president and the SDF commander signed an agreement that reportedly promised citizenship for stateless Kurds, the right to use and teach Kurdish and the return of displaced people; EUAA noted in December 2025 that it had not yet been implemented.

Sites connected with this community 3

• QamishliHasakah · Historic architecture

  Main town of the Kurdish-populated Jazira; site of suppressed Newroz celebrations in 2008 and 2010.

• Kurd MountainAleppo · Nature

  The Kurd Dagh hills north of Aleppo are one of the oldest areas of Kurdish settlement in Syria, home to roughly a third of Syrian Kurds.

• Mosque and shrine of Nabi Huri (Cyrrhus)Cyrrhus (Nabi Huri), Afrin region, Aleppo · Islamic heritage

  Shrine and Roman site at Cyrrhus in the Afrin region, the Kurdish-majority area that formed one of the 2014 autonomous cantons.

Further sites (not yet in the atlas)

• Hayy al-Akrad (Rukn al-Din), Damascus حي الأكراد (ركن الدين)Damascus

  Historic Kurdish quarter on the slopes of Mount Qasioun; the 1987 country study placed 10–15% of Syrian Kurds there.

• Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) عين العرب (كوباني)Aleppo

  Kurdish-majority town, one of the three 2014 cantons; besieged by ISIS from September 2014.

• Afrin عفرينAleppo

  Main town of the Kurd Dagh region; centre of an autonomous canton until 2018.

Sources (6)

1. Minority Rights Group International – Syria (country page)
2. Minority Rights Group International – World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples: Syria – Kurds (via Refworld) March 2018
3. EUAA – Country Guidance: Syria, 4.9.2 Kurds December 2025
4. EUAA – COI Report Syria: Country Focus, 2.4.1 Kurds July 2025
5. Library of Congress, Syria: A Country Study (ed. T. Collelo, 1987) – The People 1987
6. Library of Congress, Syria: A Country Study (1987) – Kurds 1987