By Robin Omar
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Politicians agree that the Turkish colonization project is more comprehensive than the Eastern Reform treaty and Muhammad Talab Hilal’s project of the Arab Belt. It is a recycling of the Arab Belt but more intense and enduring.
Hussein Jemmo, a Syrian-Kurdish writer and journalist said to North Press, “Even though the outcomes are similar in both cases, the Turkish project has an extension in terms of the concept and approach to a more older project, which is the Eastern Reform that shattered the Kurdish community through various methods, ranging from promoting arts and culture to direct population displacement for security purposes. Even the modernization and development projects, for the most part, are parallel to reform projects that aim at demolishing all forms of self-protection for the Kurdish community.
More comprehensive
Jemmo further added, “What is happening today in Afrin and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) is an extension of this Turkish project, where a new chapter is being implemented inside Syria. The project was limited within Turkey’s borders up until the Turkish occupation of al-Bab, Jarablus and Azaz in 2016. The Syrian civil war opened the way for Turkey to implement its project of demographic change against Kurds in Syria.”
Jemmo told North Press, “There is a similarity in methods between the Arab Belt project and the Eastern Reform in terms of the purpose. However, the Turkish project is more comprehensive and involves all aspects of everyday life of the Kurds.”
He believes there is an essential difference between the Eastern Reform and the Arab Belt. The first one is an ongoing process that has taken place since 1925 and will remain for the future whenever a new opportunity for Turkish occupation arises. The second is a project that was implemented once but its destructive effects remain to this day. It has not evolved into a second or a third phase, unlike Turkish plans that do not become outdated over time.
Muhammad Talab Hilal’s role
Muhammad Talab Hilal held the position of Deputy Prime Minister then Minister of Agriculture in 1970. He also served as the Prime Minister and Minister of Industry in 1971. Additionally, he was Syria’s ambassador to Poland between 1972 and 1979.
Hilal presented a study under the name of “National, Political and Social Study of the Province of Jazira.” In the study, he discussed the shifts that occurred in the Kurdish issue over a century and the regional influences, in addition to the social, economic and political conditions of Kurds. He also highlighted prominent Kurdish officials and Kurdish relations with European countries.
He proposed a number of suggestions at the end of the study. Some clearly declare the need to implement the Arab Belt Project, which is to settle nationalist Arabs in Kurdish areas on the border, designating the northern border strip of Hasakah Governorate as a military zone similar to a frontline, and establishing collective farms for Arabs resettled by the state in the northern strip. These farms would be militarily armed, similar to Jewish settlements on the borders.
Arab Belt
The term, Arab Belt, refers to the demographic change and Arabization process carried out by the Syrian government in Hasakah Governorate in 1974. This involved seizing agricultural lands owned by Kurdish tribes, Aghas, and farmers along the Syrian-Turkish border in Hasakah, which had a Kurdish majority population. The government granted these lands to Arab farmers who were brought from the cities of Raqqa and Aleppo after their lands were flooded by the Euphrates Lake water after the construction of the dam. Those Arab farmers later became known as al-Maghmurin (Arabs who lost their properties in the flood).
The Arab Belt is 275km long and 15km deep. It extends from the city of Derik (al-Malikiyah) to Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), which are locally known as the Tenth Line lands. These areas are considered fertile agricultural lands, and all the villages belong to Kurdish tribes who are related to Kurdish tribes on the other side of border in Turkey.
Eastern Reform
The Eastern Reform was planned by the modern state of Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, without being presented to the Parliament for fear of opposition. It was issued by the then Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk through a resolution issued by the Presidency of the Republic. The details of the plan, which consisted of 27 articles, were set by the Council of Ministers.
According to Turkish official records regarding this law, the plan included provisions for “reforming and developing the situation” in eastern and southeastern Turkey.
The plan included a set of cultural, demographic, and military measures in “southeastern Turkey” according to the Turkish designation. The goal was to merge the Kurds into modern Turkish culture, primarily prohibiting speaking in Kurdish in public places.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in early 2022, “We have started building settlements between the areas of Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad, where we can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people.” He added that other areas along the Syrian-Turkish border “can accommodate one million people.”
Turkey plans to construct settlements in areas from which the Kurds have been displaced to settle other Syrian Arabs who have fled from other parts of the country due to the ongoing war since 2011 amid warnings about potential distortion of the demographic map of the region.
Paused
Nawaf Khalil, Director of the Kurdish Studies Center in Germany, said, “What is happening is very serious. Turkey occupied Afrin and displaced hundreds of thousands in Sere Kaniye, where only 50 elderly people remain. This project has been in progress for 100 years, and now there is a desire to expand it beyond Turkey’s official borders. It has been paused but not completed. This is why the Kurds are being attacked in northern, southern and western Kurdistan, and northeastern Syria.”
He pointed out that Turkey’s current actions are part of the security philosophy that focuses on the criminal legacy produced by the demographic engineering carried out by the Turkish state, which includes the massacres against Armenians and Kurds, and later the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, and others.
“The implications will be devastating of course, not only in achieving Turkey’s goal based on the security philosophy that focuses on sustainable demographic engineering, intended to be sustainable, which is the elimination of Kurdish-Arab relations. Moreover, what Erdogan’s government is doing now also helps the government forces in carrying out demographic change by resettling the people from Ghouta and other areas in Afrin, Tel Abyad, and Sere Kaniye, which is partially the government’s goal of fracturing relations between the peoples of Syria,” Khalil added.
Vicious project
Abdullah Shekaki, a historian, said the Arab Belt Project is “a Syrian version” of the Turkish colonization because “it was derived from Turkey in the light of the high coordination between Syria and Turkey in the past. Despite the political differences between the two countries, however their coordination in term of intelligence was strong. Even though ties were completely put on hold between Turkey and Syria in the past 12 years, the intelligence coordination however, particularly against Kurds has continued. They execute plans together within this framework.”
This agreement is evident in what occurred in Afrin. There was complete focus on Afrin more than Hasakah and other areas. This is because until 1959, the population of Afrin region consisted of 100 percent Kurds. However, after the unity between Syria and Egypt and during the era of separation and under the rule of the Baath Party and Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian government resettled some Arabs in Afrin. Nevertheless the percentage of Arab residents in the Afrin did not exceed three percent of the total population, according to Shekaki.
The Kurdish historian added that Afrin, geographically annoyed Turkey, being a border region with a population of approximately 100 percent Kurds. Moreover, the Kurdish movement within Afrin itself was active and very strong. That is why it became a target for Turkey. Turkey ceded to demands by Russia and Iran, solely for the purpose of occupying Afrin.
Shekaki said, “Now we see talks and discussions to restore relations between Syria and Turkey, but the latter refuses to withdraw from Syria until the settlement project is completed.” Currently, the percentage of Arab residents settled by Turkey there has exceeded 70 percent of the total population, he added.
He told North Press that this project is “extremely dangerous, even more dangerous than the Arab Belt project. As far as I know, after establishing the Arab Belt in Hasakah Governorate, the Syrian government only built 40 villages. This number does not significantly affect the geography of the region, and it is not highly concerning. At the time, Syria was not able to build settlement projects as Turkey does now. However, Syria learned this lesson from Turkey, not the other way around.”
According to the Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press, the number of settlements built in the northern countryside of Aleppo since 2018 has amounted to 118 settlements until the making of this report.
Ethnic cleansing
Ayman Salama, a Professor in Public International Law and a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, said “Turkish military colonization is a blatant violation of international conventions, specifically International Humanitarian Law (IHL)”. It is an explicit violation of Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which considers “settlement crimes” as “war crimes.”
He mentioned that settlement crimes are one of the crimes pursued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Israeli military officials.
Salama explained in a statement to North Press that “settlement is a violation of the rights of Syrian citizens without any discrimination against our brethren in northern Syria, whether Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen or any other ethnicity or ideological groups. It is racial discrimination resulting from the separation wall and Turkish segregation, which are considered a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
He added, “The establishment of Turkish settlements in northern Syria, in areas that hold cultural, historical, and social significance for Syrians, is unjust to the rights of the Syrian people and a devaluation of the cultural heritage and Syrian identity in northern Syria.”
According to Salama, the transfer of Turkish or any non-Syrian population to the “occupied” Syrian territories in northern Syria constitutes as a “war crime.”
The expert also stressed that the official position as President of Erdogan or anyone else “does not authorize or permit him to commit international crimes, including the crime of settlement. It also does not exempt him from international responsibility and accountability, which means international prosecution such as through the International Criminal Court, which is among the available forms of international prosecution.”
Salama concluded his conversation with North Press by saying, “We can presume that changing the demographic structure in occupied Syrian territories in northern Syria by the Turkish occupation may amount to the crime of ethnic cleansing.”