Deprivatio of Existence The use of Disguised Legalization as a Policy to Seize Property by Successive Governments of Syria A special report sheds light on discrimination projects aiming at radical demographic changes in areas historically populated by Kurds Acknowledgment and Gratitude The present report is the result of a joint cooperation that extended from 2018’s second half until August 2020, and it could not have been produced without the invaluable assistance of witnesses and victims who had the courage to provide us with official doc- uments proving ownership of their seized property. This report is to be added to researches, books, articles and efforts made to address the subject therein over the past decades, by Syrian/Kurdish human rights organizations, Deprivatio of Existence individuals, male and female researchers and parties of the Kurdish movement in Syria. Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) would like to thank all researchers who contributed to documenting and recording testimonies together with the editors who worked hard to produce this first edition, which is open for amendments and updates if new credible information is made available. To give feedback or send corrections or any additional documents supporting any part of this report, please contact us on [email protected] About Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) STJ started as a humble project to tell the stories of Syrians experiencing enforced disap- pearances and torture, it grew into an established organization committed to unveiling human rights violations of all sorts committed by all parties to the conflict. Convinced that the diversity that has historically defined Syria is a wealth, our team of researchers and volunteers works with dedication at uncovering human rights violations committed in Syria, regardless of their perpetrator and victims, in order to promote inclusiveness and ensure that all Syrians are represented, and their rights fulfilled. Table of Contents 1. Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 05 2. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 05 3. Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 09 4. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 12 5. History of the Demographic Change in Northern Syria .................................................... 25 6. The First Phase of the Demographic Change Operations in Syria - the Beginning of Land Confiscations ...................................................................................................................... 51 A. Dêrik/al-Malikiyah region and Syrian Jazira .................................................................. 63 B. Villages of Tell Abyad and the countryside of Serê Kaniyê/Ras al-Ayn ............................ 65 C. “Karadağ/Kurds Mountain,” present-day Afrin region ................................................. 69 7. Local Repudiation and Resistance of the Authorities’ Repeated Attempts at Demograph- ic Change Although the UAR government managed to forge the legal ground ........................ 71 8. Second Phase of the Demographic Change Operations – the ‘Arab Belt’ Project ................. 73 9. Petitions, Complaints and Initiatives to Stop the ‘Arab Belt’ Project .................................. 80 10. Facts and Figures on the so-called ‘Arab Belt’ Project ....................................................... 83 A. Accounts and figures on the Arab Belt Project in Dêrik/ al-Malikiyah region and Syrian Jazira ........................................................................... 86 B. Qamishlo/al-Qamishli Region ....................................................................................... 100 C. Serê Kaniyê/Ras al-Ayn Region .................................................................................... 104 11. Losses of Al-Ghamr Arabs and the Empty Promises of Hafez al-Assad ............................... 111 12. Unfair Compensations .................................................................................................. 115 13. Persistent Deprivation Policies and Partiality of the State under Hafez al-Assad’s Rule ..... 116 14. Al-Ahmadiya, the Last Built ‘Model Village’ ................................................................... 117 15. Bashar al-Assad following in his Father’s Footsteps ......................................................... 118 16. Societal Repercussions of the Demographic Change Projects .......................................... 118 17. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 120 1. Methodology Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) started working on this report in mid-2018. Ahead of field work, a team of researchers discussed the report’s methodology, set up a plan, and defined target villages and regions. In early 2019, the team embarked on obtaining testimonies and conducting interviews — 31 witnesses were interviewed in person throughout northeastern Syria, part icularly in the villages where lands were seized. The researchers conducted 12 online interviews, reaching out to witnesses several times in 2020, as to obtain additional accounts and information. In addition, a number of witnesses provided STJ with 27 exclusive documents, that are to be published for the first time, which indicate the areas of properties confiscated by the subsequent Syrian governments. A different set of documents, however, reports incidents related to the subject matter, not to mention the maps, which depict the target region, under the Ottoman Empire and the French Mandate. For the aim of this report, the researchers also cited 77 references, including 34 books and 43 research papers, studies, magazines, articles and reports, which addressed the re- port’s subject matter or included related materials. Furthermore, STJ sent a mission to the French city of Nantes, which examined materi- als of the French archive. Another researcher made a thorough reading of Turkish doc- uments, some of which were written in the Ottoman Turkish language, and quoted them when necessary. 2. Executive Summary 24 June 2020 marked the 46th anniversary of one of the large-scale projects aimed at bringing about demographic changes, which have been in the planning since before 2011. This was also the day the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party passed resolution No. 521 in 1974, which provided for the effective implementation of what was termed the ‘Arab Belt’ project. At that point, thousands of Arab families who lost their homes to the creation of Lake Assad, were prompted to move and settle in ‘model villages’, that were built on lands seized earlier under the Agrarian Reform Laws, starting with Act No.161 of 1958, the year of the establishment of the unity between Syria and Egypt. 5 Towards the promotion of Arab nationalism at the expense of the Kurdish identity in Syria; as described by international human rights organizations, the Syrian Arabs were transferred by government to settle in the Kurds’ home areas with the aim of establish- ing the ‘Arab Belt’ along the length of the border strip with Turkey, which meant to separate the Kurds of Syria from those of Turkey and Iraq. The planned demographic change also included deporting the Kurds residing in villages within the scope of this ‘Belt’ to other areas.1 Contrary to what is commonly said, it seems that the memorandum submitted by Mu- hammad Kurd Ali, Minister of Education in Taj al-Din al-Hasani’s first government,2 to the heads of ministries, dated 18 November 1931, was one of the first official recom- mendations, which explicitly called for the deportation of the Syrian Kurds from their areas along the northern borders for national reasons. Talking about the situation of al-Hasakah province (then called Jazira), Kurd Ali referred to the migration of Kurds, Syrians, Armenians, Arabs and Jews to the border area adjacent to Turkey, saying that the Kurds, who were the largest in number, should be displaced to areas far from the borders of Kurdistan, proposing to grant them lands around Homs and Aleppo and to integrate them with the Arabs there.3 Also, in the context of the initial application of the Arabisation policy, the Central Na- tional Government appointed in late January 1937, Emir Bahjat al-Shihabi, who manned the military administration during the period of the Arab government, as a governor of al-Hasakah. Al-Shihabi came with a plan in his pocket, which he quickly launched. That plan aimed to ‘cleanse’ the small government administration of local employees from the Syriacs and Armenians, affiliated with the previous regime, and re- cruit new staff from the Arabs of Aleppo.4 Since the Ottoman era at least and until the declaration of Agrarian Reform Law No. 161 on 11 June 1958, the form of ownership throughout present-day Syria was feudal, as large areas were in the hands of a few people who were mostly notables, sheikhs of clans and princes.5 1 “Group Denial: Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria”, HRW, 26 November 2009, https://www.hrw.org/re- port/2009/11/26/group-denial/repression-kurdish-political-and-cultural-rights-syria (last visit: 4 September 2020). 2 “The First Government