THE SECOND “ARAB BELT” IN SYRIA IN THE MAKING?

Abstract

The war in Syria has reached a new phase, which has turned international focus towards the Kurdish minority and its ambitions to autonomously govern the Kurdish populated areas of Syria. The Kurdish empowerment and the rise of the PYD (Democratic Union Party), closely related to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), in the fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State has resulted in the counter-mobilisation by Damascus and Ankara, the latter of which, in addition to its military incursion, is pushing to relocate millions of Syrian war refugees who have found shelter on Turkish soil back to Syria, more specifically to the envisioned “safe zone” in the border regions. Could this be a revival of the so-called Arab Belt plan of the 1960s and 70s, which aimed at dividing the Kurdish communities in the region?