User:GPinkerton/Sources for Syrian Kurdistan

Kurdistan, n. (Kurdish Kurdistan, lit. 'land of the Kurds'), the name of any of various (current or historical) regions inhabited by Kurdish people, now chiefly located in parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. The place name is attested in English contexts from at least the 16th cent. (initially as Curdistan). Syrian Kurdistan is one of the Lesser Kurdistans that comprise Greater Kurdistan and is also known as Western Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojava Kurdistanê &#x200E;, lit. &#x27;Kurdistan where the sun sets&#x27;). O’Leary, Brendan (January 2018). "The Kurds, the Four Wolves, and the Great Powers – Review: The Kurds of Syria by Harriet Allsopp. London: Tauris, 2015. The Kurds of Iraq: Nationalism and Identity in Iraqi Kurdistan by Mahir A. Aziz. (2nd ed.) London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War by Michael M. Gunter. London: Hurst, 2014. The Kurds: A Modern History by Michael M. Gunter. Princeton, NJ: Wiener, 2016. Alien Rule by Michael Hechter. Cambridge University Press, 2013. Political Violence and Kurds in Turkey by Mehmet Orhan. London: Routledge, 2015. Kurds and the State in Iran: The Making of Kurdish Identity by Abbas Vali. London: Tauris, 2014". The Journal of Politics. 80 (1): 353–366. doi:10.1086/695343. ISSN [//www.worldcat.org/issn/0022-3816 0022-3816]. Historically they have been concentrated in three discontiguous places in northern Syria, namely, i) The northeastern corner of Syria, … is to the west of Mosul. … This area has been Kurdish majority since official records began in the last century. The encompassing Syrian governorate is called al-Hasaka (formerly Jazira) … Kurdish and Christian coexistence has generally been long-standing here. ii) The Kobanê (Ain al-Arab to Arabs) district is in the northeast of the Aleppo governorate, in northcentral Syria … iii) The most northerly and western part of Syria, a mountainous outcrop of the Anatolian plateau, the Efrîn (Afrīn in Arabic) district, … Ethnographically the Kurds here are indistinguishable from the Kurds of Turkey and unquestionably in their homeland. … : 356  As such, Syrian Kurdistan is one of the four territories into which Kurdistan is divided by the boundaries of sovereign states, alongside Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojhilatê Kurdistanê &#x200E;, lit. &#x27;Kurdistan where the sun rises&#x27;) and the neighbouring Turkish Kurdistan ( Bakurê Kurdistanê &#x200E;, &#x27;Northern Kurdistan&#x27;) and Iraqi Kurdistan ( Başûrê Kurdistanê &#x200E;, &#x27;Southern Kurdistan&#x27;). : 356

The territory consists of three discontinuous areas on the northern border of Syria, in the Aleppo and al-Hasakah Governorates of Syria. : 251&#x2013;252 : 358&#x2013;361  : 196  In the extreme east of Syrian Upper Mesopotamia (Arabic: الجزيرة &#x200E;, romanized: al-Jazira, lit. &#x27;the island&#x27;), al-Hasakah Governorate (historically al-Jazira Province) is adjacent to Iraq's Sinjar District, part of Iraqi Kurdistan, and has been Kurdish-majority "since official records began". : 358&#x2013;361 Ayn al-Arab District in the Aleppo Governorate is centred on Kobanî (Arabic: عَيْن الْعَرَب &#x200E;, romanized: ʿAyn al-ʿArab), which like the nearby town of Jarabulus is on the border with Turkey's Şanlıurfa Province, part of Turkish Kurdistan. : 358&#x2013;361 : 251&#x2013;252  The Afrin District, also in the Aleppo Governorate, includes the town of Afrin (Kurdish: Efrîn &#x200E;) and the Kurd Mountains (Turkish: Kurd Dagh) at the north-eastern corner of Syria's border with Turkey's Hatay Province. : 358&#x2013;361 : 251&#x2013;252

Al-Hasakah, the seat of the governorate of the same name, stands at the confluence of the Jaghjagh River and the Khabur, two tributaries of the Euphrates, while Ras al-Ayn lies upstream of the Khabur at the point where the Syria–Turkey border intersects the river. Jarabulus, in the Jarabulus Subdistrict, stands on the border with Turkey where the Euphrates enters Syrian territory, while Kobanî, likewise on the border, stands between the Euphrates valley and the Balikh River. The Kurd Mountains, outside the Euphrates–Tigris Basin, constitute a detached extension of the Anatolian Plateau on the edge of the Anatolian Plate. : 358&#x2013;361 References  For background, a basic summary of the history of Syrian Kurdistan can be found, for example, in a review of the 2015 work The Kurds: A Modern History by Michael M. Gunter. The review summarizes Gunter's whole chapter on the Kurds of Syria as follows, including a mention of this very ideological talking point, namely, that Kurds do not belong in what is now Syria:



























2. The following sources are weak, insufficiently in-depth, or otherwise unusable sources for the quoted material and the information represented there:


 * (a three paragraph, half-page treatment in a non-specialist book with vast scope no particular relevance to Syrian Kurdistan)
 * (a two-page book review by an "Assistant researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and PhD candidate at the University of Exeter." The Beirut-published book's editor is Hezbollah-linked Azmi Bishara, who founded the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. The book review is published in AlMuntaqa itself published by ... the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Cosy.)
 * (a two-page book review by an "Assistant researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and PhD candidate at the University of Exeter." The Beirut-published book's editor is Hezbollah-linked Azmi Bishara, who founded the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. The book review is published in AlMuntaqa itself published by ... the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Cosy.)
 * (a two-page book review by an "Assistant researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and PhD candidate at the University of Exeter." The Beirut-published book's editor is Hezbollah-linked Azmi Bishara, who founded the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. The book review is published in AlMuntaqa itself published by ... the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Cosy.)

3. The following sources are irrelevant, outdated, or otherwise unusable sources for the quoted material and the information misrepresented from there: