Afrin Canton

Afrin Canton Kantona Efrînê
one of four de facto autonomous cantons of the region of Rojava in Syria
Flag Seal
The three cantons of Rojava: Afrin Canton (orange), Kobanî Canton (red), Jazira Canton (green), and the Shahba region (pink)
Country	Syria
Governorate	Aleppo
De facto Administration	Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
Autonomy declared	January 29, 2014 (2014-01-29)
Administrative center	Afrin
Government
• Prime Minister	Hevi Ibrahim
Population
• Estimate (2004)	172,095[1]
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Area code	+963 21
Website	http://cantonafrin.com/en/

Map of Rojava cantons in February 2014

Afrin Canton (Kurdish: Kantona Efrînê‎) is the westernmost of the four cantons of Rojava. It was declared autonomous in January 2014.^[2][3] The canton was established on Afrin District of the Aleppo Governorate of Syria. The administrative center of the canton is the town of Afrin.^[4] The prime minister of Afrin Canton is Hevi Ibrahim.

Geography

Afrin is the furthest west and most mountainous part of Rojava. It consists of southern part of the Kurd Mountains. Afrîn Canton is bordered by the de facto Shahba region to the east, Kilis Province of Turkey to the north and Hatay Province of Turkey to the west, Al-Dana Nahiyah of the Harem District of Idlib and Mount Simeon District of Aleppo Governorates of Syria to the south.

Demographics

The population of the Afrin Canton area is overwhelmingly ethnic Kurdish, to the degree that the canton has been described as "homogeneously Kurdish".^[5] Its overall population number according to the 2004 Syrian census was 172,095.^[6]

Cities and towns with more than 10.000 inhabitants according to the 2004 Syrian census are Afrin (36,562) and Jandairis (13,661).

Throughout the course of the Syrian Civil War, Afrin Canton has been a safe haven for inbound refugees of all ethnicities, fleeing violence and destruction from civil war factions, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the diverse more or less Islamist rebel groups of the Syrian opposition.^[7][8] According to a June 2016 estimate from the International Middle East Peace Research Center, about 316,000 displaced Syrians of Kurdish,Yazidis, Arab and Turkmen ethnicity lived in Afrin Canton at the time.^[9]

History

According to René Dussaud, the region of Kurd-Dagh and the plain near Antioch were settled by Kurds since antiquity.^[10][11] Stefan Sperl says that there is a reason to believe that Kurdish settlements in the Kurd Mountains go back to the Seleucid era, since those regions stood in the path to Antioch; Kurds in the early periods served as mercenaries and mounted archers.^[12] In any case, the Kurd Mountains were already Kurdish-inhabited when the Crusades broke out at the end of the 11th century.^[13]

The area around Afrin, today's Afrin Canton, over the centuries developed as the center of a distinctive Sufi "Kurdish Islam".^[14] In modern post-independence Syria, the Kurdish society of the region was subject to heavy-handed Arabization policies by the Damascus government.^[15]

In the course of the Syrian Civil War, Damascus government forces pulled back from the region in spring 2012 to give way to autonomous self-administration within the Rojava framework, which was formally declared on 29 January 2014, and the territory of Afrin Canton has virtually never seen civil war combat.^[16] It has however at various times been the target of artillery shelling by Islamist rebel groups^[17] as well as by Turkey.^[18][16][19]

Politics and administration

According to the Constitution of Rojava, Afrin Canton's Legislative Assembly on its 29 January 2014 session declared autonomy.^[20] The assembly elected Hêvî Îbrahîm Mustefa prime minister, who appointed Remzi Şêxmus and Ebdil Hemid Mistefa her deputies.

The remaining Executive Council was appointed as follows:^[21]

Economy

Aleppo soap

A diverse agricultural production is at the heart of the Afrin Canton economy,^[22] traditionally in particular olives, and more recently there was a focus on increasing wheat production.^[23] A well-known product is Aleppo soap, a hard soap made from olive oil and lye, distinguished by the inclusion of laurel oil. While Afrin Canton has been the source of olive oil for Aleppo soap since antiquity, the destruction caused by the Syrian Civil War to other parts of Aleppo governorate has increasingly made the entire production chains locate in Afrin Canton.^[24][25]

Afrin Canton is under an embargo imposed by Turkey,^[26] which places high burdens on international import and export. For example, transportation of Aleppo soap to international markets, as far as possible at all, has at least four times the transportation cost as compared to pre-war years.^[27]

Education

Like in the other Rojava cantons, pimary education in the public schools is initially by mother tongue instruction either Kurdish or Arabic, with the aim of bilingualism in Kurdish and Arabic in secondary schooling.^[28][29] Curricula are a topic of continuous debate between the cantons' Boards of Education and the Syrian central government in Damascus, which partly pays the teachers.^{[30][31][32][33]}

The federal, cantonal and local administrations in Rojava put much emphasis on promoting libraries and educational centers, to facilitate learning and social and artistic activities.^[34]

Afrin Canton has one institution of higher education, the University of Afrin, founded in 2015. After teaching three programs (Electromechanical Engineering, Kurdish Literature and Economy) in the first academic year, the second academic year with an increased 22 professors and 250 students has three additional programs (Human Medicine, Journalism and Agricultural Engineering).^[35]

See also

• Federalization of Syria
• Rojava conflict
• Rojava
• Jazira Canton
• Kobanî Canton
• Shahba region

References

External links

• Official website (English) (Arabic) (Kurdish)
• Map of majority ethnicities in Syria by Gulf2000 project of Columbia university

Rojava articles
History	Syrian Civil War Rojava conflict History of human rights in Rojava Historic Background of Rojava History of the Kurds History of the Assyrians Archeological Tell Halaf Tell Barri Tell Brak Hamoukar Urkesh Chagar Bazar Tell Arbid Tell Leilan Carchemish Tell Taban Dūr-Katlimmu
Geography	Subdivisions Jazira Canton Kobanî Canton Afrin Canton Shahba region Towns Al-Hasakah Al-Qamishli Manbij Kobanî Afrin Ras al-Ayn Amuda Al-Malikiyah Tell Rifaat Al-Qahtaniyah Al-Shaddadah Al-Muabbada Tell Abyad Al-Sabaa wa Arbain Jandairis Al-Manajir Qabasin Kurd Mountains Khabur River
Politics	Libertarian socialism Libertarian municipalism Democratic Confederalism Jineology Constitution of Rojava Government of Rojava Human rights in Rojava Foreign relations of Rojava Parliament Political parties Voting Police Sutoro Self-Defense Forces Syrian Democratic Forces People's Protection Units Syriac Military Council Army of Revolutionaries Al-Sanadid Forces
Economy	Economy of Rojava
Culture	Flag of Rojava Demographics of Rojava People Kurds Syrians Assyrians Turkmen Armenians Circassians Yazidis Bedouin Languages Northern Kurdish North Mesopotamian Arabic Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Turoyo Syrian Turkmen
Category