The federalization of Syria has been controversially proposed as a possible solution to end the Syrian Civil War. In the broadest sense, it means turning the

centralized Centralisation or centralization (American English) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning, decision-making, and framing strategies and policies, become concentrated within a particular ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

into a

federal republic A federal republic is a federation of Federated state, states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means a country that is governed by elected re ...

with autonomous subdivisions. Many powers and actors involved in the Syrian Civil War have entertained the idea of "federal division", not least among them

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

representatives, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

has publicly rejected the idea of federalism, asserting that the Arab majority in Syria is opposed to such proposals. Most of the neighbouring countries in the region have also dismissed the proposal, including the members of the

Arab League The Arab League (, ' ), officially the League of Arab States (, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Due to the fact that federalization would more or less follow ethnic and possibly also religious-sectarian lines, it has been dismissed as "division of the country" and "

Balkanization Balkanization or Balkanisation is the process involving the fragmentation of an area, country, or region into multiple smaller and hostile units. It is usually caused by differences in ethnicity, culture, religion, and geopolitical interests. ...

" by its opponents. Most factions of the

Syrian opposition Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

, such as the

Syrian National Council The Syrian National Council (SNC), sometimes known as the Syrian National Transitional Council or the National Council of Syria, was a Syrian opposition coalition, based in Istanbul, Turkey, formed in August 2011 during the Syrian civil upris ...

and the

National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, commonly named the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), or the Syrian National Revolutionary Coalition (SNRC) was a political organization founded in Doha, Qatar, in November 2012 ...

, have consistently rejected the idea of federalization. On the other hand, Kurdish opposition parties have strongly promoted the idea. The

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

-based opposition party

Syria's Tomorrow Movement The Syria's Tomorrow Movement () is a Syrian opposition party founded in March 2016 in Cairo by Ahmad Jarba, a Syrian National Council member. The party was backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and cooperates with the National Coalition f ...

takes an intermediate position.

Timeline during the Syrian Civil War

On 17 March 2016, the

Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), also known as Rojava, is a ''de facto'' Autonomous administrative division, autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing Regions of North and E ...

was unilaterally declared a federation of autonomous cantons modelled after the

cantons of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the Federated state, member states of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important ...

;

Afrin Canton Afrin Canton (; ; ) was one of the cantons of Rojava. Syria's Afrin District fell under the control of the People's Protection Units (YPG) around 2012 and an "Afrin Canton" (now Afrin Region) was declared in 2014. Afrin Canton in its latest form ...

Jazira Canton The Jazira Region, formerly Jazira Canton (; ; ), is the largest of the three original regions of the de facto Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). As part of the ongoing Rojava conflict, its democratic autonomy was offi ...

and

Kobanî Canton Euphrates Region, formerly Kobanî Canton, (; ; ) is the central of three original regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, comprising Ayn al-Arab District of the Aleppo Governorate, Tell Abyad District of the Raqqa G ...

, as well as the

Shahba region The Shahba Canton (, , ) was a political unit of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, in the Aleppo Governorate. The canton was established to administer the areas captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces from the Islamic State ...

. The federation is considered by its protagonists to be a model for Syria as a whole. The move was dismissed by the Syrian government and disapproved of by Turkey and the United States. In September 2016, the Secretary-General of the

Ahmed Aboul Gheit Ahmed Aboul Gheit ( , also: Abu al-Ghayt, Abu El Gheyt; born 12 June 1942) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat. He has been Secretary-General of the Arab League since July 2016. He was reappointed for a second term on 3 March 2021. Aboul-Gheit ...

, came out in an interview as one of the first regional politicians taking a public stand for the federalization of Syria. He said that the establishment of a federal system in Syria would "guarantee to preserve the institutions and unity" and that a federal system would be "the most appropriate solution and will protect the country from destruction." In October 2016, a Russian initiative for federalization with a focus on northern Syria was reported, which at its core called for the existing institutions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to be recognised by the

Syrian government The government of Syria takes place in a presidential system and is currently in a transitionary period under and led by a transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria. On 8 December 2024, after the succ ...

, which rejected the call. After multilateral peace talks in Astana in January 2017, Russia offered a draft for a future constitution of Syria, which would inter alia turn the "Syrian Arab Republic" into the "Republic of Syria", introduce decentralized authorities as well as elements of federalism like "association areas", strengthen the parliament at the cost of the presidency, and realize

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

by abolishing Islamic jurisprudence as a source of legislation. The same month,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Foreign Secretary

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

said that "implementation of a Dayton style accord in Syria and introduction of some form of a federal solution in Syria (...) may indeed be the right way forward or the only way forward in the end of all this."

Historical antecedents

French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon map en

During the

French mandate The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (; , also referred to as the Levant States; 1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning the territori ...

, Syria was subdivided into various autonomous entities, most of which bore the designation "

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

" (in French ''État''; in Arabic ''Dawlat''): * the State of the Alawites * the Province of Jazira * the

Jabal Druze State Jabal al-Druze (, ) was an autonomous state in the French Mandate of Syria from 1921 to 1936, designed to function as a government for the local Druze population under French oversight. Nomenclature On 4 March 1922, it was proclaimed as ...

(originally called the State of Souaida) * the

State of Aleppo The State of Aleppo (; ') was one of the six states that were established by the France, French High Commissioner of the Levant, General Henri Gouraud (French Army officer), Henri Gouraud, in the Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, French Mandate of ...

* the

State of Damascus The State of Damascus (; ') was one of the six states established by the French General Henri Gouraud in the French Mandate of Syria which followed the San Remo conference of 1920 and the defeat of King Faisal's short-lived monarchy in Syri ...

* the

State of Greater Lebanon The State of Greater Lebanon (; ), informally known as French Lebanon, was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic (; ) in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon. The state was declared on 1 Septembe ...

* the State of Hatay (originally called the

Sanjak of Alexandretta The Sanjak of Alexandretta (; ; ) was a sanjak of the Mandate of Syria composed of two qadaas of the former Aleppo Vilayet ( Alexandretta and Antioch, now İskenderun and Antakya). It became autonomous under Article 7 of the 1921 Treaty of An ...

) * the

State of Syria The State of Syria (, ') was a French Mandate state created by decree of 5 December 1924, with effect from 1 January 1925, from the union of the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus. It was the successor of the Syrian Federation (1922� ...

These autonomous entities did not correspond to the

administrative division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

Ottoman Syria Ottoman Syria () is a historiographical term used to describe the group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of the Levant, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Ara ...

. France ceded

Hatay Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, ...

to Turkey in 1939, and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

became an independent state (separate from the rest of Syria) in 1945.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * * * {{cite journal, last1=Khaddour, first1=K., last2=Mazur, first2=K., year=2013, title=The Struggle for Syria's Regions, journal=Middle East Report, volume=43, pages=269– Decentralization * Politics of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria Politics of the Syrian civil war Subdivisions of Syria Syrian peace process

Timeline during the Syrian Civil War

Historical antecedents

See also

Notes

References

External links