Rajo (; ) or Raju is a town in

Afrin District Afrin District (, Kurdish: Herêma Efrînê) is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Afrin. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 172,095. Also available in English: Afrin ...

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' ) is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the t ...

, northwestern

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 ...

. Rajo is the center of a sub-district of the same name with approximately 65 villages and farms around it. The town has around 4,000 inhabitants while the total population of the sub-district is 21,955 (2004 official census). Rajo nahiyah

Rajo is an old settlement that lies on the Baylan plateau to the west of Kurd Mountain. The name Rajo originated from an old Kurdish family of the same name of the trunk Schaykh(k)an. Rajo was connected to the Baghdad Railway in 1912.

Syrian Civil War

On 7 September 2016, at around 18:00 local time, the Turkish army started shelling the village of Sorkê located 7 km west-southwest of Rajo with

howitzer The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

s, mortar shells and

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

s. Six members of the Kurdish YPG security forces were killed. On 3 February 2018, armed clashes broke out in

Bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropic ...

and Rajo between the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces’ People's Protection Units (YPG) amidst the Turkish military intervention. On 3 March, Turkey-led forces captured Rajo, which had become one of the major Kurdish strongholds in west Afrin. It was besieged on three sides and fell with no significant resistance. In June 2021, the Governor of Hatay announced plans for the establishment of an Atatürk Museum in the house

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

stayed while fighting in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Since the attack by Turkish Forces into Rajo, the area has seen widespread destruction, and immense

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

. Accordingly in 2022, winter was threatening to create a famine for internally displaced persons in the region.

References

Populated places in Afrin District Kurdish communities in Syria Towns in Aleppo Governorate {{AleppoSY-geo-stub