Arab Belt project

The Arab Belt (Arabic: الحزام العربي, romanized: al-hizām al-ʿarabī; Kurdish: که‌مبه‌را عه‌ره‌بی, romanized: Kembera Erebî) was a project undertaken by Ba'athist Syria, which aimed to Arabize the northern areas of the Al-Hasakah Governorate, to the detriment of other ethnic groups, particularly the Kurds.

It primarily involved the expulsion of Kurds from public land used as pasture, and the settlement of Arabs, in their place. The program was implemented in 1973; deporting around 140,000 Kurds and confiscating their lands around a 180-mile strip. Thousands of Arabs—around 4,000 families who were displaced by the creation of Euphrates Lake in Raqqa—were then granted these lands to establish settlements.