Twenty Years of Demographic Change in Iraq and Syria

Sartip Jawhar | Exclusive to iKurd.net
Translated by iKurd.net from Kurdish Awene

The scenes of the heinous crimes witnessed over the past two days, circulated by gangs and armed militants of the Islamic State in al-Sham (ISIS) against Kurdish civilians in Aleppo, clearly reveal the nature of the regime and expose the reality, aggression, and racist character of the Arab Sunni street in Syria toward the Kurds.

In these crimes committed against the Kurds, it was not only the armed militants of the Islamic State in al-Sham who were involved. In addition, the Turkish regime, along with dozens of media outlets in Arab and Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, supported these acts of genocide.

With all their capacity, they incited the Syrian street and spread the poison of hatred and Arab chauvinist racism. By all standards and logic, the continued presence of Kurdish civilians in that city will be extremely difficult. Indeed, the Kurds of Syria are facing the worst forms of nationalistic and religious racist oppression.

Over the past 20 years, due to ethnic chauvinism and religious and sectarian extremism, the societies of the region have been confronted with devastating violence, profound demographic change, and the disappearance of diversity.

Following the fall of the Baath regime, Baghdad and several Iraqi provinces, where Shiites and Sunnis had long lived together, were completely divided by sectarian and confessional violence. Today, Baghdad has only a small Sunni minority, and other cities have similarly experienced mass displacement. Likewise, the majority of Christians in central Iraq either relocated to the Kurdistan Region or emigrated to Europe and the United States.

After the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and its occupation of various cities, several components of society were subjected to genocide or forced mass displacement.

In Syria, during the early phase of ISIS’s formation, particularly between 2013 and 2016, most cities in central regions such as Raqqa, the countryside of Hasaka, Deir ez-Zor, and others suffered destruction and forced displacement. To this day, many of these populations have not returned.

Similarly, in Iraq between 2014 and 2017, large parts of Mosul province were subjected to a highly dangerous campaign of ethnic cleansing. Yazidi Kurds in the northern areas of the province, including Sinjar, Sinune, and surrounding regions, faced major genocide and displacement, and to this day a significant number have not returned.

During the same period, in the center of Nineveh province and the city of Mosul, communities such as Christians, Sabeans, Yazidi Kurds, Shabak, Kakais, and others were forced to leave their homes, and most have yet to return. Even predominantly Christian towns of the Nineveh Plain, including Bartella, Hamdaniya, Karamles, and others, remain largely uninhabited and partially deserted.

During the occupations of Afrin, Serêkaniyê, and Girê Spî in 2018–2019, Kurdish residents of those areas were subjected to mass displacement. At the same time, the Turkish regime settled tens of thousands of Arabs and Turkmen in these regions as part of policies of Turkification and Arabization.

Following the collapse of the Assad regime and during only one year of rule by the Islamic State in al-Sham, from late 2024 to early 2026, three genocides and acts of mass displacement were carried out against Alawites, Druze, and most recently, Kurds.

In the latest wave of genocide and mass displacement perpetrated by ISIS militants, from the evening of January 6 to the present, tens of thousands of Kurdish families from Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo have been forcibly displaced. They have been driven from their homes without knowing where to go. Worse still, they continue to face systematic ethnic and racist oppression at the hands of the Islamic State in al-Sham.

All these crimes of genocide, displacement, and destruction are taking place in full view of the international community and of countries that claim to champion democracy and human rights. Even more alarming is the fact that some so-called leading Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are in various ways supporting those states and terrorist groups that continue to commit crimes against the peoples of the region.

This article was originally published in the Kurdish language in Awene Newspaper on January 11, 2026.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.