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Shahba Canton
The Shahba Canton (Kurdish: Kantona Şehba, Arabic: مقاطعة الشهباء, Classical Syriac: ܦܠܩܐ ܕܫܗܒܐ, romanized: Pelqo d'Shahba) 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 of Iraq and the Levant west of the Euphrates, as part of the Afrin Region.
The Shahba autonomous region was founded during the first and second conferences of the Shahba region in Afrin on 28 January 2016 and 2–4 February 2016. The conferences set up the Shahba Regional Assembly with its own council and senate and a de facto autonomous administration, created on 22 March 2016. During the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, the remaining SDF-controlled area around Tell Rifaat was also taken by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
Shahba is a nickname for the city of Aleppo. The Shahba Canton originally denoted the parts of northern Aleppo Governorate of Syria that are under the administrative control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria as part of the Afrin Region. Accordingly, the canton initially included Manbij, but by 2019, Shahba Canton had been restructured and only included the area around Tel Rifaat and Menagh.
The population of Shahba Canton mainly consists of Arab Syrians, with an additional considerable Syrian Turkmen and Kurdish population; among the latter are many people displaced by the Syrian civil war. Fabrice Balanche claims that toponymy and maps published by the French colonial authorities indicate that a significant percentage of inhabitants of Shahba who are officially classified as Arabs have Kurdish origins. From early 2018, thousands of Kurds fled from Afrin and resettled in Shahba Canton.
As of March 2016, Society for Threatened Peoples estimated that there were 450 inhabited villages in the Shahba plain to the north and the east of Aleppo around Azaz, Al-Bab, Manbij and As-Safira, claiming 217 of these settlements to be Kurdish. However, in Fabrice Balanche's article from the same year, it was claimed that the Kurdish population in the Afrin canton at the time (which included the "nearly 100 percent Kurdish" western Afrin district) was going to be diluted to 30 percent with the possible incorporation of the Shahba plain. Likewise, Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies disagreed with the estimates of the Society for Threatened Peoples, claiming that it inflated the local number of Kurds. The ethnic makeup of the area was also affected by the Syrian civil war; for instance, in several cases Arab families in the Shahba plain fled the advance of the YPG/YPJ, whereas Kurds fled from Turkish and allied forces.
Tell Rifaat is the largest town in the canton. According to the 2004 Syrian census, Tell Rifaat had 20,514 inhabitants. Following the Turkish Operation Olive Branch, many Kurds, Arabs, and Yazidis fled to the Shahba Canton, forming five refugee camps near Tell Rifaat. In 2020, the Rojava Information Center claimed that Tell Rifaat housed 200,000 internally displaced persons; a local in Shahba Canton estimated in late 2021 that the number was closer to 100,000.
In the second half of 2012, most of the region was captured from the Syrian government by opposition groups, including the People's Protection Units (YPG) and its ally the Kurdish Front. In January 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who had been infiltrating the region over the course of the previous year, launched a massive assault, and eventually captured almost the entire region, including Manbij, Jarabulus and Al-Bab, up to Dabiq.
On the western side, some territory in the Azaz district stayed under the control of non-ISIL forces, villages and towns occasionally contested and changing hands between Afrin District based YPG and allies (all since October 2015 under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF) and diverse rebel militias, until finally a February 2016 offensive by SDF forces, inter alia capturing Tel Rifaat and Menagh Airbase, created today's borderline between them.
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Shahba Canton
The Shahba Canton (Kurdish: Kantona Şehba, Arabic: مقاطعة الشهباء, Classical Syriac: ܦܠܩܐ ܕܫܗܒܐ, romanized: Pelqo d'Shahba) 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 of Iraq and the Levant west of the Euphrates, as part of the Afrin Region.
The Shahba autonomous region was founded during the first and second conferences of the Shahba region in Afrin on 28 January 2016 and 2–4 February 2016. The conferences set up the Shahba Regional Assembly with its own council and senate and a de facto autonomous administration, created on 22 March 2016. During the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, the remaining SDF-controlled area around Tell Rifaat was also taken by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
Shahba is a nickname for the city of Aleppo. The Shahba Canton originally denoted the parts of northern Aleppo Governorate of Syria that are under the administrative control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria as part of the Afrin Region. Accordingly, the canton initially included Manbij, but by 2019, Shahba Canton had been restructured and only included the area around Tel Rifaat and Menagh.
The population of Shahba Canton mainly consists of Arab Syrians, with an additional considerable Syrian Turkmen and Kurdish population; among the latter are many people displaced by the Syrian civil war. Fabrice Balanche claims that toponymy and maps published by the French colonial authorities indicate that a significant percentage of inhabitants of Shahba who are officially classified as Arabs have Kurdish origins. From early 2018, thousands of Kurds fled from Afrin and resettled in Shahba Canton.
As of March 2016, Society for Threatened Peoples estimated that there were 450 inhabited villages in the Shahba plain to the north and the east of Aleppo around Azaz, Al-Bab, Manbij and As-Safira, claiming 217 of these settlements to be Kurdish. However, in Fabrice Balanche's article from the same year, it was claimed that the Kurdish population in the Afrin canton at the time (which included the "nearly 100 percent Kurdish" western Afrin district) was going to be diluted to 30 percent with the possible incorporation of the Shahba plain. Likewise, Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies disagreed with the estimates of the Society for Threatened Peoples, claiming that it inflated the local number of Kurds. The ethnic makeup of the area was also affected by the Syrian civil war; for instance, in several cases Arab families in the Shahba plain fled the advance of the YPG/YPJ, whereas Kurds fled from Turkish and allied forces.
Tell Rifaat is the largest town in the canton. According to the 2004 Syrian census, Tell Rifaat had 20,514 inhabitants. Following the Turkish Operation Olive Branch, many Kurds, Arabs, and Yazidis fled to the Shahba Canton, forming five refugee camps near Tell Rifaat. In 2020, the Rojava Information Center claimed that Tell Rifaat housed 200,000 internally displaced persons; a local in Shahba Canton estimated in late 2021 that the number was closer to 100,000.
In the second half of 2012, most of the region was captured from the Syrian government by opposition groups, including the People's Protection Units (YPG) and its ally the Kurdish Front. In January 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who had been infiltrating the region over the course of the previous year, launched a massive assault, and eventually captured almost the entire region, including Manbij, Jarabulus and Al-Bab, up to Dabiq.
On the western side, some territory in the Azaz district stayed under the control of non-ISIL forces, villages and towns occasionally contested and changing hands between Afrin District based YPG and allies (all since October 2015 under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF) and diverse rebel militias, until finally a February 2016 offensive by SDF forces, inter alia capturing Tel Rifaat and Menagh Airbase, created today's borderline between them.