Demographic History of Afrin

A Brief Look at Afrin.

While today the region is often on the news due to the Turkish military operation, there is a lot to talk about the region and we need to go back in time. But not recent time, I'm talking about hundreds of years ago.

In order to get a good grasp of today's events we should have a good idea about the history and have a better perspective.

Today it has a population of 200,000 and back then during the Roman Empire it had even lower population we cant know for sure now but its likely that the city of Afrin had a mixed population of Arabs, Armenians and possibly other Christians and maybe some Jews. It was one of the buffer zones between various Caliphates and Byzantines and because of on and off wars it didnt really prosper as much as it could so the population remained low.

With the conquests of Seljuks the area saw a huge influx of Turkish tribes and previously sparsely-populated area now was a thriving region with Turkish villages and small Turkish towns. Today these names can still be found which we will talk about it soon in the upcoming parts of the video.

As Turkish conquests continued through west, once prospered region took a blow to its grandeur days as Seljuks resettled many of these tribes. One of the famous tribes from the the area was (not necessarily from Afrin region but we can group them all together as being from greater Aleppo region) Kayı tribe which was going to establish Ottoman Empire in Northwestern Anatolia.

The region witnessed massive demographic change with the Christian rule that came with the Crusades as the region was under heavy influence of Crusader states such County of Edessa and Principality of Antioch. Many Turks moved to safer locations mostly in Central Anatolia and its likely that most of the remaining Turkish people were massacred.

A new population influx arrived with the Christians and now it was more common to see a Christian Arab than a Muslim Arab. It's likely that the Jews escaped as well because usually they were seen as same as Muslims by the Crusaders. The city didnt receive a big Armenian influx because there was already an Armenian State called Kingdom of Lesser Armenia in Cilicia region.

After a few hundred years the region was conquered by Turkish Mamluks and the region stayed so sparsely populated with a few Turkish and Arab villages there and there.

The region must have been affected from the Mongols but didnt suffer a significant amount. Maybe the population had risen with refugees coming from central and eastern Anatolia or even central Asia.

Though Dulkadiroğulları Beylik didnt rule in Afrin region there were people in Afrin from Dulkadir tribe. The relations between two Turkish state was normal in fact they were in sort of an alliance though some like to say Dulkadir was a protectorate of Mamluks and this led to Ottoman conquest of Dulkadiroğulları Beylik before the Ottoman army's march towards Cairo and Hejaz.

Things went pretty quiet for the region in the next two centuries or so. Most of what is known is that the region was used by nomadic and semi nomadic Turkomans from time to time. With more resettlements of nomadic Turks to the west and Balkans, the region was being used by Arabs to do farming and recently by nomadic Kurds who came to graze their animals. From the beginning of 19th century the Kurdish nomads started to settle with incentives being received from Ottoman Empire and soon the region had a slight Kurdish majority. This continued to be the case until the end of Ottoman Empire.

The collapse of Ottoman Empire and birth of the new Turkish nation led to Turks leaving Afrin and coming to the newly founded republic. The Kurdish revolts during Turkish War for Independence had created some unwanted Kurdish citizens and these Kurds were accepted by France, further changing the overall ethnicity of the region.

Assad family settled some Arabs in the region to balance out the ethnicity. But with the deteriorating Syrian power, the Army had to pull out of region and regroup and the far more important locations for Syrian regime, the area was left to PYD and their armed wing YPG. This led another mass exodus of Turks and Arabs in the region, even homogenizing the ethnicity of the region farther and farther.

As I had promised in the beginning of the video, now I will go over the names in Afrin.

I grouped villages by 8 categories.

Category I: The settlements that end with Turkish suffix li/lu/lı/lü.

These settlements have li/lu suffixes (omiting the ones with special Turkish letters ü and ı ) at the end. The root word might be from Turkish or Arabic or it could just a given name. This is the most common naming type. These are:

Arabli: (place) with Arab                Araplı

Kusanli: (place) with Kusan          Kusanlı

Sharanli                                                Şaranlı

Matinli                                                  Metinli

Mamali                                                 Mamalı

Maskanli                                              Meskenli

Kuranli                                                  Kuranlı

Kilanli                                                    Kılanlı

Shamanli                                              Şamanlı

Umranli                                Ümranlı

Karakinli                                               Karakınlı

Utmanli                                Osmanlı

Huwaykanli                                         Hüveykenli

Ba'dinli                                                  Badinli

Dunballi                                                Dunballı

Rahmanli                                             Rahmanlı

Qatranli                                                Katranlı

Hayamli                                                Hayamlı

Duraqli                                                  Duraklı

Salikanli                                                Salıkanlı

Sharyanli                                              Şeryanlı

Ada Manli                                            Adamanlı

Qutanli                                                 Kutanlı

Ramadanli                                           Ramazanlı

Sulaqli                                                   Sulaklı

Qurazli                                                  Kirazlı

Anbarli                                                  Anbarlı

Jatanli                                                   Çatanlı

Jarkhatli                                               Çarkatlı

Zarkanli                                Zarkanlı

Hay Ughlu                                           Hayırlı

Shaykh Muhammadli                      Şeyh Muhammetli

Khujamanli                                         Kocamanlı

Rutanli                                                  Rutanlı

Hajji Hasanli                                        Hacı Hasanlı

Category II: The settlements that have "Kuy" at the end. The word Kuy comes from Turkish word "Köy" which means village. These are:

Tabah Kuy                                           Tepe Köy

Bali Kuy                                 Balı Köy

Baylan Kuy                                          Baylan Köy

Category III: The settlements end with "Ubasi". Turkish word Oba means, place of temporary residence of nomads. "Si" at the end is another suffix that is added when two names come following each other. These are:

Bak Ubasi                                            Bey Obası

Mahmud Ubasi                                 Mahmut Obası

Shaykh Ubasi                                     Şeyh Obası

Dik Ubah Si                                         Dik Obası

Saghir Ubasi                                       Sağır Obası

Darwish Ubasi                                   Derviş Obası

Hajji Khalil Ubah Si                           Hacı Halil Obası

Category IV: The settlements end with Ushagi. Uşak means servent, kid or it is used to indicate someone's origin in Turkish. These are:

Habul Ushagi                                      Habil Usağı

Naz Ushagi                                          Naz Usağı

Khalilak Ushagi                                  Halile Usağı

Sari Usagi                                            Sarı Usağı

Babak Ushagi                                     Babak Usağı

Umar Ushagi                                      Umar Usağı

Ma mal Ushagi                                  Mamal Usağı

Arab Usagi                                          Arap Usağı

Category V: These settlements have a color in their names. In Turkish culture the colors constitute a very important place and they are/were used throughout the history to name directions, names, places, adjectives, countries and so on. These are:

Qarah Bash                                         Karabaş

Qarah Baba                                         Karababa

Qizil Bash                                             Kızılbaş

Qara Tabbah                                      Karatepe

Category VI: Miscelleanous. These are:

Jandaris                                                Cin Deresi

Qushlah                                               Kışla

İki Dam                                                 İki dam

Dikmah Tash                                      Dikme Taş

Bayramjah                                          Bayramca

İki Akhuz                                              İki ağız

Qarmanluq                                         Karmanlık

Juqur                                                     Çukur

Barakashah                                         Barak Aşağı

Çamlı Bel                                             Çamlı Bel

Buyuk Jaqmaq                                   Büyük Çakmak

Kharab Suluk                                      Harap Suluk

Qurt Qulak                                          Kurt Kulak

Qujaman                                             Kocaman

Jaqmaq Saghir                                   Çakmak Sağır

Ma Sar Juqq                                       Mezarcık

Category VII: Possibly Turkish.

Bandirak                                              Bandırak

Ballursanik                                          Ballursanık

Çobana                                                 Çoban

Turandah                                             Turan Dağı

Category VIII: Foreign origin but likely given by Turks.

Alamdar                                               Alemdar

Bulbul                                                   Bülbül