Afrin, Syria

Afrin (Arabic: عفرين, romanized: Ifrīn; Kurdish: عەفرین, romanized: Efrîn) is a Kurdish majority city in northern Syria. In the Afrin District, it is part of the Aleppo Governorate. The total population of the district as of 2020 was recorded at 172,095 people, of whom 70,000 lived in the town of Afrin itself.

The town and district are named after the Afrin River. The city is split into two distinct halves by the river. It is located in the westernmost part of Syrian Kurdistan.

As a result of Operation Olive Branch, the People's Defense Units of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria ("Rojava" or "AANES") withdrew after the city's encirclement from Afrin on 17 March 2018 and the Syrian National Army and Turkish Armed Forces captured Afrin the next day, bringing it under the Turkish occupation of northern Syria.

While thousands fled as the Syrian Democratic Forces of the AANES retreated, an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 people remained in Afrin city after the Turkish capture. After the civil war largely ended, control of the city was transferred to the newly installed Syrian government in early 2025. By October 2025, the Afrin administration announced 20,000 families have returned to Afrin since the fall of the Assad regime.