Arab Belt project

Arab Belt
الحزام العربي
	Al-Hasakah Governorate highlighted in red
Date	1973–1976
Location	Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria
Type	Forced deportations
Motive	Arab nationalism, Arabization, Ba'athification
Perpetrator	Ba'athist Syria
Organized by	Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party; Syrian Arab Armed Forces
Outcome	120,000 Kurds deprived of Syrian citizenship in 1962; Hafez al-Assad orders the launch of Arab Belt program in 1973; Deportation of 140,000 Kurds and replacement with Arab settlers from Raqqa; 4,000 Arab families settled in new villages in 1973; Tabqa Dam built by the Syrian government in 1973;
Target	Syrian Kurds

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.