Arab Belt Farmers Sell Land Due to Fears of Losing Ownership

Following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, farmers from the Arab Belt area in northeast Syria – known as Arab Al-Ghamr farmers – have sold hundreds of hectares of their lands in the Al-Malikiyah area in the Hassakeh governorate due to their fears of losing ownership of lands granted to them by the Syrian government in the 1970s.

The Social Justice Council of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) issued Decision No. 6 on December 28, 2021, prohibiting justice bureaus (courts) from accepting any legal claims related to state-owned properties located outside officially zoned areas. The decision covered all claims related to ownership rights, disposal, surface rights, and usufruct. The background of this decision is related to the suspension of farmers’ rights to dispose of their properties in the Arab Belt area.

The Arab Belt area stretches between Qamishli and Al-Malikiyah in the Hassakeh governorate. It was originally inhabited by Syrian Kurds, many of whom were registered as “foreigners” in Syria since the late 1960s, and were deprived of their civil rights. The lands of the Kurds were confiscated and redistributed to Arab farmers from the Al-Walda tribe, whose lands had been submerged by the waters of the Euphrates River in 1974, following the construction of the Euphrates Dam and Lake Assad in the Raqqa and Aleppo governorates. These displaced people, relocated from the flooded areas to the Arab Belt, became known as “Ghamr” farmers. In some other cases, lands belonging to “foreign Kurds” were granted to farmers from the rural areas of Aleppo and Hama, even though their lands were not submerged. In all cases, the Arab Socialist Baath Party used the Arab Belt project to implement demographic engineering in northern Hassakeh along the Syrian-Turkish border. The Ministry of Defence also appropriated large portions of Kurdish land to establish state-run farms, which remain contested today between the AANES and Kurdish farmers who are demanding their return.

This policy had a profound social impact. Many Kurdish farmers believe their lands were forcibly taken, while Arab Al-Ghamr farmers view themselves as legitimate owners, having received the land through official government allocation.

In light of growing discussions around the possibility of Kurds reclaiming their confiscated lands, Arab Al-Ghamr farmers now face a difficult choice: either to hold onto their land despite increasing risks, or to sell it unofficially before they lose it without compensation. The situation is further complicated by the fact that many of these sales occur through informal networks. The buyers are often influential figures within the AANES or wealthy Kurdish individuals seeking to recover their historical properties indirectly.

According to The Syria Report’s local correspondent, since the fall of the regime in December 2024, long-term lease contracts have been arranged for hundreds of hectares. In practice, these lands are being sold under 99-year lease contracts, as a means of circumventing legal restrictions on direct sales. Land prices vary depending on location and proximity to irrigation sources, ranging from USD 3,000 to 5,000 per hectare – a high amount given the region’s economic conditions.

There have also been multiple cases in which Arab Al-Ghamr farmers joined AANES security forces in an attempt to protect their interests and ensure their continued presence in the area. However, this engagement has not completely alleviated their concerns. At the same time, the villages of Arab Al-Ghamr continue to preserve the memory of confiscated lands, with locals still referring to agricultural fields by the names of their original Kurdish owners – a reflection of the complexity and layered nature of the issue. While some families handle sales cautiously, fearing future legal repercussions, others are seeking alliances with influential AANES figures to secure their presence.

A notable precedent occurred in 2018 in the eastern countryside of Al-Malikiyah, when a Kurdish farmer reclaimed land that had been seized as part of the Arab Belt project. This happened in the village of Zahriya, located on the banks of the Tigris River at the tri-border area between Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. In the 1970s, large tracts of land belonging to “foreign Kurds” were expropriated and allocated to farmers from the countryside of Salamieh in Hama governorate. This led to the establishment of a new neighbouring village known as Zahriya Saloumiyin (named after the Salamieh settlers, most of whom were Ismailis from Hama’s countryside). The Kurdish residents remained in Zahriya, while the settlers resided in Zahriya Saloumiyin.

This Kurdish farmer from Zahriya managed to recover his farmland in 2018 by relying on official documents issued by the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture that predated the 1974 land seizure. These documents had been preserved by his family for decades but were previously insufficient to reclaim the land. However, the shift in power dynamics after 2013 – with the rise of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the AANES – made it possible to revisit such cases. What distinguished this farmer’s case was his personal influence within the AANES security apparatus, which enabled him to recover his land without formal legal proceedings and to expel the farmers who had been occupying it.

This case is one of the earliest documented instances of Kurds reclaiming confiscated land, and it is an indication of an emerging trend in the region. This comes amid a growing number of cases involving forceful land reclamation and mounting pressure on the AANES to facilitate these processes. Simultaneously, the case heightened concerns among Arab Al-Ghamr farmers, who fear that losing lands allocated to them by government decree could become a new reality, especially in the absence of a clear legal framework protecting their ownership. This fear explains the increase in unofficial land sales motivated by concerns over uncompensated loss.

The fate of Arab Al-Ghamr lands under the AANES remains uncertain. With legal restrictions on property sales and transfers still in place, a future political escalation over this issue seems likely – especially if the AANES moves toward a clearer land redistribution agenda or begins appropriating lands for its own projects. Alternatively, the administration might preserve the current status quo, using the issue as a bargaining chip in any future political settlement with Damascus or international actors. While this remains a possibility, the prevailing reality suggests that Arab Al-Ghamr farmers are facing an uncertain future that may culminate in the loss of lands they have held for over four decades.

The issue of Arab Al-Ghamr lands in the Arab Belt reflects a broader, unresolved conflict over land ownership and identity in northeastern Syria. While each party seeks to assert its historical rights, these lands remain at the heart of a dispute that is unlikely to be resolved in the near future – especially amid ongoing political and military shifts in the region.