Part of a series on the Syrian civil war
Syrian peace process
History Arab League initiative I 2011 Arab League initiative II 2011-12 Churkin peace plan 2012 Kofi Annan peace plan (Geneva I) 2012 Lakhdar Brahimi peace plan 2012 U.S.–Russia peace proposal (2013) 2013 Geneva II Mideast peace conference 2014 Staffan de Mistura peace plan 2015 Zabadani agreement 2015 Vienna talks 2015 Geneva III 2016 US-Russia ceasefire proposal (2016) 2016 Geneva IV 2017 Idlib demilitarization 2018 Northern Syria Buffer Zone 2019 Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone 2019 Syrian Constitutional Committee 2019
Primary concerns Bashar Assad presidentship Ba'athist government Opposition government Secularism in Syria Human rights Refugees Humanitarian aid Sectarianism
Secondary concerns Electricity supply Water supply Control of oil Situation in Aleppo Siege of Madaya
International brokers Peace envoy for Syria (United Nations) UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian affairs Arab League
Proposals Federalization of Syria Destruction of Chemical Weapons Constitution amendment: Constitution of Syria Constitution of Syrian Opposition Constitution of Rojava Safe Zones
Projects Friends of Syria Group Free Syrian University Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently
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Governorates and districts of Syria

Syrian Civil War frontlines

Ethno-religious composition (1976)

The regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria

The federalization of Syria has been controversially proposed as a possible solution to end the Syrian Civil War.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} In the broadest sense, it means turning the centralized Syrian Arab Republic into a federal republic with autonomous subdivisions. Many powers and actors involved in the Syrian Civil War have entertained the idea of "federal division", not least among them Russia, United Nations representatives, the United States^[3] and Israel.^[6] Bashar al-Assad has publicly rejected the idea of federalism, asserting that the Arab majority in Syria is opposed to such proposals.^[a] Most of the neighbouring countries in the region have also dismissed the proposal, including the members of the Arab League and Turkey.^[12][13]

Due to the fact that federalization would more or less follow ethnic and possibly also religious-sectarian lines, it has been dismissed as "division of the country" and "Balkanization" by its opponents.^[2][4] Most factions of the Syrian opposition, such as the Syrian National Council and the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, have consistently rejected the idea of federalization.^[14] On the other hand, Kurdish opposition parties have strongly promoted the idea.^[3] The Egypt-based opposition party Syria's Tomorrow Movement takes an intermediate position.^[15][16]

Timeline during the Syrian Civil War

On 17 March 2016, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria was unilaterally declared a federation of autonomous cantons modelled after the cantons of Switzerland; Afrin Canton, Jazira Canton and Kobanî Canton, as well as the Shahba region. The federation is considered by its protagonists to be a model for Syria as a whole.^[17] The move was dismissed by the Syrian government and disapproved of by Turkey and the United States.^[18]

In September 2016, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, came out in an interview as one of the first regional politicians taking a public stand for the federalization of Syria. He said that the establishment of a federal system in Syria would "guarantee to preserve the institutions and unity" and that a federal system would be "the most appropriate solution and will protect the country from destruction."^[19]

In October 2016, a Russian initiative for federalization with a focus on northern Syria was reported, which at its core called for the existing institutions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to be recognised by the Syrian government, which rejected the call.^[20]

After multilateral peace talks in Astana in January 2017, Russia offered a draft for a future constitution of Syria, which would inter alia turn the "Syrian Arab Republic" into the "Republic of Syria", introduce decentralized authorities as well as elements of federalism like "association areas", strengthen the parliament at the cost of the presidency, and realize secularism by abolishing Islamic jurisprudence as a source of legislation.^{[21][22][23][24]} The same month, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that "implementation of a Dayton style accord in Syria and introduction of some form of a federal solution in Syria (...) may indeed be the right way forward or the only way forward in the end of all this."^[25]

Historical antecedents

During the French mandate, Syria was subdivided into various autonomous entities, most of which bore the designation "state" (in French État; in Arabic Dawlat):

• the State of the Alawites
• the Province of Jazira
• the Jabal Druze State (originally called the State of Souaida)
• the State of Aleppo
• the State of Damascus
• the State of Greater Lebanon
• the State of Hatay (originally called the Sanjak of Alexandretta)
• the State of Syria

These autonomous entities did not correspond to the administrative division of Ottoman Syria. France ceded Hatay to Turkey in 1939, and Lebanon became an independent state (separate from the rest of Syria) in 1945.