Country Syria District Tell Abyad P-Code C5843 Population 7,825 (2004) | Governorate Raqqa Time zone EET (UTC+2) Geocode SY110201 | |
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Suluk or Saluq is a town and nahiyah within the Tell Abyad District of Raqqa Governorate in Syria. Suluk is close to the border with Turkey. The population of town is predominately Arab. Turkish authorities claim the population of the town is predominately Turkmen, while the nahiyah consists mostly of Turkmen and Arabs. The Kurds are a minority in the district in total but make up the majority in the sparsely populated south. As a preliminary result of the ongoing Syrian Civil War, Suluk today is situated in Kobanî Canton within the autonomous Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava framework.
Map of Suluk%D8%8C Syria
In June 2015, Suluk was taken over by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the course of their Tell Abyad offensive. Istanbul-based journalist Roy Gutman claimed the YPG has been accused of barring the return of its residents, "razing" nearby villages, and "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs. They have denied these allegations, calling them "biased, unprofessional and politicized".
On February 27, 2016, fighters of the terrorist group Islamic State attacked Suluk, the village Hammam at‑Turkuman and Tall Abyad. At this point, the towns were not directly at the front to ISIL-held territory anymore and the jihadists were able to expel the Kurdish People's Protection Units in this surprise attack from Suluk and Hammam at-Turkuman. Kurdish security forces soon were able to encircle the attackers and recaptured the villages on March 3, 2016. The liberation came too late for 15 civilians in Hammam at-Turkuman, which were executed by the jihadists in the charge of "Refusing to corporate with IS and helping the YPG earlier".
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 70 fighters from the Islamic State and 20 Kurdish fighters were killed during the clashes.
A spokesman of the YPG, Redur Xelil, accused Turkey of supporting the terrorists because some of them infiltrated from the Turkish border to the north. Turkey denied the accusations.
In the early 13th century, during Ayyubid rule, the medieval geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi noted that Suluk was "a town of Syria".