The majority of Syrian Kurds are originally Turkish Kurds who have crossed the border during different events in the 20th century.[14] There are three major centers for the Kurdish population in Syrian, the northern part of the Jazira, the central Euphrates Region around Kobanî and in the west the area around Afrin.[15] All of these are on the Syria-Turkey border, and there are also substantial Kurdish communities in Aleppo and Damascus further south.
^World Factbook (Online ed.). Langley, Virginia: US Central Intelligence Agency. 2019. ISSN1553-8133. Archived from the original on 1 June 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2019. CIA estimates are as of June 2019[update] "Ethnic groups: Sunni Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)"
^ abShoup, John A. (2018), "Syria", The History of Syria, ABC-CLIO, p. 6, ISBN978-1440858352, Syria has several other ethnic groups, the Kurds... they make up an estimated 9 percent...Turkomen comprise around 4–5 percent of the total population. The rest of the ethnic mix of Syria is made of Assyrians (about 4 percent), Armenians (about 2 percent), and Circassians (about 1 percent).
^"Who are Syria's minority groups?". SBS News (Online ed.). Special Broadcasting Service. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2017. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, constituting around 10 per cent of the population – around 2 million of the pre-conflict population of around 22 million.
^Fabrice Balanche (2018). Sectarianism in Syria's Civil War(PDF) (Online ed.). Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Archived from the original(PDF) on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019. In this atlas, French geographer Balanche suggests that "As of 2010, Syria’s population was roughly 65% Sunni Arab, 15% Kurdish, 10% Alawite, 5% Christian, 3% Druze, 1% Ismaili, and 1% Twelver Shia." (p. 13) "The number of Kurds in Syria is often underestimated by analysts, who tend to cap them at 10% of the population. In fact, they are closer to 15%."(p. 16) The 2018 breakdown is 1% Sunni Arab, 16% Kurdish, 13% Alawite, 3% Christian, 4% Druze, 1% Ismaili, 1% Twelver Shia, 1% Turkmen (p. 22) Balanche also refers to his Atlas du ProcheOrient Arabe (Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011), p. 36."