Suluk (Arabic: سلوك, romanized: Sulūk) is a town within the Tell Abyad District of Raqqa Governorate in Syria. Suluk is close to the border with Turkey. The population of the town is predominantly Arab.[2][3]

Suluk سلوك
Town
Suluk nahiya within Raqqa Governorate
Suluk Location in Syria
Coordinates: 36.5992°N 39.1286°E / 36.5992; 39.1286
Country	Syria
Governorate	Raqqa
District	Tell Abyad
Subdistrict	Suluk
Control	Turkey Syrian Interim Government
Population  (2004)
• Town	7,825[1]
• Subdistrict	44,131[1]
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
P-Code	C5843
Geocode	SY110201
City Qrya Pcode	C5843

History

In the early 13th century, during Ayyubid rule, the medieval geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi noted that Suluk was "a town of Syria".[4]

Syrian civil war

In June 2015, Suluk was taken over by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the course of their Tell Abyad offensive.[5] Kurdish YPG forces were accused of expelling the entire population of the town (35,000 people), although they allowed only 10,000 of them to return,[2] Furthermore, Amnesty International accused YPG of "razing" nearby villages,[6] and "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs.[3] They have denied the Amnesty report, calling it "biased, unprofessional and politicized" as it made no mention of the human rights violations by the Islamic State.[7]

On 27 February 2016, fighters of the Islamic State attacked Suluk, the village Hammam at‑Turkuman and Tall Abyad.[8] 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.[9] One day before the recapture, IS jihadists executed 15 civilians with the charge of "Refusing to corporate with IS and helping the YPG earlier".[10]

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 70 fighters from the Islamic State and 20 Kurdish fighters were killed during the clashes.[11]

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.[9]

During the Turkish offensive in north-east Syria in October 2019,[12] Suluk was captured by Turkey and the Syrian National Army.[13]

Climate