Aleppo Governorate in the context of "Emar"

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents as of 2021, it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and was the primary economic centre until it was surpassed by Damascus, the capital of Syria. Aleppo is also the largest city in Syria's northern governorates and one of the largest cities in the Levant region.

Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC. Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied by Amorites by the latter part of the third millennium BC. That is also the time at which Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, which speak of it as part of the Amorite state of Yamhad, and note its commercial and military importance. Such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, and the Ottoman Empire's third-largest after Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Cairo. The city's significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, which passed through Central Asia and Mesopotamia. When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, much trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline.

On 27 November 2024, a coalition of Syrian revolutionary factions called the Military Operations Command, led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported by allied Turkish-backed groups in the Syrian National Army (SNA), launched an offensive against the Ba'athist regime's armed forces in Idlib, Aleppo and Hama Governorates in Syria. It initially began as a localised offensive targeting towns in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside, later evolving into a nationwide campaign that culminated in the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

On 29 November 2024, HTS and later the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) entered Aleppo and captured most of the city, amid the collapse of pro-government forces. The next day, opposition forces made rapid advances, capturing dozens of towns and villages as pro-government forces disintegrated, and advanced toward Hama in central Syria, subsequently capturing it on 5 December. By 6 December, the SDF captured Deir ez-Zor in an offensive east of the Euphrates, while the newly formed Southern Operations Room and Al-Jabal Brigade captured Daraa and Suwayda in an offensive in the south. The HTS advanced further south toward Homs. The US-backed Syrian Free Army (SFA) took control of Palmyra in the southeast of the country.

Syrian Kurdistan or Rojava (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê, lit. 'Kurdistan where the sun sets') is a region in northern Syria where Kurds form the majority. It geographically surrounds three noncontiguous enclaves along the Turkish and Iraqi borders: Afrin in the northwest, Kobani in the north, and Jazira in the northeast. The term started to become more widely known as Kurdish nationalist groups and parties started to use it in 2013 to describe the political entity later known as "Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria". However, this usage was officially dropped in 2016 in favor of a more inclusive name to the heterogenous area under PYD control.

Kurdish nationalists consider Syrian Kurdistan as one of the four Lesser Kurdistans that comprise Greater Kurdistan, alongside Iranian Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Iraqi Kurdistan. A significant part of the Kurdish community of Afrin was displaced during the Turkish-backed Operation Olive Branch in 2018.

The Syrian Interim Government (Arabic: حكومة السورية المؤقتة, romanized: Ḥukūmat as-Sūriyya al-Muwaqqata) was a government-in-exile and later a quasi-state in Syria formed on 18 March 2013 by the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (Syrian National Coalition, SNC), an umbrella opposition group, during the Syrian civil war. The Syrian Interim Government constituted a separate administration in the Turkish-controlled territories in northern Syria and had partial authority there. The interim government's headquarters in Syria were located in the city of Azaz in Aleppo Governorate. While responsible to the Syrian National Coalition, the SIG was closely aligned with Turkey. The SIG's armed forces were the SNA.

After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the SIG coexisted for a short period of time with the Syrian caretaker government headed by Mohammed al-Bashir in Damascus, while the SNC expressed its support for the caretaker government and called for the formation of a government that would be "inclusive of everyone." On 30 January 2025, the SIG officially "placed itself at the disposal" of the caretaker government, which began deploying its forces across former SIG territory in early February 2025.7

Manbij (Arabic: منبج, romanized: Manbiǧ) is a city in the northeast of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the Euphrates. The 2004 census gives its population as nearly 100,000. The population of Manbij is largely Arab, with Kurdish, Turkmen, Circassian, and Chechen minorities. Many of its residents practice Naqshbandi Sufism.

During the Syrian Civil War, the city was first captured by rebels in 2012, overrun by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014 and finally captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2016, bringing it into the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). From 2018 to 2024, after an agreement with the SDF, the Syrian Arab Army had been deployed on the city's periphery as a buffer between the Turkish occupation of Northern Syria and the AANES. On December 9, 2024, it was reported that the city came under the control of the Syrian Interim Government after a deal was reached between the U.S. and Turkey to allow the safe exit of SDF fighters. The pro-Turkish forces' control over the area did not end until the SIG was incorporated into the Syrian caretaker government at the end of January 2025.

Qinnašrīn (Arabic: قنشرين, romanized: Qinnašrīn; Syriac: ܩܢܫܪܝܢ, romanized: Qennešrin, lit. 'Nest of Eagles'; Latin: Chalcis ad Belum; Ancient Greek: Χαλκὶς, romanized: Khalkìs) was a historical town in northern Syria. The town was situated 25 km (16 mi) southwest of Aleppo on the west bank of the Queiq (historically, the Belus) and was connected to Aleppo with a major road during Roman times.

Some scholars propose that the ruins of Qinnašrīn are located at al-Hadher to the east of the Queiq River, while Chalcis' location was at the modern Syrian village of Al-Iss, Aleppo Governorate to the west of the river. Others think that Qinnasrin has always been located at al-Iss from the Hellenistic to the Ayyubid period.

Idlib Governorate (Arabic: مُحافظة ادلب, romanized: Muḥāfaẓat Idlib) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama Governorate to the south, and Latakia Governorate to the west. Reports of its area vary, depending on the source, from 5,933 square kilometres (2,291 sq mi) to 6,097 square kilometres (2,354 sq mi). The provincial capital is Idlib.