In 1962 the Syrian government started the Arab Belt plan to "save Arabism" and stop the "Kurdish threat". The Arab Belt plan was to move the Kurdish population away from the Syria–Turkey border. In the Kurds' place, the government would move more Arabs onto the land. The Kurds would be moved to other parts of Syria, away from one another. The government's decision was made after the discovery of an oil field at Qaratchok, in the Kurdish Jazira. Much of the land in the Arab Belt was fertile arable land ("for growing crops") and had rich oil fields. More than half (50–60 percent) of all the petroleum in Syria is near Derik in the Jazira.