Arab Belt
41 Arab villages were built during the project, and all the Kurdish village names of the area were replaced by Arabic names. About 4,000 Arab families from the provinces of Al-Raqqa and Aleppo, where they had previously lost their houses by the construction of the Tabqa dam, were housed in the new villages. These Arabs are named Maghmurin (مغمورين Maġmūrīn, which is affected by flooding). As a result, about  of Kurdish cultivated land were taken away and given to the newly settled Arabs. The original plan would also forcibly send about 140,000 Kurds to the southern deserts at Al-Raad. Although the government took away the Kurds' right to live in the area, the Kurds refused to move away and give up their houses. Those Kurds who had been declared foreigners were not allowed to have property, to repair houses, or to build new houses.