The phrase "autonomous canton" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a region or area that has a degree of self-governance or independence within a larger political entity.
Example: "The autonomous canton has its own laws and regulations, allowing it to operate independently from the central government."
Alternatives: "self-governing region" or "independent district".
Under the Swiss constitution of 1848, the autonomous cantons became federal states, each with its own constitution.
Kurdish-majority areas of northern and northeastern Syria have been governed since 2012 as three de facto autonomous cantons collectively referred to by Kurds as Rojava, or Syrian Kurdistan.
Egged on by the PKK, Syrian Kurds have established autonomous cantons which Turkey fears will sharpen Kurdish separatism within its own borders.
Instead, the Turks have seen an influx of millions of Syrian refugees, and watched helplessly while the Syrian Kurdish allies of the PKK, which Turkey designates as a terrorist organisation, have set up autonomous cantons across the border.
Meant to lay the groundwork for "a society free from authoritarianism, militarism, centralism and the intervention of religious authority in public affairs," the charter established three autonomous cantons in Rojava, as the Kurdish region in northern Syria is known.
The PYD has wrested control of much of northern Syria along the Turkish border from Isis and has established three autonomous cantons between the Tigris, bordering on Iraq, and the Euphrates.
Simultaneously, influential neoconservative US officials saw an opportunity here to pursue hair-brained ambitions to re-engineer the region through the de facto ethno-sectarian partition of Iraq into three autonomous cantons: a vision that could not be achieved without considerable covert violence.
What about the idea of smaller autonomous cantons, or territorial divisions, for different groups?
Following the withdrawal, Kurdish forces established three autonomous cantons and women have participated in both governance and resistance to Islamist forces, including Al-Nusra and ISIS.
Arriving today in Trieste, Italy, Mr. Granic said talks would begin soon aimed at bringing Bosnian Serbs into the new federation "on the terms that were accepted by the two other parties". The accords call for Bosnia's division into semi-autonomous cantons that would have broad authority over local affairs.
