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Syria's Kurds struggle for rights
6.9.2005
Published on 3.Sep. |
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Washington,
Syria's one-and-a-half million ethnic Kurds have
been struggling for years in the face of official
repression. Their demands for rights and ethnic
identity have grown recently as they watch their
counterparts in Iraq take a significant role in
government and society.
In eastern Syria, there are people who have been
working the land and filling towns and villages, as
their ancestors did, for ages. But despite their
long presence and labors, these people have been
told that they are, in official terms, not there,
and that they are not entitled to the benefits of
the nation in which they live. They are Kurds.
Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party has created an official
singular Syrian identity as an Arab state. To
achieve that identity, ethnic minorities like
Syria's Kurds have been supressed, often brutally.
Second-Class Citizens
Joe Stork, with Human Rights Watch in Washington,
outlines how many Kurds have been deprived of
citizen rights. "The main points of discrimination
have to do with their legal standing," he says.
"Many of them don't even have identification cards,
which are essential for getting necessities like
education, like health care and so forth. This is
accentuated by the fact that they are the largest
ethnic minority in the country."
Kurds make up some 8% percent of Syria's population
and live mostly in the eastern part of the country
toward the border with Iraq.
For Many, Not Citizens at All
In November 1962, the Syrian government declared
that 100,000 of its Kurds were not citizens.
Damascus claimed that their ancestors were not
listed on Ottoman civil registration records dating
before 1920. Also stripped of citizenship were
politically active Kurds who spoke out against the
government. Since then, the number of stateless
Syrian Kurds has grown to more than 200,000 people.
The suppression of Kurds and other minorities
increased markedly when Haffez al-Asad, leading the
Ba'ath Party, became president of Syria in 1970.
Syria's Ba'athists began a program of 'Arabization'
about the same time that Iraqi President and Ba'ath
Party leader Saddam Hussein launched a similar
program.
Erasing Ethnic Identity
Pary Karadaghi, Director of Kurdish Human Rights
Watch in Washington, says one of the most basic ways
of showing Kurdish identity was taken away. "The
campaign of 'Arabization' actually replaced the
Kurdish names," she says. "People could not have
Kurdish names on cities, buildings [and] businesses.
Children's names could not be Kurdish."
Syria's Kurds struggled for years to survive despite
government oppression on many fronts. They closely
watched their Iraqi counterparts, who achieved a
measure of autonomy in the 1990s, and pressed
Damascus for their own rights. Their demands were
ignored or sometimes met with waves of repression.
Fighting Back
In March of last year, Syrian Kurds exploded in
violence. A brawl at a football [soccer] game in the
town of Qameshli between Arab and Kurdish teams
turned into five days of rioting that left at least
25 people dead and many more injured. Damascus
responded to the clash by rounding up and jailing a
number of Kurdish activists. Karim Hassan, with an
expatriate group called the Council of Syrian Kurds,
says the confrontation sparked a new spirit of
resistance among Kurds.
"After the uprising of March 12, 2004, from the
Kurdish perspective there have been positive
developments because the Kurds are no longer afraid
of Syrian state security. But from the government
side, things still are not good, because there have
not been any changes despite promises from the
President, Bashar al-Asad."
Clashes erupted again in Qameshli this past June
after a prominent Kurdish cleric was found dead.
Kurds insist he was tortured and killed by Syria's
state intelligence service.
Minimal Government Response to Rights Demands
In the wake of these confrontations, the Ba'ath
Party Congress announced that it would establish a
"Security Committee" to investigate the situation.
Karim Hassan at the Council of Syrian Kurds says
this committee has held limited meetings with
Kurdish tribal leaders. But he says the Ba'athists
are avoiding discussions with Kurdish political
parties to avoid acknowledging their separate
political identity.
VOA has contacted the Syrian Embassy in Washington
in an attempt to get official statements regarding
the status of Kurds and other minorities in Syria.
The embassy has not provided that information.
A Call for International Action
International humanitarian organizations want direct
access to Syrian Kurds and other minority groups to
asses their plight and begin assistance. One such
organization is Refugees International in
Washington. The group's Research Director, Maureen
Lynch, says that it is also time for the United
Nations to get directly involved on behalf of
Syria's minorities.
"The UN High Commissioner for Refugees," she says,
"does have a particular responsibility to be
assisting in reducing the number of stateless
persons. And this would include these Kurds in
Syria. And once there's that international attention
through a body such as the UN, governments sometimes
will respond in a more favorable way than they've
done on their own."
Reverberations from Neighboring Iraq
Along with international attention, there is another
dynamic in play that could pressure Damascus to
respect the rights of Kurds and other minorities.
Pary Karadaghi at Kurdish Human Rights Watch points
to significant advances in Iraq.
"It is very hard for the Kurds in Syria to be immune
to what is going on in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish
population in Syria has been watching for years.
Many have been working very closely with the Kurds
of Iraq to achieve the same level of success that
the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan have achieved," she
says.
Awaiting Change in Damascus
But while pressure for change by the Syrian
government has been growing, Damascus has taken only
minimal steps toward ending its denial of ethnic
identities and human rights. Many observers say
Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party sees such changes as a
threat to their grip on the country. But other
observers say that Damascus has no choice but to
change in the face of international pressure, though
that may not happen until the Ba'athists from the
era of Haffez al-Asad who still influence his son,
current president Bashar al-Asad, are gone.
Meanwhile, Syria's Kurds say they are tired of
waiting.
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