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Foreigners in their own land: Kurds in
Syria
15.2.2006
Perveen Ali and Pary Karadaghi
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WASHINGTON Syria is at a
critical crossroads, faced with the growing
disenfranchisement and discontent of its nearly
300,000 stateless Kurds. By officially recognizing
their nationality rights, President Bashar al-Assad
can preempt further deterioration in the country's
internal stability.
In 1962, a census was conducted in northeastern
Syria, ostensibly to identify "alien infiltrators"
who had crossed the border from Turkey since 1945,
but primarily as one component of a campaign to
Arabize this resource-rich region of the country,
then primarily populated by non-Arabs.
The census was taken in a blatantly arbitrary
manner, resulting in ludicrous situations. Brothers
from the same family, born in the same Syrian
village, were classified differently. Fathers became
foreigners, while their sons remained citizens.
Kurds who had served in the Syrian army lost
citizenship, while families who bribed officials
kept theirs. The majority of the local Kurdish
population, which had been living there for many
generations, was simply excluded from the count.
As a consequence, 120,000 Syrian Kurds - 20 percent
of the Syrian Kurdish population - were immediately
rendered stateless and forcibly displaced to make
way for Arab settlements.
They lost their citizenship and became foreigners"
("ajanib" in Arabic) in their own country. Thousands
of people went to sleep as Syrians and woke up to
find that they no longer were citizens.
Due to natural population growth, the 1962 census
has a continuing and ever-widening impact on the
lives of Kurds born in northeastern Syria.
The number of stateless Syrian Kurds registered as
"foreigners" has grown to 200,000. Since they do not
have citizenship in any other country, they are
stateless under international law.
While half are issued identity cards stating they
are "foreigners," approximately 100,000 have no
documents at all and are effectively rendered
invisible and subject to abuse at the hands of
authorities.
Stateless Kurds face tremendous difficulties in
their everyday lives. They are denied many rights,
such as the right to vote, own property, have
passports, be publicly employed and practice certain
professions.
They are not eligible for food subsidies or
admission to public hospitals. They are particularly
incensed by inhumane restrictions placed on their
right to marry.
Many stateless men and women who marry are deemed
single by the state, and as a consequence are
prevented from registering their children, much less
sharing a room in a hotel.
Prohibitions on employment have resulted in a
majority of stateless Kurds working in the informal
sector or practicing professions without a license.
One can find a doctor selling tea on the street or a
teacher transporting flour sacks.
Child labor is common, and youngsters can look
forward to picking cotton, selling cigarettes and
shining shoes. A trained lawyer who works as a
laborer summed up the severity of the situation:
"Being a stateless Kurd in Syria is like being
buried alive."
With so few options for basic survival, stateless
Kurds seek opportunities abroad, taking tremendous
risks to leave Syria by entrusting their safety to
human smugglers and paying $3,000 to $12,000 to
crime rings, believing that the hardship of living
illegally in other countries would be preferable to
the hopelessness of their situation in Syria.
Syria and the international community must address
both the situation of stateless Kurds and the larger
Kurdish question in Syria. The UN High Commissioner
for Refugees should continue to work with the Syrian
government to resolve this problem. The EU has
already set an example for other concerned
governments by actively pressuring Syria to
reinstate nationality to the Kurds.
(Perveen Ali works with Refugees International,
an advocacy organization based in Washington. Pary
Karadaghi is with Kurdish Human Rights Watch in
Fairfax, Virginia.)
www.iht.com
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