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Syria's Assad vows to resolve status of
Kurds
18.7.2007 |
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July
18, 2007
DAMASCUS, -- Syria's President Bashar al-Assad
on Tuesday announced new measures to grant
citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Kurds
who have hitherto been denied Syrian nationality.
"There is a consensus in Syria on the need to
resolve the question of the 1962 census," Assad told
parliament in a speech to mark the beginning of his
second presidential mandate.
Kurdish officials have long protested that 225,000
Kurds were deprived of Syrian nationality as well as
their political and civil rights by the 1962 census
in which they were not registered.
Assad told parliament that new legislation was in
the process of being drafted.
Syria is home to some 1.5 million Kurds, or around
nine percent of the population. They have been
fighting to have their language, culture and
political rights recognised.
There are 11 Kurdish political parties in Syria but
all are officially banned.
AFP
** Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria
making up 10% of the country's population i.e. about
two million.
Kurds in Syria often speak Kurdish in public,
unless all those present do not. Kurdish human
rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No
political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish
or otherwise.
Suppression of ethnic identity of
Kurds in Syria include: various bans on the use of
the Kurdish language; refusal to register children
with Kurdish names; replacement of Kurdish place
names with new names in Arabic; prohibition of
businesses that do not have Arabic names; not
permitting Kurdish private schools; and the
prohibition of books and other materials written in
Kurdish.
More about Kurds in Syria - (Kurdistan-Syria)
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