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Golan Druze Resident: Denaturalized Syrian
Kurds deserve Syrian citizenship more than I do
12.2.2008 |
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February 12, 2008
On October 23, 2007, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
issued a decree granting Syrian identity cards to
Druze Syrian nationals residing in the Golan
Heights. [1]
In the wake of this move, Kurdish human rights
activist Muhyi Al-Din 'Iso posted an article on an
oppositionist Syrian website calling for Assad to
take a similar step vis-a-vis the denaturalized
Kurds living in Syria. [2]
In response, Hassan Shams, a Druze resident of the
Golan Heights, wrote, on another oppositionist
Syrian website, to second 'Iso's appeal, asking how
a country like Syria, which denies its own Kurdish
inhabitants citizenship and freedom, presumes to
restore to Golan residents their identity and land.
The following are excerpts from the two articles:
Kurdish Human Rights Activist to Assad: "Restore
Kurds' Citizenship Too"
Kurdish human rights activist Muhyi Al-Din 'Iso, who
was denied Syrian citizenship, wrote on the website
of Damascus Declaration, an umbrella organization of
Syrian oppositionist forces: "...This initiative on
the part of President Assad is commendable, since
the Syrian Golan Heights are part of the Syrian
lands, and every patriotic citizen has a duty to
defend them...
"However, aren't we, the Syrian Kurds who are denied
Syrian citizenship, allowed... to ask the honorable
president why, after 45 years of deprivation, he did
not also decide to restore the citizenship that has
been denied to the Kurds? Doesn't he believe that
they belong in their homeland, Syria?
"The Kurds, as the honorable president knows, have
never failed their homeland in any way: They have
defended its unity and sacrificed thousands of their
[sons] in battles for [Syria's] liberation. Are they
not entitled to [Syrian] identity, which was taken
away from them overnight?...
"The suffering of the Kurds in northern Syria is not
less than that of our [fellow Syrians] in the Golan
Heights. [The Kurds] are denied the most basic
humanitarian, political,www.ekurd.net
cultural, and social
rights, along with [other] rights which Allah gave
[to all human beings]... They suffer from
discrimination in medical treatment; for example,
military hospitals and some public hospitals refuse
to admit them… Their right to education is impaired
on two levels: after they complete their studies,
the 'foreigners' [as Kurdish residents whose
citizenship was revoked following the 1962 census
are called]… are not permitted to work in government
jobs or in the [profession] they studied.
"As for the maktumin [i.e. other Kurds born in Syria
who are not registered as citizens] - they are even
worse off than the 'foreigners.' They are not
admitted to universities or seminars [at all]; worse
still, they cannot even obtain a matriculation
certificate, or work in government jobs.
"Many Kurds with university diplomas are working in
restaurants, or as peddlers, construction workers...
or porters. In addition to employment difficulties,
they are not allowed to own farmland, apartments,
etc... They are denied the right to benefit from the
agricultural reform law (under which land ownership
passed to the farmers). Their lands were given to
[non-Kurdish farmers] from other regions.
"[Furthermore, the Kurds were denied the right] to
receive [food] ration cards, and to have their wives
and children registered under their names. Nor can
they register real estate and [other] property in
their own name (which amounts to denial of property
rights), and they are barred from regular army
service (defending their homeland), and from staying
overnight at a Syrian hotel without a security
permit.
"Honorable President, we applaud your courageous
decision to grant citizenship to our compatriots in
the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and implore you
to publish a similar decision granting Syrian
citizenship to the Kurds in the Al-Hasaka province."
[3]
Golan Resident: The Kurds' Tragedy is Many Times
Greater Than Ours
In response to Muhyi Al-Din 'Iso's article, Golan
resident Hassan Shams wrote on the Syrian
oppositionist website Syrian Elector: "My brother
Muhyi Al-Din, after reading your article, I decided
to transform my tears into words...
"I have the honor of holding an Israeli identity
card. It is not a citizenship [certificate], but
only an identity card stating my name, and that I am
a resident of the Golan Heights... It is not [a
regular] identity card... but with all its
drawbacks, it still enables me to move from place to
place and perform my daily tasks...
"My Kurdish brother, take the [Syrian] identity card
[that was granted to me], for your claim to it is
greater than mine. My ethics do not allow me to
carry a [Syrian] identity card while living in an
occupied [land], while you are denied one in your
own homeland!!! The problems and tragedies of [our]
homeland must be resolved as one package...
"My brother Muhyi Al-Din, both of us have earned the
right to our [Syrian] identity - it is not given to
us as charity or as a gift. Nevertheless,www.ekurd.net
I am prepared to
relinquish it in your favor, since my suffering and
your suffering are one... [In fact,] your tragedy
is, without a doubt, many times greater than mine.
At least we, who are under occupation, are not
subject to the [Syrian] Emergency Law and to the
Government Security Court. [Moreover,] it was Israel
that wished to force citizenship upon us, while it
was we who refused. You, on the other hand, were
forcibly deprived of your identity in our own
homeland!
"My fellow citizen, do not be grieved over the
[Syrian] identity card that you are denied, just as
I do not rejoice over the identity card that has
been restored to me... These kinds of orders - after
40 years of occupation - come mostly to pave way
for, or to cover up, a great scandal or some other
issue... Nothing in this 'country of corrections'
[4] [i.e. Syria] is done [purely] for love of Allah
and His servants..." [5]
Notes:
[1] Al-Thawra (Syria), October 24, 2007.
[2] Following a special November 1962 census in the
Al-Hasaka province, where the concentration of Kurds
is the largest in Syria, the Syrian authorities
stripped some 100,000 of the Kurds living in Al-Hasaka
of their Syrian citizenship, claiming that the
pre-1920 Ottoman documents contained no record of
their families. According to Kurdish sources, the
number of denaturalized Kurds living in Syria
currently exceeds 200,000. See http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Syria.htm.
[3] Damascus Declaration website (www.damdec.org ),
October 24, 2007.
[4] The writer is probably hinting at the
"Corrective Movement," the name given to the
military faction that took control of the Syrian
Ba'th Party in 1970 and brought president Hafez Al-Assad
to power.
[5] http://tharwacommunity.typepad.com/syrian_elector/2007/10/post-63.html,
October 24, 2007.
memri org
** 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)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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