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The Syrian Kurds
21.3.2008
By Ferhad Pirbal |
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March 21, 2008
The largest non-Arab ethnic minority in Syria is
silenced.
To be Kurdish in Syria means you may lack a passport
or other internationally recognized travel document;
it means you are trapped within Syrian borders.
In this essay, I am not going to shed light upon
subjects like Syrian Kurdistan, the Kurdish nation
in Syria, the history of "the Kurdish neighborhood"
in Damascus, the role of the Kurds in founding the
Arab civilization in Syria from the old ages to the
era of Salahaddin al Ayubi, or the administration of
the Syrian Communist Party by Kurds. Instead, I am
going to narrate two simple stories about the
Kurdish people in Syria. |
Ferhad Pirbal |
In 1987 in Paris, I was sent to the city of Vicchi
in southern France to learn French by a government
organization called Crus, which offered scholarships
to foreign students to study in that country. The
Kavalam institution in Vicchi welcomed me warmly,
and on the second day we began studying.
In this institution, I became acquainted with many
students from different countries: America, Germany,
China, Japan, India, Spain, Kuwait, Saudi, Yemen,
Tunisia, Morocco, and the then Czechoslovakia, among
others. I was the only Kurd among them.
One evening after lessons were over, a young person
asked me in the Kurdish language: "Ferhad, are you
Kurdish?"
I knew that he was Kurdish. His name was Hassan. He
begged me and said: "Please, do not tell the Syrian
Arabs that I am Kurdish."
I asked him why, and he answered: "If they know that
I talked about this subject, they will send a report
to Damascus, and the government there will take back
my scholarship."
"If they knew that you were Kurdish, you would have
no right to get a scholarship?" I asked him
incredulously.
"I was the top student in all the secondary schools
in the (Afreen) city, but I am not allowed to have a
scholarship because I am Kurdish," he responded.
I said: "It is just like Iraq. If you are not a
member of the Baath Party, you are not allowed to go
abroad and study."
I remained in Vicchi for a year. Hassan was the only
person with whom I spoke in the Kurdish language. He
never spoke with others in the Kurdish language
except for me.
A long time had passed, and three years later I met
Hassan in Paris. He was working as a guard in a
hotel's reception area.
I asked him how he was doing. He used several choice
words regarding the Syrian government and replied:
"These Fascists took back my scholarship. After two
years studying at the University of Clermont Figo,
some people sent a report about me that I had
Kurdish friends and spoke in the Kurdish language
here in France; after that I asked the French
government to accept me as a refugee and now I am
working as a guard in this hotel."
I think it was the year 2002 that I was going to go
to Paris to open the French department at the
University of Salahaddin. I went to Paris through
Damascus. Before I reached Damascus, inside the
Qamishli Airport, I was drinking a cup of tea in a
filthy café, waiting for the plane to take off,
where I spoke to a young person for half an hour.
Whenever he tried to say that he was Kurdish, he
shivered as if he was a thief.
The young man said to me: "We as Syrian Kurds have
no ID; we are not able to travel outside of Syria as
other Syrian citizens are."
I asked him: "What kind of ID do you use for travel
inside Syria?" Shivering, he showed his ID to me.
The ID of the Syrian Kurds resembled the following
statement:
"According to the 1962 census, this person's name is
not available in the files of al-Hasaka city. We
have given him this paper in order for his name to
be recorded among the other foreigners in Syria.
This paper doesn't allow him to travel outside of
the country."
I asked him where he was from originally. He
responded: "When you come from Iraqi Kurdistan and
enter Qamishli city, there are many villages,
gardens, agricultural lands, and oil pipelines along
500 kilometers. I am from one of these villages. The
government has taken all these lands and villages
and also located many oil pipelines there; it said
to us, 'You are emigrants.' It doesn't give us
Syrian IDs."
When I was sitting with that young man, I felt that
being Kurdish was a "degradation" or "a mistake."
Until the Kurdish people have their own country, no
Kurdish individual will be free and independent.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
kurdishglobe net. The Kurdish Globe is a weekly
newspaper printed in Erbil, affiliated with
Kurdistan Government.
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