Kurds Arrested in Syria at Demonstration

[Diri]

10/5/2006 IRIN
DAMASCUS, 5 October (IRIN) - More than a dozen Kurds were arrested on Thursday as hundreds of riot police and security officers armed with tear gas and batons prevented a demonstration calling for the restoration of citizenship to an estimated 300,000 stateless Kurds living in Syria.

"We denounce the police and security services' abnormal use of force against what was a peaceful civilian rally," Meshal Temo, spokesman for the Kurdish Future Party, said. Future Party was one of three illegal Kurdish political parties that organised the demonstration.

About 2,000 Kurdish and Arab demonstrators had been expected to protest at a busy roundabout in central Damascus but most were prevented from gathering by security officers who formed a cordon around the area, organisers say.

Demonstrators who were detained were all released shortly afterward, according to Kurdish activists.

The protest was to mark the 44th anniversary of a survey in 1962 that stripped an estimated 120,000 Kurds in the north-eastern Hassake governorate, bordering Turkey and Iraq, of their citizenship. Their Syrian national status was taken away on grounds that they had not been born in Syria.

Since then, Syria's Kurdish population has roughly trebled to about 1.5 million, making Kurds by far the second-largest ethnic minority in the country.

The majority are recognised as citizens, but about 220,000 Kurds are classified as foreigners, meaning they cannot own property, attend state universities or work in the public sector. They do, however, have access to public services.

Another 75,000 Kurds live in Syria without any official identification cards, meaning they have no access to public healthcare or education and cannot travel without official permission.

Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad has made repeated pledges to resolve the issue of Kurdish citizenship over the past two years.

[Gudea]

The young Bshahar Asad is imposing the most dangerous damages to Syria. I bet not only Kurdish regions, but also much of deserts of northern Syria will be captured by angry Kurds as a revenge.

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See this nice videoclip related to Southwestern Kurds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AXxWO7pxpg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1   

[Diri]

The young Bshahar Asad is imposing the most dangerous damages to Syria. I bet not only Kurdish regions, but also much of deserts of northern Syria will be captured by angry Kurds as a revenge.

Sounds like a threath...

[Gudea]

The young Bshahar Asad is imposing the most dangerous damages to Syria. I bet not only Kurdish regions, but also much of deserts of northern Syria will be captured by angry Kurds as a revenge.

Sounds like a threath...

But also a suggestion...

[Welatperist]

Mala faşistet Arab ne ava
Bes ez hivîdarim gele Kurd li Kurdistana rojava de azad bit !
Niha giring e Kurdet rojava pêwendî gel Israel girin, bû Kurdet rojhelat jî giring e !

Israel dijminê Araba û Regima Mullah e li Iran ye, lema hevalêt Kurda na !

[Parsi]

Why are some considered as foreigners??

[Vladimir]

Syria considers all Kurds to come from outside, because they see it as Arabic lands. They changed Kurt dagh (Kurdish mountain = in ottoman Turkish) into Arab dagh. Lot of Kurds immigrated to West-Kurdistan or North Syria after uprisings in Turkey. But also lot of Kurds are living there for a long time.

[Welatperist]

But also lot of Kurds are living there for a long time.

Yes, for example in the city Efrin

Why are some considered as foreigners??

That's the arabic fascism...they wanted and want that kurds assimilate to arabs...and Iraq, Iran and Turkey had their own way to suppressed the kurdish desire of independence...

And according the law Nr.93 of 1962, the Syrian government carried out a population census of the province Djazîra...
The result of this population census was, that 120 000 Kurds loose their citizenship, and became stateless (official)...and in this year the fascist government wanted to construct an "arabic zone" (al- hizam al-arabi) between the "syrian" and "turkish" border...furthermore they wanted to replace the arabs with kurds in this region...