The New York Times reports that Bashar Assad is attempting to head off international pressure on his regime by granting citizenship to Syria's Kurds, hundreds of thousands of whom have been denied citizenship:
With the threat of economic sanctions looming over Syria, officials of the governing Baath Party announced Thursday that they would formally reconsider a decision made 43 years ago that stripped hundreds of thousands of Kurds of their citizenship...
The article does not elaborate on this "decision made 43 years ago", so here's a little background. As a wave of pan-Arabism swept the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, the Syrian government decided in 1962 to strip thousands of Kurds of their citizenship. The method: a census supposedly designed to root out "alien infiltrators" from Turkey. If a Kurd could not prove residency in Syria since 1945, he or she lost Syrian citizenship. This fate befell 120,000 Kurds.
Today over 225,000 Kurds in Syria are designated as "foreigners", out of a total Kurdish population of around 1.5 million. The Baath Party launched an official Arabization campaign in 1963 that began to stamp out Kurdish street names, Kurdish publications, and even Kurdish personal names. And young Kurdish journalists have been arrested for coverign peaceful demonstrations.
Most of the effects of this civil rights discrimination are mundane but maddening. See for instance testimony from Syrian Kurds denied citizenship (via the Tharwa Project):
Mr. Housein: we are not allowed to travel abroad. We can’t reserve a room at any hotel unless we ask a special permit from the security department which investigate us, before granting the above permit, about our destination and how long we are going to stay there. At this point, you have to pay some money (as a bribe) in order to take the permit.
So why is Assad making overtures now? Perhaps it is fear that Syria's 1.5 million Kurds might provide the initial grassroots manpower for street protests that could topple the regime. Massive riots last year in Kurdish areas offered a taste of such a scenario. Bashar's gesture may come 43 years too late.
Bashar doesn't wanna live the iraki scenario..but hey,is in't late?
once upon a time,there was a magic land called ARD ASSHAM!!!
Posted by: noussitta | October 28, 2005 at 10:08 AM