More than 3 million Kurds live in Syria, comprising about 20 percent of the Syrian population, making them the largest non-Arab minority in the country. They are concentrated primarily in the north and northeast of the country, in three provinces (Alhasakah, Alraqqa and Aleppo).Since 1963 until today, the Al-Baath Party is the ruling party in Syria. During their rule the Kurds in Syria, are suffering chauvinistic policies of racial discrimination that are practised by the Syrian authorities. As a result of systematic discrimination and daily alienation, the Kurds have been compelled to migrate away from their homelands in search of shelter and a means of supporting themselves and their families in larger cities, and as examples of their discrimination practices and racist projects:
On 05th of October 1962, Syrian authorities issued a so-called special census in Hasakah province, the northeastern Syrian province in which the majority of Kurds have their origins. The authorities then produced statistical reports, as a result many as 120,000 Kurds—nearly 20 percent of Syria’s Kurdish population—were denationalized, today there are more than 300,000 Kurds losing all rights of citizenship, including the right to vote and participate in public life, the right to travel outside the country, the right to private ownership, and the right to employment in the public sector. In addition to the difficulties associated for them with finding work most of them have to leave there lands, homes and immerged to other countries or other cities in Syria like Damascus and others to survive with there families.
In 1973, the Baathist government instituted the so-called “Arab Belt” draft, under which Arab families from the areas of Aleppo and al-Raqqa were forced to migrate to forty Kurdish villages throughout Jazeera province, covering an area 275 kilometers long and 5 to 15kilometers across that bordered on Turkey and Iraq. The draft severely disturbed the region’s social balance, especially in Jazeera province, to such a point that social and civic disputes there remain a source of persistent local tension. The Syrian government also began to replace the names of Kurdish villages and sites with Arabic ones.
Syrian authorities are offering very good jobs for Arabs from other provinces in Kurdish provinces at the time they keeping say that there is no vacancies or dismiss the Kurds from their jobs in their provinces under the pretext of safety; security measures.
· No permission for Kurds to be regular soldier or to get a job in the diplomatices agencies, other government agencies, and many others public departments.
· Decree 49 introduced on 10th September 2008, following previous Decrees in relation to agricultural practices. The law stems from a fallacy that the Syrian Government is promoting to discredit Kurds that there is activity on the border that threatens the security of Syria. This is where the majority of Kurds live. Decree 49 is designed to control the movement of people in this area by requiring them to obtain a license to build, rent, sell or buy property, in addition to the existing restrictions on agricultural practices in that area. Although some of this area are more than 100 km away from the border. This decree had caused a paralysis in building section and as a result more than 500,000 Kurds had to leave there homelands.
The problems faced by Syria’s Kurds exist in a greater context of regional discord and instability that affect Kurds throughout the Middle East. Alleviating these much greater issues would help to improve the situation in Syria, although care must be taken to ensure that such efforts accord with international standards for minority rights, human rights, and humanitarian law.
For its part, the international community can no longer ignore the abrogation of Kurdish rights occurring in Syria. The growing number of denationalized Kurds and worsening violations of Kurdish civic, economic, social, and cultural rights threaten not only to provoke Kurdish resistance to the Syrian state, including demands for independence, but also to encourage the state to respond to these demands with violence.
There is a regular campaign of arresting people from the Kurdish opposition and the latest one was arresting three members of the political committee of Yekiti party and one political activist:
1. Hassan Ibrahim Saleh is a member of the political committee of the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria. He was born in 1947, and is married with seven children. He is a retired teacher with a degree in geography
2. Mohamed Mustapha is a member of the Political Committee of the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria. He was born in 1962, and is married he has a daughter since one month. He is a lawyer, arrested in 26/6/2007 after supporting stateless demonstration.
3. Maroof Mulla Ahmed is a member of the Political Committee of Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria. He was born in 1954, and is married with four children. Was arrested from 12/08/2007 to 03/03/2008.
4. Anwar Nasso is a political activist. He was born in 1962, and is married with three children. He is also a former detainee.
We appeal to the United Nations, human rights organizations and humanitarian groups including democratic Western governments to put pressure on the Syrian government to stop such actions and procedures that make matters more complicated, and to halt the persecution of Kurds by denying them their Human Rights and the right of self-determination
Kurdish Yekiti party in Syria
07/01/2010
