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2 Unrest
in Syria inspires Kurdish
activism By Chris Zambelis
As the momentum of opposition
demonstrations targeting Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad gains in the face of an increasingly
violent crackdown by the state, questions are
emerging as to the survivability of a regime
widely considered to be among the most autocratic
in the region.
Like others in the Arab
world toiling under decades of authoritarianism,
Syrians are protesting against the absence of
democratic freedoms, the disregard for human
rights and the corruption pervading their society.
As legitimate grievances engendered over time
define a discourse of dissent, underserved
segments of Syrian society, including persecuted ethnic
minorities such as the sizeable
Kurdish community, are also finding their voices.
Encompassing all corners of the country,
the unrest in Syria has reached the northern and
northeastern provinces where most of the country's
ethnic Kurdish minority population reside,
particularly in Aleppo, al-Raqqa, and, especially,
al-Hasakah province, which borders
Kurdish-dominated regions of Turkey and Iraq.
Kurdish neighborhoods and towns across other parts
of Syria are also witnessing displays of dissent.
The specter of Kurdish nationalism
continues to haunt governments in the region that
rule over restive Kurdish populations, namely
Turkey, Iraq and Iran, as well as Syria.
Initially, there was little evidence to indicate
that Syrian Kurds were expressing their grievances
amid the current uprising through an
ethno-nationalist lens analogous to the calls for
autonomy or independence by Kurds in Turkey and
Iran, which are experiencing Kurdish insurgencies,
or Iraq, where Kurds enjoy a quasi-independent
status guaranteed through Iraq's federalization.
Most Syrian Kurds appear to be venting
their ire against the state as Syrians, not as
Kurds. At a rally in the town of al-Amouda, in
al-Hasakah province, protestors chanted "God,
Syria, freedom, and that's it", a play on a
popular Ba'athist chant, "God, Syria, Assad, and
that's it". Protestors also carried Syrian flags
and banners reading "Respect for the heroes of
freedom" and "We are all Syria".
Yet there
have been instances where Kurdish grievances were
articulated through a Kurdish nationalist
discourse. At a March 20 rally during celebrations
marking the festival of Nowruz (Persian New Year)
that is traditionally commemorated by Syrian Kurds
(though repressed by authorities) in the largely
Kurdish city of al-Qamishli (also in al-Hasakah
province), demonstrators brandished Kurdish flags
while leading chants of "long live Kurdistan".
Given these trends, the manner in which
political instability in Syria impacts the
position and expectations of Syrian Kurds and,
more broadly, the larger question of Kurdish
nationalism in the Middle East, warrants closer
examination.
Western
Kurdistan The Middle East is in the throes
of a reinvigorated Kurdish nationalism following
the establishment of what, in essence, represents
a semi-independent Kurdish state that emerged
under the auspices of the Kurdish Regional
Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
Depending on the political leanings of the
sources, demographic data regarding Kurdish
minorities are often heavily politicized as many
as 30 million Kurds live as marginalized ethnic
minorities who experience social, cultural,
linguistic, and political discrimination in a
transnational territory spread over Turkey, Iraq,
Iran, and Syria or, as Kurdish nationalists like
to call it, "Greater Kurdistan".
In this
context, the territory occupied by Syrian Kurds is
considered "Western Kurdistan" or "Syrian
Kurdistan". The Kurdish population in Syria is
estimated to number between 1.5 to 2 million out
of a total of around 22 million Syrians, making it
the largest non-Arab minority in one of the
region's most ethnically and religiously diverse
countries.
Kurds in Syria are forbidden to
use the Kurdish language in education and other
official venues. Other expressions of Kurdish
identity are either prohibited or strongly
circumscribed to satisfy the regime. Kurds also
are also among the poorest communities in Syria
and influential Kurdish figures are subject to
arbitrary arrest and torture. Most Syrian Kurds
are Sunni Muslims, but the community includes
significant numbers of Alawites, Shiites,
Christians and adherents of other smaller sects.
Syrian Kurds also share ties with familial and
tribal networks that extend over the borders into
Turkey and Iraq, as well as a sense of
transnational Kurdish identity.
Tensions
between the Syrian state and the Kurdish
community, while modest in scale compared with the
experiences of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran in terms of
the amount of bloodshed over the years, are
nevertheless real. A series of incidents in recent
years is illustrative of the hostilities simmering
below the surface in Syrian society in regard to
the position of the Kurdish minority.
For
example, in March 2004 a heated exchange between
rival Kurdish and Arab football fans in
al-Qamishli took on political overtones as Kurds
reportedly brandished Kurdish flags and chanted
slogans praising then US president George W Bush
and Iraqi Kurdish leaders Massoud Barzani and
Jalal Talabani. Subsequent clashes between the
fans prompted a heavy-handed crackdown by security
forces that left 36 dead and hundreds injured,
most of them Kurds.
The incident prompted
Kurds to organize across Syria, leading to further
clashes between Kurds and the security forces and
attacks by Kurds against symbols of the state.
This period of hostilities represented the largest
display of domestic disorder witnessed in Syria in
decades. Less dramatic displays of unrest among
Kurds have also prompted clashes with Syrian
security forces in Kurdish neighborhoods of major
urban centers such as Damascus and Aleppo.
A question of citizenship Kurdish immigrants from neighboring Turkey
made their way to Syria from the 1920s to the
1950s to escape poverty and seek out the fertile
but uncultivated farmland available in al-Hasakah
province. In 1962, Syrian authorities revoked the
citizenship of 120,000 Kurds in al-Hasakah on the
grounds they were not born there.
The rise
of Arab nationalism also placed Kurds in a
difficult position in relation to the authorities
in Damascus, with Kurds being viewed as a threat
to Syrian unity and sovereignty. [1] Known locally
as al-ajanib ("the foreigners"), the Kurds
in Syria lacking citizenship number as high as
300,000. Treated as foreigners by the state, Kurds
lacking citizenship are forbidden to own property,
enroll in state universities, work in public
sector jobs, or obtain a Syrian passport to travel
abroad.
Some tens of thousands among this
community, known as al-maktoumeen ("the
hidden"), lack even basic identification cards,
making it impossible to receive health care and
other services available even to the Kurds who
lack citizenship.
Seizing the opportunity
to vent their frustrations amid the upheaval,
Syrian Kurds remain in the forefront of
anti-government demonstrations. Syrian Kurds in
Lebanon (a popular destination for Syrian guest
workers) have taken to the streets of Beirut and
other cities in a show of solidarity with their
fellow Kurds back home. In an effort to mollify
Kurdish protestors, President al-Assad issued a
decree on April 7 granting Syrian nationality to
Kurds lacking the required credentials. In a
related move designed to curry favor with the
Kurdish community, 48 Kurdish political prisoners
were also released from prison after being
detained for over a year for political
activities.
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