Israel Matzav

Kurds join protests against Assad

On Friday, Syrian Kurds joined the protests against Bashar al-Assad for the first time (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

Kurds in Syria's northeast [Eastern Kurdistan] on Friday took to the streets for the first time since pro-reform protests erupted in mid-March, calling for the right to citizenship, an activist said.

"Several hundred people marched peacefully in the streets of Qamishli and Amuda after Friday (Muslim) prayers chanting 'we don't only want citizenship but freedom as well,'" Kurdish rights activist Radif Mustafa told AFP.

The protesters also chanted "God, Syria, Freedom."

There were similar protests in Hassake where up to 200 people emerging before security forces dispersed them, he said.

Kurdish city of Qamishli and the adjoining town of Amude are in Syrian Kurdistan 700 kilometres northeast of Damascus near the border with Turkey [Turkey Kurdistan], while Hassake is about 600 kilometres from the capital.

"It is the first time since the start of the dissent that protests are being held in this majority Kurdish region," Mustafa said.

Friday's rallies come a day after Syrian announced it would look into the plight of some 300,000 Kurds who have been denied Syrian nationality for close to half a century.

"President Bashar al-Assad has ordered the creation of a committee charged with resolving the problem of the 1962 census in the governorate of Hassake," state-run news agency SANA reported on Thursday.

This committee "must complete its work before April 15 and President Assad will then issue an appropriate decree to resolve this problem," SANA said.

The decision comes as part of a string of reforms launched by Assad's government,www.ekurd.netwhich is facing a rising wave of dissent demanding major reforms.

In 1962, 20% of Syria's ethnic Kurdish population were deprived of Syrian citizenship following a controversial census, according to human rights groups.

The government at the time argued its decision was based on a 1945 wave of illegal immigration of Kurds from neighboring countries, including Turkey, to Hassake, where they had "fraudulently" registered as Syrian citizens.

The citizenship problem has long poisoned relations between the government and Syria's Kurds, who are banned from employment in the public sector as they are not citizens and yet cannot emigrate as they do not have Syrian passports.

Barry Rubin takes the Obama administration to task for voting 'present' on the Syrian revolution.

What should be happening? The president of the United States should go on television. He should give a long list of the Syrian regime's aggressive and terrorist deeds, including the murder of Americans. He should point to the dictatorship's crimes both at home and abroad. And he should conclude with a stirring call of support for a democratic revolution in Syria.

Sure it's a risk: but a heck of a lot less risky than what this administration has done in Egypt and Libya, not to mention Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

The moment has come to help overthrow the regime in Damascus. Yet nobody expects the U.S. government to meet that challenge. Instead, a U.S. government that has no problem trashing an Egyptian government that was an ally for three decades calls the far bloodierand anti-American dictator in Syria, a "reformer." What a tragedy!

A tragedy indeed. But the bigger tragedy is that the American people freely elected this conniver who is destroying America's alliances and standing throughout the world. And many of them would even vote for him again.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Syrian Kurds

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:50 AM