The
Plight of the Kurds in South-West (Syrian) Kurdistan
by
Moustafa Rechid
Ladies and gentlemen!
First
of all, I should like to express my gratitude to the organisers of this
meeting for having invited us to speak about the situation of the Kurdish
people in what is known as Syrian Kurdistan, although we prefer another term
- South-West Kurdistan. I appreciate this wonderful opportunity to elaborate
the problems we have and denounce oppression we suffer from the totalitarian
Syrian regime.
Esteemed guests!
The Kurds are one of the most ancient peoples in the
Middle East. The 40-million-strong Kurdish nation belongs to the four major
regional nations together with the Arabs, Persians and Turks. As you may
know, until the World War 1, our homeland Kurdistan had been divided between
the Ottoman and Persian Empires. After the war, Kurdish lands from the
Ottoman Empire were given to the three new states, that is, Turkey, Iraq and
Syria. South Kurdistan, then referred to as the Mossul Vilayet, because of
its oil reserves was attached to the newly-created Iraq. Another part that
had been located south of the train line Berlin-Baghdad became a part of
Syria, another new-born state. The borders between these state were chiefly
based on the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Since then these names of two
diplomats, an English and a French one, are being implied whenever the Kurds
are dissatisfied by unjust borders. Unfortunately, these two gentlemen paid
no attention to the ethnic composition of these regions and draw these
borders simply using a pen and a ruler. One is able to see their drawings on
the current political map. Thus, the Sykes-Picot Agreement created the
modern Syrian state and attached to it a part of our homeland.
The Kurds live in the northern part of Syria, in the
border region between Syria and Turkey on the one hand and Syria and Iraq on
the other. Nevertheless, the Kurds have always been
playing an significant role in Syrian history. Many aristocratic and
well-to-do Kurdish families occupied major
positions in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities. It is known that a lot of
families in the district of Horan and even some Druzes are of Kurdish
origins. The experts of Syria could attest that until 1958 a big number of
important Syrian politicians came from these families. I could limit myself
with mentioning the Defence Minister Yusif al-Azma (during the French
arrival), Ibrahim Henano (a patriotic symbol of anti-French resistance),
Muhammad Alî al-Abid (the President of the Syrian Republic in 1936) as well
as other Presidents Husni al-Zaim, Fawzi Silo and Shukri al-Quwatli. There
were a number of other important politicians including Muhsin Berazi, Reshad
Bermeda, Rushdi al-Kikhiya, Tawfiq Nizameddin and the famous Jumblat family
of Lebanon. It would be only correct to agree with the President of Syria
Mr. Bashar al-Asad saying to Al-Jazeera TV that „the Kurdish nation is one
of the basic elements of Syrian society”.
During the World War 2, when Syria and Lebanon had
been occupied by the French, who were assisted by the British troops eager
to support General De Gaule, many Arabs started to defy France and the UK by
displaying sympathy with the Nazi Germany. As a result, in 1942 the educated
Arab nationalists, following the notorious example of the National-Socialist
Party of Germany, created the Arab National-Socialist Party widely known as
al-Baath. Before long, the Baathist ideology and political structure became
dominant in Syria and Iraq. The main reasons of such an unfortunate
development were:
1)
The Baath strengthened nationalist emotions
amongst the Arabs by promising to create a pan-Arab Union. That made people
believe that the Baathists were able to contribute to the positive changes
in Arab economies and social life;
2)
The West European states and the USA, fearing of
the Soviet influence in the Middle East penetrating through local Communist
parties, wanted to come along with the Baathists.
After the Baathists came to power in Syria and Iraq,
they carried out the following policies: in foreign relations they moved
between the West and the Soviet block whereas in the domestic affairs they
realised many National-Socialist principles.
1958 was the year of important changes in both Syria
and Iraq. In Syria, the policy of Arabization
was applied to state symbols, organisations and even chemistry and
mathematics. Thus, tThe name of Syrian Republic was changed to the Syrian
Arab Republic, the national
anthem became the Syrian Arab National Anthem, the Syrian Army was
renamed to the Syrian Arab Army with the TV acquiring the title of
the Syrian Arab TV.
The atmosphere was created when only people shouting
Arab nationalist slogans were accepted by the state. Everything Arabic was
regarded as more precious than anything else. However, this could not and
did not change the mosaics of Syrian society. The Kurds remained the second
largest group in Syria and other sizeable minorities continued their
existence such as Aramaic-speaking Christian groups (embracing Assyrians,
Syriacs and Chaldeans), Turkomans, Circassians, Armenians and Jews. The
official ideology did in no way fit a multi-linguistic and multi-religious
Syrian society.
During the short-lived
Union of Syria and Egypt, the Arab Socialists nationalised banks,
factories and the whole private sector. In accordance with the official
ideology, the Arabs were regarded as better citizens than non-Arabs. It may
be seen on only one example: the Syrian state took away the land possessions
of the Kurdish land-lords to give them not to the Kurdish peasant, but to
the Arabs brought in from other regions.
In 1962, the Syrian government under the supervision
of the Baathist official Muhammad Talab Hilal started a racist actions
against the Kurds which may be sum up in the following way:
1)
The Kurds living within 10-15 kilometres
distance from the Turkish border had to be replaced by the Arabs. Thus, the
Kurdish inhabitants who resided there for hundreds and thousands of years
were forced to leave and the Arabs from other regions came and took their
land and belongings.
2)
The number of Kurds had to be decreased at any
cost.
A ) An emergency census was conducted in 1962 and
around 150,000 Kurds were deprived from Syrian citizenship. Several
generations of these Kurds are now stateless. To compare the Syrian
population was 5 million in 1962 with 17,5 million nowadays, we may assume
that the number of the stateless Syrian Kurds increased from 150,00 to
500,000 people. The stateless Kurds are deprived of every right, including
the right of possession of land, they cannot build a house, they are not
treated in to the state hospitals and are banned from visiting hotels.
B) The Syrian state creates barriers for the social
and cultural development of the
Kurds while encouraging them to leave Syria in order to become refugees in
Europe or elsewhere.
3)
The Syrian state methodically obliterates the
traces of Kurdish names and identity: Kurdish cities and villages receive
new Arab names, the Kurdish language and publications are illegal with the
Kurdish children banned from bearing their original names and forced to have
Arab ones.
4)
Those Kurds who preserve their identity are not
allowed to make carrier in civil service or the army. To illustrate it, the
people with Kurdish self-confidence will never become generals or fly
military airplanes.
Between 1963 and 1970, the Baathists enjoyed power but
the power struggle between various clans and grouping did not disappear. One
dictator had been replacing another until 1970, when General Hafiz al-Assad
succeeded in establishing the total control over the state apparatus and
army. To keep his power, al-Assad created three competing security
organisations, namely, the State Security Office, the Political Security
Office and the Military Security Office. These three organisations prevented
any form of political and economic changes in the country.
To be fair, there has been a period of democracy in
Syria, albeit a very short one: between 1954 and 1957. Up to the nowadays
the whole population is being oppressed. Yet, it is the minorities who face
more discrimination and are being persecuted. The Syrian regime is no friend
of human rights and freedom of press. As sad as it can be, but the outside
world is apparently aware of 10 per cent of the things which took place in
Syria.
The Damascus regime and the gone tyranny of Saddam
Hussein have the same ideological premises, although they may dislike each
other. The reason of the latter is that the Syrian and Iraqi Baathists
competed of being better Arab nationalists. Faced with the real threat to
their political grounds, the Syrian authorities are currently doing
everything possible to bring the Iraqi Baathists back to the power in Iraq.
After the Iraqi Constitution was signed on the 8th of
March, 2004, and gave the Kurds an official status within the Iraqi
Federation, the Syrian regime lost the sense of reality. The Syrian
Baathists are afraid that one day the Kurds in Syria and their language will
ascend to an official level, similar to that in Iraq. In such a hostile
atmosphere the state security personnel contributed, if not provoked, the
dramatic events started on the 12th of March. You might be aware of the
consequences of the attacks against the Kurds: tens of them being killed,
hundreds being wounded and thousands being still detained. Every day one
group of the Kurds is being arrested and another released. There are
wide-spread tortures aimed even at the teenagers between 12 and 17 years
old. Some people have been killed and buried by the police while the
relatives have no information about this. Let me tell you only one example.
A Kurdish mother wanted to see and kiss her killed son before he would be
buried. When she approached him to kiss his chin, she saw that his chin had
been cut off. There are other cases of the killed Kurds whose eyes were
smashed. These are not horror stories re-played in Alfred Hitchkock’s
films; unfortunately these are realities of the Kurds in Syria.
To protest such deadly attacks, the Syrian Kurds
demonstrate in Europe. Although the Damascus regime is anxious of following
the fate of the Iraqi state criminals, there should be no doubt that the
Syrian authorities are not afraid of the Kurds. These Kurds constitute 16 %
of the country’s population with a part of them having already left
South-West Kurdistan to move to other regions of Syria. The Kurds are keen
to use democratic and non-violent methods of struggle. It is an open secret
that they lack a better coordination to be able to seriously demand human
rights for them and other citizens of the country. The Syrian opposition
under the name of civil society group is unfortunately still weak. Against
such a background, the Syrian Kurds and other democratic forces are simply
not capable of turning Syria into a modern and democratic state. What we
really need is backing from democratic forces from abroad. The oppressive
Assyrian Empire, the cruelty of Nero and Caligula during the late period of
the Roman Empire, the Third Reich of Hitler, the regimes of Pol Pot in
Cambodia and Saddam Hussein in Iraq – all of them were destroyed from
outside forces.
Let me demonstrate the importance of the outside
interference. One and a half years ago, a Syrian Kurdish poet Marwan Osman
together with his friend were detained after staging a peaceful
demonstration in Damascus. The Syrian state court accused them of separatism
and was going to jail them for 15 years. Then, the Kurdish PEN Centre, where
I am a Vice-President, informed other PEN Centres of such threat to our
member Mr. Marwan Osman and the 69th PEN International Congress in Mexico,
2003, adopted a special resolution demanding his unconditional release. Our
colleagues from the English PEN Centre organised an impressing campaign by
collecting 202 signatures from the famous English writers and sending a
protest letter to the Syrian President and other officials. The English PEN
Centre encouraged the involvement of the UK diplomats and that compelled the
Syrians to drop their absurd charges and release Marwan Osman together with
his friend. I want to use this occasion to thank the English PEN Centre and
the PEN International for their invaluable help.
It must be underlined that the Kurdish voice alone is
not sufficient. In order to stop killings, attacks and tortures against the
Kurds in Syria, I bet you for help. Only your support can make Syria more
democratic and only with your support the Kurds can obtain their democratic
rights.
Let me be frank with you. We are well aware of the
fact that Syria has a very important geo-political
and psychological place in the Middle East and the Arab World. If this
country starts democratic changes, it will influence the whole region. Our
hopes are:
A)
With regard to the Syrian state:
1)
Military and dictatorial rule and one-parts
system must be abolished;
2)
The State Constitution must reflect the
religious and ethnic mosaic of Syria, guarantee the rights of women and
multi-party system;
3)
Peaceful relations with all its neighbours and
respect for international law.
4)
The State Constitution and other laws must
provide that Arabs and Kurds are main nations and refer to the rights of
other minorities;
5)
Economic liberalisation and removal of socialist
plan economy with its heavy bureaucracy inherited from 1960s and 1970s;
6)
New functions for central power, regions and
local governments. The regional and local governments must be elected and
deal with local issues;
7)
Independence of courts and freedom of opinion
and mass media;
B)
With regard to the solution of the Kurdish issue
I refer to the statement of the President Bashar al-Assad who stated that a
wrong policy towards the Kurds of the last 40 years must be corrected:
1)
The outcomes of the emergency census of 1962
must be abolished and the Kurds must get back their Syrian citizenship;
2)
The Kurds must be allowed to return to their
villages which are now illegally occupied by the Arabs. Those Arabs are also
victims of the ill-fated policy and it is the duty of the state to
facilitate their return to the native villages;
3)
The policy of Arabization of historical names of
cities, villages and personal names must be reverted and corrected;
4)
In the Kurdish regions, the Kurdish language
must become the second official one alongside Arabic;
5)
The Kurdish language and culture shall be free
in other regions of Syria, too: especially at the universities and in mass
media;
6)
There must be no discrimination against the
Kurds as well as other minorities in the army, government, education, social
and political life.
Ladies and gentlemen!
We see how the new communication facilities,
cultural, political and social contacts bring the nations of the world
together. The people speak of the “world village”. I can compare it with
the ship in the sea. If some harm the ship, it will disturb everyone. Only
by taking care of the ship, we are to survive as a humanity.
Thank you for your attention.