Will Freedom for Syria Mean Freedom for the Kurds?

By ADIB ABDULMAJID 

After decades of oppression and exclusion in Syria, Kurds are continuing their bitter struggle against the dictatorship of Assad regime and the Baath party’s Arabization policy.
In the early 1960s, the Kurdish revolution against the Iraqi authorities’ repressive policies — led by Kurdistan Democratic Party founder and rebel leader  Mustafa Barzani — was  launched, raising fears among the Syrian authorities of a similar revolution in Syria. A prejudiced plan was laid out in a book written by Muhammad Talab Hilal, a Syrian First Lieutenant and the head of the political division in Al-Hasaka at that time. The plan aimed to change the demography of the Kurdish areas in Syria and to disband the Kurdish Democratic Party which was established in 1957-1958 under the leadership of Nuraddin Zaza and Osman Sebri.

Hilal’s book, A Political, Ethnic, and Social Study of Aljazeera Province, is considered the first systematic plan to exclude and suppress Syrian Kurds. After it was published, most of the regime’s policies on the Kurdish issue in Syria were directly or indirectly based on Hilal’s detailed agenda.

The Aljazeera province, where most Syrian Kurds have historically lived, is well-known for its geopolitical, geological and agricultural importance. It is because of this that the Syrian authorities have tried to keep this crucial region under control, quashing Kurdish dreams of an independent Kurdistan united with the Kurdish parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Hilal’s book, written in six chapters, begins by drawing skepticism concerning the origins of the Kurdish nation — which is described, according to his documents, as “a blended group of multiple tribes coming from Iran and Armenia.”

Hilal claims the Kurds had “used the pure religion of Islam for their national goals.”

“The regime has tried hard to neutralize Kurds in the anti-regime uprising, but in vain”

Hilal compares the Kurdish National Movement with the Zionist movement by arguing that there is no difference between Kurds and Israel in terms of the Kurds’ strong push for a “utopian and unreal independent country,” and that both group were threatened by the Arab world.

Moreover, he emphasizes the necessity of eliminating the Kurdish issue, suggesting, “Kurds became like rabid dogs, and it’s time to put an end to their annoying barking.”

A few years after the publication of Hilal’s book, the Syrian regime launched a campaign in the Kurdish areas. This plan aimed to change the demography of the Kurdish areas by replacing the Kurdish names of areas historically inhabited by Kurds with Arabic names.

Moreover, in 1962 the government of Nazim al-Kudsi, the president of Syria at that time, decided to hold a new census of Kurds in Syria. That process stripped approximately 400,000 Kurds from their Syrian citizenship.

Kudsi’s government then said that those who were not included in the census were not Syrians, but immigrants from neighboring countries.

After Kudsi was overthrown in a military coup and Hafiz al-Assad came to power in 1970, the same strategies against Kurds and their issue in Syria — persecution and exclusion for the past 40 years — continued.

Prisons were filled with Kurdish activists and opposition members.

In 2000, following the death of his father, Bashar al-Assad was sworn in the president of Syria. He was surrounded by the same Baath leaders and friends as his late father, who had the same perspective on and plans toward the Kurdish population.

Initially, Assad pushed freedom of speech by giving cultural and political groups the opportunity to organize in Syria, and Kurdish activists took part in the events. But a few months later, all of the activists were rounded up and detained.

In March 2004, following a mass protest by Kurds in Qamishli, Syrian security forces cracked down and committed a massacre by killing dozens and imprisoning many more.

No officer involved in the bloody crackdown was ever questioned. Besides assassinating Kurdish figures, dozens of Kurdish soldiers serving in the Syrian military were tortured and killed in ambiguous circumstances.

Now, since the pro-democracy revolution against Assad regime in mid-March, Kurds have to some extent demonstrated alongside Arabs in an effort to end persecution and tyranny in Syria.

The regime has tried hard to neutralize Kurds in the anti-regime uprising, but in vain. Kurdish activists have been at the forefront of the struggle against Baath regime, and the ongoing revolution has proved just how willing the Kurds are to sacrifice in order to change Syria into a pluralistic and democratic state.

The assassination of Mishaal Tamo, the leader of the Kurdish Future Movement and the prominent Syrian opposition leader, was the best example of the revolutionary spirit of the Kurds. It has increased the fears of the regime that the Kurdish demonstrations may increase, which will in turn pose a serious challenge to Assad’s reign.

The Syrian National Council was recently founded as a step to bring the Syrian opposition under one umbrella. This council, however, resembles the pan-Arab movement and Kurds lack representation in this body thus far.

Some Kurdish political parties were hesitant about being involved in the opposition conferences, and some Arab opposition groups attempted to exclude influential Kurds in the council. These were both factors behind the total exclusion of Kurds.

“Real threats and fear of persecution of the Kurds loom over the post-regime era”

The Kurds have been labeled by Arab activists and oppositions as not being actual partners in the movement for change, and that they are seeking to carry out some other agenda — despite the explicit participation of Syrian Kurds in the pro-democracy revolution in Syria.

The Turkish political strategy on Syria indicates that Kurds should expect many difficulties in the coming days. All of the Syrian opposition’s movements were under the shadow of Turkey, and the Turkish blessing followed the Syrian opposition’s initiatives to overthrow the Assad regime.

Real threats and fear of persecution of the Kurds loom over the post-regime era. The Kurdish political movement held The Kurdish National Conference in Syria on October 26. Kurdish politicians discussed and evaluated the Kurdish role in the anti-regime revolution, and reflected the level of Kurdish awareness about the threats they may face if pro-Arab politicians govern the country after the regime’s overthrow.

Kurds in Syria are facing two enemies: On the one hand, the Assad regime, which has suppressed the Kurds for decades; and on the other, the Arab opposition which is plotting against the Kurds by reaching understandings with Turkey to keep the Kurdish issue under control in the post-regime era.

*The author is a Syrian Kurdish journalist based in the Netherlands.

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