![[Syria] Mustapha Ossou (right) campaigns for the restoration of citizenships to a Kurdish family, Syria, 5 October 2006. According to officials, an estimated 300,000 Kurds in Syria have lost or never had citizenship in the country in which they live.](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20061051.jpg.webp?itok=CoQkfR2v "Mustapha Ossou campaigns for the restoration of citizenship to an estimated 300,000 stateless Kurds in Syria.")
More than a dozen Kurds were arrested on Thursday as hundreds of riot police and security officers armed with tear gas and batons prevented a demonstration calling for the restoration of citizenship to an estimated 300,000 stateless Kurds living in Syria.
"We denounce the police and security services' abnormal use of force against what was a peaceful civilian rally," Meshal Temo, spokesman for the Kurdish Future Party, said. Future Party was one of three illegal Kurdish political parties that organised the demonstration.
About 2,000 Kurdish and Arab demonstrators had been expected to protest at a busy roundabout in central Damascus but most were prevented from gathering by security officers who formed a cordon around the area, organisers say.
Demonstrators who were detained were all released shortly afterward, according to Kurdish activists.
The protest was to mark the 44th anniversary of a survey in 1962 that stripped an estimated 120,000 Kurds in the north-eastern Hassake governorate, bordering Turkey and Iraq, of their citizenship. Their Syrian national status was taken away on grounds that they had not been born in Syria.
Since then, Syria's Kurdish population has roughly trebled to about 1.5 million, making Kurds by far the second-largest ethnic minority in the country.
The majority are recognised as citizens, but about 220,000 Kurds are classified as foreigners, meaning they cannot own property, attend state universities or work in the public sector. They do, however, have access to public services.
Another 75,000 Kurds live in Syria without any official identification cards, meaning they have no access to public healthcare or education and cannot travel without official permission.
Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad has made repeated pledges to resolve the issue of Kurdish citizenship over the past two years.
hm/sz/ed/mw
"We denounce the police and security services' abnormal use of force against what was a peaceful civilian rally," Meshal Temo, spokesman for the Kurdish Future Party, said. Future Party was one of three illegal Kurdish political parties that organised the demonstration.
About 2,000 Kurdish and Arab demonstrators had been expected to protest at a busy roundabout in central Damascus but most were prevented from gathering by security officers who formed a cordon around the area, organisers say.
Demonstrators who were detained were all released shortly afterward, according to Kurdish activists.
The protest was to mark the 44th anniversary of a survey in 1962 that stripped an estimated 120,000 Kurds in the north-eastern Hassake governorate, bordering Turkey and Iraq, of their citizenship. Their Syrian national status was taken away on grounds that they had not been born in Syria.
Since then, Syria's Kurdish population has roughly trebled to about 1.5 million, making Kurds by far the second-largest ethnic minority in the country.
The majority are recognised as citizens, but about 220,000 Kurds are classified as foreigners, meaning they cannot own property, attend state universities or work in the public sector. They do, however, have access to public services.
Another 75,000 Kurds live in Syria without any official identification cards, meaning they have no access to public healthcare or education and cannot travel without official permission.
Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad has made repeated pledges to resolve the issue of Kurdish citizenship over the past two years.
hm/sz/ed/mw
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article
