Press release:
Syrian Kurds to protest in London against 45 years of government's discriminatory policies

2 October, 2007

Tens of Syrian Kurds from across the UK will gather in London on Friday, October 5th, to remember the 1962 exceptional census, which stripped around 120,000 Kurds of their nationality and civil rights. The demonstration, called by the Syrian-Kurdish community in the UK, will start at 13:00 and last for about two hours. A delegate will then go into 10 Downing Street to hand the Prime Minister's office a letter explaining their problems and demands.

Bewar Derki, one of the protest organisers, said: "Hundreds of thousands of Kurds are aliens in their own country. They are denied their basic human rights, such as the right to own property, education, marriage and so on. They are further trapped in Syria as they are not entitled to Syrian passports. Till when will these discriminatory policies of the Syrian government against the Kurds be ignored by the international community?"

-end-

For more information, please contact:
Bewar Derki
Tel: 079 3321 0303
Email:  kharzani@yahoo.co.uk


Notes for editors:

1. On 5 October 1962, the Syrian government conducted a special population census only for the province of al-Jazira, which was predominantly Kurdish. A presidential decree (Decree No. 93 issued on 23 August, 1962) ordered that a census be carried out in the Hasakeh governorate for the purpose of identifying "alien infiltrators." The census was one component of a comprehensive plan to Arabise the resources-rich north-east of Syria, an area with the largest concentration of non-Arabs in the country. As a result, around 120,000 Kurds (about 20 percent of the Syrian-Kurdish population then) were arbitrarily stripped of their Syrian citizenship and categorised as 'foreigners'. The victims, many of whom were original inhabitants of that area, had Syrian identity cards and were told to hand them over to the administration for renewal. However, those Kurds who submitted their cards received nothing in return. This was accompanied by a media campaign against the Kurds with slogans such as "Save Arabism in al-Jazira!" and "Fight the Kurdish threat!".

2. Since 1962, the number of 'Stateless Kurds' in Syria has grown because the status is inherited by the Syrian-born children of stateless Kurdish fathers. An estimated 280,000 Kurds are now 'stateless'. About 200,000 of these are registered as 'foreigners' and are issued with special red identity cards by the Ministry of Interior. The rest are not registered at all and are called in Arabic 'The unregistered' (maktoumeen). They are not issued with identity cards and are not listed in official population registers.

3. Despite repeated promises by the Syrian government, the problem of Stateless Kurds in Syria remains unresolved.

4. Suppression of the ethnic identity of Kurds by the Syrian authorities has taken many other forms, including various bans on the use of the Kurdish language; the prohibition of books and other materials written in Kurdish; refusal to register children with Kurdish names; replacement of Kurdish place names with new names in Arabic; prohibition of businesses that do not have Arabic names; not permitting Kurdish private schools etc.

5. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right of every person to a nationality and provides that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her nationality. Syria is also a signatory to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

6. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up about 10% of the country's near-20million population, i.e. about 2 million.