Al-Jazeera, Qatar
March 19 2004

Syrian Arabs fear Iraqi Kurd scenario

Friday 19 March 2004, 22:59 Makka Time, 19:59 GMT

Syrian Qamishli has been the home for Arab and Kurd Syrians

The unprecedented clashes between Syrian Kurds and police last week
have led Syrian Arabs to question whether Kurds in the region are
determined to follow the path of their Iraqi peers.

Syrian Arabs are accusing some Kurd countrymen of trying to give the
United States a pretext to intervene in Syria like it has done in
neighbouring Iraq.

Arabs on the streets of some Syrian cities voiced anger and dismay at
recent violence in the north of the country, saying on Friday they
believed Kurds were trying to stir up trouble.

Unacceptable statement

They also condemned statements by some Kurdish politicians seeking
statehood.

“They are trying to drag the country into a war with the Americans now
after they toppled (Iraq’s) Saddam Hussein,” said Jamal, who works at
a bakery in the northern town of Aleppo, scene of bloody clashes
between Kurds and police this week.

“The Kurds are trying to portray Syria’s (government) as if it is
another Saddam… I don’t think they are mistreated. They are like any
one of us living here.”

Syrian Kurds, who number some two million out of Syria’s 17.6 million
people, want their rights to be preserved in Syria.

Kurds and police clashed in northern Syrian cities a week ago after a
soccer match brawl in a stadium in Qamishli, near the Turkish border.
About 30 people were killed and public buildings were damaged in the
violence.

Disappointment

Human rights activists, who have defended Kurds’ calls for preserving
their identity through Kurdish-language schools and supported
citizenship demands by stateless Kurds, say the riots abused the right
to peaceful protest.

Kurds are thought to number
20 to 25 million in the Middle East

Activist Ammar Kurabi said some people who had been campaigning to
improve the lot of Kurds felt let down.

“We as opposition felt as if the Kurds deceived us. They say one thing
to us about the national unity and Syria being a home for all but
later we see them acting differently,” Kurabi said.

“At first I used to blame the authorities because they dealt with the
situation in a wrong way, but… the Kurds should not have allowed the
situation to reach this stage.”

Kurabi said violent incidents gave the United States a pretext to
“intervene in our country”.

Varying demands

Syria and Turkey have opposed any moves to strengthen Kurdish autonomy
in northern Iraq, fearing it could ignite separatist aspirations among
their own Kurdish minorities.

But Syrian Kurd demands are varied — some say they want equal rights
with fellow Syrians; a few demand statehood and others say about
200,000 stateless Kurds should be given Syrian citizenship.

“We are the sons of this country,” said Rachid Shabban of the Kurdish
Democratic Union Party in Syria, adding that “unjust” state policies
made some Kurds bitter.

“There are some people in this state that are not reading the facts
right. The world is changing and the region is changing, so the Syrian
state has to change. They have to accept others’ rights.

“We don’t want a whole change, but at least as Kurds we want to be
equal,” he said.

“They want a state? They can have this,” said Abou Salim, 70, making
an insulting gesture. “I was a civil servant for 40 years and I never
asked anyone if he was a Kurd….”

“Kurds have rights and they want them. Fair enough, everyone can ask
for more rights, but not make war for (them) and destroy the country,”
said Umm Ammar, a housewife.

More rights

Salam Alou, a Kurd in Aleppo, probably echoed the sentiments of most
Kurds when he said he wanted more rights, not a separate state.

“Syria is our land and home, but the authorities do not listen to us
or others,” he said.

Syria, an east Mediterranean state with an Arab majority, has a wide
ranging ethnic and religious mix that includes Kurds, Circassians,
Assyrians, Armenians, Muslims, Christians and Jews.

“During my military service I had Kurdish mates. We used to eat from
the same bowl and sing together at night,” said Farouq, a taxi driver,
visibly angry at the violence in the north.

“Last month I went to the wedding of one of them and I drove him and
his bride to their house in this car,” he said, banging on the
steering wheel of his yellow cab.

The crisis started last week after tensions between Arab and Kurdish
football spectators, developed into clashes. A Kurdish mob provoked
Syrian nationals when they burnt the Syrian flag and raised the
American one.