Part III - The Kurds in Syria
The majority of Kurds in Syria originally came from Turkey in the 1920s.[2] The community in Syria is quite small compared to their compatriots in Iran, Iraq and Turkey. However in the years 1980-1990, Kurds in Syria changed their tactics. During this period, violent clashes of community members with authorities resulted in mass arrests and deaths in 1986 and 1992.
Considering that the State department and CIA did not acknowledge the existence of the Kurds in Syria in 1970s and 1980s, Syrian government officially does not acknowledge the existence of Kurds in Syria, and lack of transparent census in Syria; it would be difficult to predicate the true and accurate percentage.
I’m not going to look into the way that Iran entered this picture. However, I find it interesting that there are diplomatic and legal ways of making people vanish, of which the US State Department has a role.
In the late fifties another Kurdish movement arose, and you can definitely see some factors which would lead to the conclusion that this is a nationalist movement—
Osman Sabri and Daham Miro along with some Kurdish politicians, founded the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) in 1957. The objectives of KDPS were promotion of Kurdish cultural rights, economic progress and democratic change. KDPS was never legally recognized by the Syrian state and remains an underground organization, especially after a crackdown in 1960 during which several of its leaders were arrested, charged with separatism and imprisoned.
In other words, they began to build a nation, by building the institutions of a nation, with or without the help or hindrance of Syria. Syria decided to become a hindrance.
After the failure of Syrian political union with Egypt in 1961, Syria was declared an Arab Republic in the interim constitution. On 23 August 1962, the government conducted a special population census only for the province of Jazira which was predominantly Kurdish. As a result, around 120,000 Kurds in Jazira were arbitrarily categorized as aliens. In fact, the inhabitants 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. A media campaign was launched against the Kurds with slogans such as Save Arabism in Jazira! and Fight the Kurdish threat!.
That was interesting. It seems that the notion of Arabism supersedes religion. In other words, Arab is not synonymous with Muslim. Although I never thought that it was, I didn’t know that the Arabs would be in agreement. If there is any question about what is determining the Syrian/Arab psychology here, the answer is not surprising—
These policies coincided with the beginning of Barzani’s uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan and discovery of oilfields in the Kurdish inhabited areas of Syria. In June 1963, Syria took part in the Iraqi military campaign against the Kurds by providing aircraft, armoured vehicles and a force of 6,000 soldiers. Syrian troops crossed the Iraqi border and moved into Kurdish town of Zakho in pursuit of Barzani’s fighters.[5]
And again, there are attempts to kill many, many Kurds. But look! Hardcore capitalism is superseding even Arabism.
Okay, click on Arabism—and….no definition. It is a word that can mean anything, that can be used for any purpose. The word, though, is used frequently, often in a context similar to the one seen above. It is frequently used as part of demagoguery because there are Arab Christians, and Arab Jews. When the word is used dishonestly, the Arab Christians and Arab Jews seem to disappear.
From what I can glean, when the word is used honestly, it pretty much refers to people living in an area without very much water, that area being the Sahara. I wouldn’t minimize this, as water has a profound impact on our minds and souls. It’s too bad that Freud wasn’t an Arab. So much would be different.
Back to the Kurds in Syria:
In 1965, the Syrian government decided to create an Arab cordon (Hizam Arabi) in the Jazira region along the Turkish border. The cordon was 300 kilometers long and 10-15 kilometers wide, stretched from the Iraqi border in the east to Ras Al-Ain in the west. The implementation of the Arab cordon plan began in 1973 and Bedouin Arabs were brought in and resettled in Kurdish areas. The toponymy of the area such as village names were Arabized. According to the original plan, some 140,000 Kurds had to be deported to the southern desert near Al-Raad. Although Kurdish farmers were dispossessed of their lands, they refused to move and give up their houses. Among these Kurdish villagers, those who were designated as alien are not allowed to own property, to repair a crumbling house or to build a new one.[6]
Of course.
I think we are getting some nice bits of data that will help to distinguish between a terrorist organization and a nationalist movement.
Again, Wikipedia gets all of the footnotes.