That’s a moot point, since Kurdish citizenship was one of the many wise reforms instituted by President al-Assad over this past month.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hllFqu2EWobymPF_DvlvC8iDt0tQ?docId=CNG.6f1a3c295003e2f3af5b879590880652.221
Didn’t know he followed through. Not sure how “moot” the Kurdish problem is, though:
Mustafa on Thursday welcomed the citizenship move, but said this was not enough.
“Certainly it is a positive measure, but we will continue to demand our civic, political, cultural and social rights,” he said.
Fuad Alliko, of the banned Kurdish Yakiti party, said their demands included the teaching of Kurdish in schools, cultural centres, and “being able to celebrate Kurdish festivals without being harassed by the security forces.”
A politician close to the regime told AFP on condition of anonymity on Thursday that “jurists finished drafting new legislation to replace emergency law and presented their text to the regional leadership of the Baath party.”
The lifting of emergency powers, in force since 1963 when the Baath took control, has been a central demand of anti-government protesters who have been calling for political reform and more freedoms since mid-March.
Edit: So now “most” Kurds is moot…the fact that Kurds are targeted more than any other ethnic group is still true .
Why would citizenship only give them second-class status?
The Syrian Arab Republic grants ‘Syrian Arab’ citizenship. This is embedded in the constitution of the country; it is the Syrian Ba’athist ideology of ‘Arab unity.’ If you are not ethnically an Arab, it doesn’t matter. You get ‘Syrian Arab’ citizenship, regardless.
Therefore, as a Kurd, you do not have the same rights as the country’s Arab citizenry. It is constitutionally impossible.
So when rights organisations make statements like: ‘We hope that [the Kurds] will now be able to enjoy all of their human rights as equals, free from discrimination’ they obviously do not understand the situation in Syria for the Kurds. That statement was issued by the Equal Rights Trust.
It would probably be more akin to the US going to war with Mexico and losing part of Texas permanently. Sure, some folks in New York might not be too riled, but folks who live in Texas and the rest of the south west would be pretty ticked off, and would constantly agitate to get it back.
-XT
Does it have to be “part”?
Sort of the opposite of Iraq, but even more a crossroads. IIRC, the various Sunni branches make up the vast majority, with other Shi’ia oriented Muslims, Christians and Druze making up the rest (there are even Jews living in Syria, though I don’t think they make up a large percentage). I don’t know all the ethnic groups…IIRC, ‘native’ Arabs make up the majority, with Kurds, Turks and even Palestinians making up smaller percentages.
Syria has always been pretty cosmopolitan, because of it’s location, so there are a lot of different factions.
-XT
What about political/ideological divisions? Are there any Communists in Syria? Any Muslim Brotherhood or something similar? Any democrats, for that matter, by any definition of “democrats” other than “people fed up with the dictatorship”?
