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April 22, 2008
News
An Open Letter to President Jimmy Carter
As the president of Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria, an umbrella organization of Syrian Kurds, I admire your efforts on behalf of human rights globally. I must however express my disappointment at your meeting with the Hamas terrorist leadership and Syria's dictator Bashar Assad. Mr. President, the Middle East Conflict extends beyond the Arab-Israeli conflict. I would like to bring to your attention the Plight of Kurds in Syria. Mr. President, we seek your support in resolving the Kurdish question in Syria peacefully and through dialogue. You should know however that President Assad has consistently and gravely violated the human and the national rights of the Kurdish people of Syria for the last five decades.
The Assad regimes of Hafez and Bashar deliberately Arabized the Kurdish region of Syria as a national policy. The result of Arabization rendered 300,000 Kurds "stateless foreigners" (ajanib in Arabic) and subject to oppression. Syria's Constitution affords no protection for Kurds—or, indeed, for any other minorities—and they have been categorized as "non-citizens" and thereby deprived of opportunities to obtain the basic rights of social services.
Kurds cannot own property, vote, be employed in the public sector. Kurds are unable to travel freely within the country, obtain passports, or even practice certain professions (such as medicine or teaching). Some married couples are deemed "single" and, thus, cannot share a hotel room or register their children. There are over 100,000 children of unrecognized marriages (maktoumeen) that are denied access to education, food subsidies and healthcare and, thus, are forced to work…aspiring to menial careers of cotton-picking, cigarette-selling and shoe-shining.
The Assad regime's discrimination and abuse of the Kurdish people in Syria forced many Kurds to seek refugee status abroad. Their plight—particularly after the March, 2004 uprising—prompted supportive actions from international organizations such as the European Union and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; they cited unresolved violations of Article 3 of the Syrian Nationality Act.
Al-Assad response has been to draft new legislation to resolve the arbitrariness of the 1962 census…but none has emerged. Instead, in late 2007, Assad distributed identification cards to 20,000 Druze in the Golan Heights (who refused Israeli citizenship) to show that they "belong to the Syrian motherland." Clearly, political priorities had again trumped justice.
Last summer, the Human Rights Commission—the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its State parties—again called upon Syria to "protect and promote the rights of non-citizen Kurds." Instead, the Syrian government has claimed that Kurds, emboldened by the success of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, engaged in insurrection with help from foreigners. Kurds' counter-claim is that they merely seek democracy, and human rights for all Syrian. And, the implementation of a form of federalism that will afford them justified personal and cultural rights.
President Carter, when you meet with President Assad, please consider Kurdish rights with the same rigor you defend Palestinian rights. While we the Kurds of Syria support your efforts in promoting peace, and human rights, we hope that you will remember to present our case to President Assad.
Yours truly,
Sherkoh Abbas, President
Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria
1-419-290-4649
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