Kurdish parties have withdrawn from all Syrian opposition blocs, while the opposition sees Kurdish stances as political blackmail at the expense of a unified destiny for Syria Kurdish parties and opposition figures in the National Kurdish Council (NKC), that includes 11 Kurdish opposition parties, withdrew from all Syrian opposition blocs and explained that these opposition blocs do not serve Kurdish aspirations in Syria in terms of self-determination or recognition of their national rights or achieving self-rule, reports Bassel Oudat in Damascus. The NKC called on independent Kurdish figures who are members of Syrian opposition blocs to also withdraw and form a united Kurdish bloc, to negotiate with the opposition and move closer towards a structure that is closer to the demands of the NKC, especially the Kurdish demand of self-determination. Despite the withdrawal, Kurdish groups did not suspend coordinating with the Syrian opposition and did not change their anti-regime positions and demand for its ouster. Kurds did not participate in demonstrations in Syria for one month because of promises by the Syrian leadership that it would resolve their problems. There were barely any protests on the ground in northeast Syria where there are large numbers of Kurds, especially in Al-Hasaka and Al-Qamashli. Kurdish participation in demonstrations was a major concern for the Syrian regime, especially because their numbers are large (estimated at around two million). Since the beginning, the regime tried to neutralise them, allowing them for the first to time to publicly celebrate Nowruz, their national holiday. The Syrian president also issued two presidential decrees to appease them: the first solved the problem of some 50,000 Kurds who were not allowed citizenship since 1962; the second allowed them to buy real estate in Kurdish border areas without prior security permission. One day after President Bashar Al-Assad offered to grant citizenship to the Kurds, demonstrations broke out in areas that are mostly inhabited by Kurds. Tens of thousands of Kurds came out to protest linking freedom and democracy with citizenship, and Kurdish political parties asserted that they are part of Syrian society and that the Kurdish problem and those stripped of citizenship cannot be separated from the other problems in Syrian society -- whether in terms of freedoms or the economy. Granting citizenship to a category of Kurds did not succeed in building trust between the Syrian leadership and the Kurds. Presidential decrees were unable to absorb the anger of the Syrian Kurdish street, and the demands and goals of all Syrians were united. The Kurds made the same demands that are at the heart of the Syrian revolution: namely, ending the state of emergency, releasing political prisoners, banning security agencies from controlling the fate of the people, as well as implementing root and branch political and constitutional reforms in Syria. Since the extraordinary census of 1962, thousands of Kurds were banned from citizenship because of the intentionally misleading nature of the census. A large sector of Kurds, called "Al-Hasaka foreigners", remained without Syrian citizenship and without basic citizenship rights such as ID cards, passports, jobs, estate ownership, and voting rights, but at the same time they are drafted into the army. Kurds have felt dispossessed ever since and the regime has refused to grant Kurds their cultural rights or education in their native language. Some official if informal directives even banned singing in Kurdish in Syria. The Syrian opposition across the board believes the Kurdish problem in Syria must be resolved but this should not contradict with the fact that Syria is part of the Arab world. They champion the need to grant Kurds all their cultural rights and ensure equality between them and all other sects in Syrian society without discrimination. The opposition, however, rejects Kurdish nationalist or separationist aspirations, or granting them self-rule in the future, similar to the case of Iraq, because the conditions of their presence in Syria do not allow for this type of federalism. The Syrian opposition is treading carefully in its support of some Kurdish demands, especially ones pertaining to self-rule or political quotas, asserting that nationalist or separatist goals in Syria are unacceptable. This is especially true because the opposition says it wants to create a country of co-citizenship and equality. Some opposition forces are concerned that the Kurdish position is a form of blackmail of the opposition and an attempt to play the field to achieve the most possible gains for Kurds, even at the expense of a united destiny.
