A Syrian military court has sentenced 50 Kurds to prison. With other Kurdish leaders awaiting trial, tensions are running high, Bassel Oudat reports from Damascus No one knows exactly how many Kurds live in Syria. The government says about a million, but the Kurdish put the figure at 2.5 million. In the absence of a census, either figure could be true. What makes it particularly hard to estimate the number of Kurds is that they live scattered all over the country. Having lost touch with their original language and culture, the Kurds are hardly distinguishable from the rest of their compatriots, their ancestry but a distant memory. One can, however, name three areas that have a relatively high concentration of Kurds. One is near the Iraqi border, in the northeast governorate of Hasaka. Another is on the Turkish border, not far from Aleppo. A third is in Damascus, close to the quarter named after the Kurdish community, Hayy Al-Akrad. For most of their history, up to Ottoman times, Syrian Kurds lived peacefully with the rest of the population. It was only when the Sykes-Picot agreement divided the Levant that the Kurds felt betrayed. The Ottoman and previous empires were adept at keeping ethnic tensions in check. But following World War I, the Kurds didn't get the state that they were promised. The land that belonged historically to them was divided among Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Since then, Kurdish nationalism has been simmering. In some instances, it has bubbled to the surface, as in the creation of the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in Iran in 1946. Since the Barzani revolt in Iraq and the emergence of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Kurdish Syrians have been clamouring for recognition. The government largely ignored them, partly because they live dispersed among the population, and partly because the land they inhabit is not really part of the historical Kurdistan. The Syrian authorities refused to recognise their language and denied them the right to set up their own schools and newspapers. Areas with high Kurdish concentration, especially in the northeast, have long lagged economically behind the rest of the country. Following disturbances in both Turkey and Iraq, thousands of Kurds flocked to Syria for refuge. They remain to this day without passports, identity cards or official recognition of any sort. When the Euphrates dam was built, it inundated large swathes of agricultural land. The government housed the displaced peasants in areas bordering the Kurdish-inhabited parts of the country, creating what some called the "Arab cordon". To this day, tens of thousands of Kurds remained without citizenship. Some serve in the army, many have Syrian college degrees, but none is allowed to have a government job. Deprived even of celebrating their own national holidays, the Kurds started to nurse a grudge. Some Kurds now refer to their areas as western Kurdistan. Others fume that they have to live under Syrian occupation. Others still demand "national rights" or at least a bit of recognition, along the lines of the Iraqi and Turkish examples. Of the 12 or so Kurdish parties that exist today, none has official sanction, and only two or three enjoy a significant following. The biggest Kurdish parties tend to be sober in their political outlook. Instead of pressing a nationalist agenda, they stick to a few cultural and economic demands. And so far, they have gotten along well with the Syrian opposition. The latter maintains that the Kurds should be allowed equal treatment and some cultural rights. The view among the Syrian opposition is that the Kurds' situation would improve once true democracy is established. In other words, the Kurds would do better when the rest of the nation does. Following the occupation of Iraq in 2003, the Kurds forged closer ties with Iraqi Kurdish parties and subsequently became more militant in their attitude. Their new-found assertiveness has alienated the regime and much of the population. In one incident involving the football fans of two Arab and Kurdish teams, clashes led to bloodshed. The clashes later on spread to parts of Damascus and the police had to arrest nearly 200 people. With Kurdish and Syrian opposition parties trying to defuse the situation, President Bashar Al-Assad reassured the Kurds that they were an "integral part of the Syrian national, political, and historical fabric". Then he promised to do more for the Kurds, give them identity cards, allow them some cultural expression, and improve their living standards. The presidential promise, made three years ago, is yet to be fulfilled. Over the years, some Kurds have risen to great power in the country. One of the leaders of the Syrian revolution against the French, Ibrahim Hananu, was a Kurd. Salaheddin Al-Ayoubi, known in the West as Saladin, was a Kurd. But as grievances build up and hopes are raised, memories of a glorious past seem to fade. Unless the government succeeds in placating the Kurds, more friction is to be expected.
