A Syrian Muslim cleric called for national unity on Friday following a week of clashes between Arabs and Kurds that left 25 people dead and more than 100 wounded in northern Syrian towns.
Salah Kuftaro, the son of Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Kuftaro, said in a Friday sermon that the riots were a "strange phenomenon" that should not be generalized.
"The Kurds must not be viewed as troublemakers," said Kuftaro, imam of the Abu al-Nour Mosque in Damascus. "The Kurds are honest citizens and we will not allow [anybody] to say Arabs and Kurds. We are all Syrians."
The violence began March 12 with a brawl between supporters of rival soccer teams before a match in Qamishli, 775km northeast of Damascus. One team had many Kurdish players, the other had Arab players.
The fighting continued the next day when Kurds went on the rampage during a funeral for the riot victims, and it spread to Hasakah, a city 80km southwest of Qamishli.
On Tuesday, Kurds battled Arab policemen in Syria's second biggest city, Aleppo, 320km north of Damascus, and the nearby town of Afreen.
In the government's first report on casualties, Syrian Interior Minister Ali Hammoud said Thursday that a total of 25 people were killed in the violence, 19 of them in Hasakah and nearby cities and six in Aleppo.
The government has blamed the violence on what it calls "mobs and opportunists" who have been influenced from abroad, and Kuftaro repeated those claims.
"We are subjected to a major conspiracy that aims to harm us from inside after the failure of external plots," Kuftaro said. "Syria has long been an example of national coherence."
Also Friday, hundreds of Kurds demonstrated in a suburb near Damascus denouncing what they called "some demagogues who infiltrated Syrian areas" during last week's clashes.
Participants in the apparently pro-government march in the predominantly Kurdish suburb of Dumar, 8km west of Damascus, affirmed their adherence to national unity and condemned "threats and pressures" against their country.
The Al-Thawra government newspaper called on the government to act firmly against "any move or behavior that may harm national unity."
Kurds comprise about 1.5 million of Syria's 18.5 million people and live mostly in the underdeveloped provinces of Qamishli and Hasakah.
In a statement faxed to reporters, the New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the Syrian government's handling of the riots and said it should take immediate steps to curb excessive use of force and halt mass arrests following the unrest.
"Syria's Kurds have endured decades of severe discrimination under Baath Party rule," said Joe Stork, acting executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS