Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Friday declaring Kurdish a “national language,” in an apparent gesture of goodwill toward the minority following clashes in recent days.
The decree is the first formal recognition of Kurdish national rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.
It stated Kurds were “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization and oppression under former rulers.
Photo: AP
The decree makes Kurdish a “national language” that could be taught in public schools in areas where the minority community is heavily present.
Al-Sharaa also made the Kurdish new year, Nowruz, which falls on March 21, an official holiday and granted nationality to Kurds, as 20 percent of them had been stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
In a televised address announcing the decree, al-Sharaa urged Kurds to “actively participate in building this nation,” vowing to “guarantee” their rights.
The announcement came as progress to implement a March deal to integrate the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration in the north into the state has stalled.
Senior Kurdish political figure Salih Muslim told reporters he viewed the decree as “an attempt to evade the rights of the Kurdish people and to divide them.”
The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during the country’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group over the past decade.
The country’s population of 20 million has around two million Kurds, 1.2 million of them in the northeast, according to Syria expert Fabrice Balanche.
Syria’s Islamist-led government is seeking to extend its authority across the country following the ouster of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad a year ago.
Kurdish forces were driven out of two Aleppo city neighborhoods by the Syrian army last week.
On Friday, Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi committed to withdrawing “towards redeployment in areas east of the Euphrates,” based on “calls from friendly countries and mediators.”
The Syrian army yesterday said its forces had started entering an area east of Aleppo after Kurdish forces agreed to withdraw from the region.
In a statement carried by state television, the army said its forces “began entering the western Euphrates area, starting with the town of Deir Hafer,” after SDF forces agreed to withdraw yesterday morning.
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