Regime emulates the national Coalition by tempting Kurd with Full
Syrian Nationality Straight away
It seems that Assad government has attempted to
withdraw the carpet from underneath the coalition in regard to Kurds issue, as
the government decided yesterday to modify the Legislative Decree No. 49 for the year 2011 by cancelling the mandate 5 years minimum period for newly naturalized to have all their
right and duties as Syrian citizens.
The above decree was issued in April 2011, only a month after the break out of
Syrian revolution, and it is well known that it targeted Kurds, to encourage
them to leave Syrian revolution once they have some of their rights granted.
The decree issued in 2011 included granting citizenship to people registered in
“al-Hasakeh foreigner register”, that means the Kurds, who have been deprived
from Syrian nationality for decades after 1962 census which showed arrival of tens of thousands of them
illegally from Turkish territory.
Timing of the decision issued by Assad's
government yesterday raises a lot of question marks, as it came after the
regime lost control on Kurdish majority areas targeted by the decree and they
became sort of autonomous.
In the
same time, the Kurdish Democratic Union, which is considered the Syrian wing of
PKK, seeks to establish temporary civil administration to control the
North-eastern area of Syria controlled
by Kurdish militia. In doing this, the union preludes to the imposition of
Kurdish autonomy , as a fait accompli to the rest of the Syrians .
Lots of
the data pointing to a hidden alliance between the Kurdish Democratic Union led
by Saleh Muslim and Assad’s regime, the
most prominent of these event that the regime withdrew quietly from all areas
dominated by the Democratic Union, as well as the later supported Assad forces
in some battles against the opposition group North of Aleppo.
Kurdish
political forces in North-eastern Syria compose a political body called “the
Kurdish Supreme Authority" and the two main prominent power in it are
Kurdish National Council that includes manKurdish political parties, and the
" Kurdish Democratic Union, mentioned above.
Few days ago, Ahmed Jarba, the Head of the
National Coalition met with Abdlhakim Bashar, the leader of the " Kurdish
National Council” and they drew a draft agreement appointing Bashar as a
vice-chairman of the coalition, and the accession of the Kurdish entity to the
coalition. But “Muslim” the leader of
Kurdish Democratic Union, opposed the agreement claiming that it did not
had the approval from the “Supreme Kurdish Authority " and the Union was not been consulted in
regard to that Agreement.
It is clear from the agreement that the Syrian
opposition is trying to co-opt the Kurds to unite against the regime, and limit
the effects of some trends toward Kurdish Separation from other Syrian areas,
under pretext of preventing chaos from reaching to their areas.
The coalition gave many concessions to Kurds, as
it agreed to give Syria the name of "Republic of Syria " instead of
" Syrian Arab Republic " and it agreed to add 11 members of the " Kurdish National Council” to the General Authority of National
Coalition which is composed of 114 members, and three members to the Political
Body that consists of 19 members .
The draft agreement said " There should be
constitutional recognition of the
identity of the Kurdish people's and recognition of national rights of the
Kurdish people within the framework of the unity of Syria 's land and people
and work to cancel all policies and decrees and discriminatory measures applied
against Kurdish citizens and address the effects and consequences and
compensation for those affected , and restore the rights of their respective
owners"
The draft agreement also drafted the adoption of
decentralization system in order to empower local authorities, and the best
form for the country would be a federal state.
In response, Saleh Muslim, rejected the draft
agreement with the coalition and he declared that he would work on implementing
interim civil administration to run areas in north -eastern Syria under Kurdish
control.
The Kurdish Democratic Union has strong military
groups , and considered the strongest among the armed Kurdish militias. They
participated with regime in many battles against the opposition in Aleppo, also
clashed with the " Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham” ISIS in several
battles in Hasakah. The union has around 30
thousand fighters, according to some media reports.
So it seems that the Assad regime is trying to
block the national Coalition attempts to prevent it from swaying the Kurds, by issuing a
decision to cancel the required period for a full acquisition of rights for
naturalized Kurdish people.
In this step, the regime not only stand against the national Coalition in regard to the Kurds, but the regime plans to gain the Kurds support in 2014 election as they become able to vote as Syrian citizens.
The Original Arabic Article; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
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