POLICE ATTACK KURDISH DEMONSTRATION IN DAMASCUS

A number of demonstrators were hurt today when Syrian police attacked a sit-in by hundreds of Kurds who were demanding the return of Syrian nationality to thousands who lost it 43 years ago.

"Hundreds of Kurds gathered in Shahbandar Square in Damascus in response to a call from several parties to protest against the policy of oppression against the Kurds and against a racist census in 1962" in the northern province of Hassakeh, the Azadi party said. "Despite the peaceful nature of the sit-in, police and security services beat the demonstrators, injuring a number of citizens, including Mustafa Jumaa, the number two of Azadi."

During a television appearance six months ago president Bashar al-Assad had promised that he would naturalize some Kurds living in Syria.

Syria's one-and-a-half million ethnic Kurds have been struggling for years in the face of official repression. Their demands for rights and ethnic identity have grown recently as they watch their counterparts in Iraq take a significant role in government and society reports PolitInfo.com. Pary Karadaghi of Kurdish Human Rights Watch points to significant advances in Iraq. "It is very hard for the Kurds in Syria to be immune to what is going on in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish population in Syria has been watching for years. Many have been working very closely with the Kurds of Iraq to achieve the same level of success that the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan have achieved," she says.

In Syria, Kurds have lived and worked the land for generations. However they are told, in official terms, they are essentially not there. Pary Karadaghi says one of the most basic ways of showing Kurdish identity has been taken away. "The campaign of 'Arabization' actually replaced the Kurdish names," she says. "People could not have Kurdish names on cities, buildings [and] businesses. Children's names could not be Kurdish."

Joe Stork, with Human Rights Watch in Washington, outlines how many Kurds have been deprived of citizen rights. "The main points of discrimination have to do with their legal standing," he says. "Many of them don't even have identification cards, which are essential for getting necessities like education, like health care and so forth. This is accentuated by the fact that they are the largest ethnic minority in the country."

The roughly 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, who make up around nine percent of the population, live mostly in the north of the country. Sources: Kurdistan Regional Government, AFP, AKI, PolitInfo.com