YA§A e.V.
Juan Enalo
The Kurdish Center for Studies and legal Consultancy- YASA
Kurdish Centre for
Legal Studies and
Consultancy
Kurdisches Zentrum
für juristische Studien
und Beratungen
Due to the civil war in Syria, we have to talk about the situation of
Navenda kurdî
Kurds in Syria before the war and during the war and about the perji bo lêkolîn û
rawêjkarîya yasayî
spectives of the Kurds and other minorities in the postwar period.
Prior to the Syrian civil war, Kurds in Syria faced various challenges, المركز الكردي للدراسات
including political marginalization and restrictions on civil, cultural
واالستشارات القانونية
and linguistic rights. The Ba'athist government, led by the Al-Assad
YASA e.V.
family, adopted an Arab nationalist ideology that often marginalized
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ethnic and cultural minorities.
The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, further complicated the
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situation for Kurds. As the conflict escalated, various factions and
armed groups emerged, leading to a complex and multi-sided war.
The vacuum of power allowed the Kurds to establish control in some predominantly
Kurdish areas and they played a crucial role in the conflict, often collaborating with the
United States in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). However, this collaboration
created tensions with Turkey, which is against any Kurdish administration or autonomy
in the Middle East.
Due to Article 1 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic,
Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which was adopted on 18 December 1992: States
shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic
identity of minorities within their respective territories and shall encourage conditions
for the promotion of that identity. The Syrian government keeps its old position from
the Kurds and their rights. Even the opposition, which claimed to stay for dignity, human rights, and coexistence, did not respect the rights of the Kurds as people and reduced them theoretically to simple individual rights and not group or minority rights,
avoiding with this position to recognize the Kurds as such and guarantee their rights in
Syria.
The situation became worse, when the opposition represented by the Syrian Coalition,
supported Turkey and the Islamic armed groups to occupy Afrin, Serê Kaniya, and Girê
Sipî. Kurds are being tortured, arrested, and forced to leave their home and lands and
displaced by force. The number of Kurds in the Region of Afrin went down to around
30% of its population after it was more than 95% before the Turkish occupation. Our
report Cultivating Chaos after Operation Olive Branch, which we have published in
2020 and the second report, Afrin after operation Olive-Branch: An update on the situa-