Citizenship revocation and statelessness of Kurds in Syria: Repression of Kurdish rights by Ba’athist Assad regime in Syria (1962-2011) Muhamad Alh Introduction Syria’s Kurds comprise its largest non-Arab ethnic group. There are no official statistics that confirm their numbers; however, unofficial sources estimate them to be anywhere from one to four million out of Syria’s 23 million people. The distribution of Syria’s Kurds has been estimated at 50% in the Jazira and the Euphrates Region (Northeast), 40% in Aleppo Governorate (North of Syria, that includes Rural Aleppo and Afrin), and 10% for the rest of Syria, mostly in Damascus.1 Geographically, the northeastern Kurdish-inhabited region covers the greater part of Hassaka Governorate and Qamishli city. Other regions with significant Kurdish populations are Kobani (officially known as Ayn al-Arab) in the north and Afrin in the northwest, along the Syrian-Turkish border. In this case study, I explain how denationalisation and the denial of rights associated with citizenship has been instrumentalised against the Kurds by political elites, parties, and the successive ruling authoritarian regimes in Syria since the 1960s. First, the study will focus on the citizenship revocation of Syrian Kurds (the loss of the status of Syrian citizen which they formerly held) as the result of the application of the decree of 1962.2 Secondly, the paper will show that this measure led to the denial of citizenship to the children of stateless Kurds. Generations of Kurds were denied Syrian citizenship and automatically inherited their parents’ statelessness at birth. Thirdly, I will explain how these two policies resulted in the denial of the rights associated with Syrian citizenship: electoral, educational, health and welfare rights, as well as the denial of access to public and social services. All of these -citizenship revocation, denial of citizenship and loss of the rights associated with citizenship- have been part of policies adopted by the Syrian state and were clearly aimed at suppressing the ethnic identity of the Kurdish community. This case study starts with a short review of the historical roots of Kurd’s deprived status in the Middle East region, and the political repression and violence against them. Then it highlights the process of discrimination and denationalisation of Kurds in Syria, and how policies and practices of Syrian governments since the 1960s aimed to deprive Kurds of the civil, economic, and social rights, and of their Kurdish culture and identity. It presents the past and present situation of stateless Syrian Kurds, highlighting the systematic violations and the long denial of recognition of Kurdish identity, presence and rights. It focuses on the Kurds in the North East of Syria, who have been arbitrarily denied access to Syrian citizenship. The historical marginalisation and deprivation of Kurds The Kurds are the world’s largest ethnic group without a country, spread across the most volatile countries in the Middle East since the split of the Ottoman Empire into nation-states. Kurds have suffered deprivation, denationalisation, marginalisation, political repression and violence from authoritarian regimes in the Middle East since the 1920s (Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran). After European colonialism, the repression of Kurds was driven by the emergence of various forms of nationalist  1 2 Syrian scholar and humanitarian. Tejel, J. (2008), Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London and New York: Routledge. 45-50. Syrian nationality law of 1969 contains provisions that allow for citizenship revocation on grounds of fraud, disloyalty or threat to national security (articles 20 and 21, chapter 7 – an English version of the law is available at: https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4d81e7b12.pdf). However, these provisions have not had a significant impact against the Syrian Kurds, in contrast with the 1962 census which I propose to analyse as a mechanism of citizenship revocation that has had long-lasting consequences upon them. 5