The Stateless Kurds Of Syria 173 Since Kurds missed out during the period of nation-state building in the Middle East, they can generally be considered as a ‘People without a Country.’6 Moreover, there are categories of Kurds in Syria who were deprived of Syrian citizenship because of a discriminatory census in 1962 which targeted the majority-Kurdish governorate of Hassaka. The result was that some 120,000 became stateless overnight. The statuses of ajanib7 and maktumin8 were inherited by subsequent generations bringing the estimated total at the start of 2011 close to 300,000. These sub-groups of ‘stateless persons’ are collectively referred to in Kurdish as ‘bê nifûs,’ literally ‘without an identity card.’9 As such, the ajanib and maktumin Kurds of Syria suffered the double injustice of being not only without a country of their own, but without nationality papers and corresponding civil rights in their country of residence. They, prior to the introduction of a 2011 decree granting some of the ajanib Kurds Syrian nationality, were one of the world’s largest groups of ‘stateless persons.’ The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this naturalization in the context of the dual conception of statelessness mentioned above. The material and identity-based implications of the newly acquired status will be considered for the naturalised population, as well as for Syrian Kurds in general. Given that the legalistic and normative dimensions of this question, including Syria’s obligations under international law and its own nationality legislation, have been examined elsewhere,10 this paper seeks to contribute a mostly social sciences contribution to what is both a legal and political issue. Considering the quantitative extent of inclusion in the naturalization process, the paper also draws on qualitative material acquired through semistructured interviews and ethnographic observation in Syria during 2009–2011 6 7 8 9 10 Gerard Chaliand, People without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan (Zed Press 1982). The term ajanib (sing. ajnabi, fem. ajnabiyya) means ‘foreigners’ and such individuals were issued with irregular identity documents that allowed limited corresponding rights. Maktumin (sing. maktum, fem. maktuma) refers to those who are completely undocumented and enjoy even fewer civil rights than the ajanib. For further details on the relative experiences and hardships of ajanib and maktumin in Syria, see Human Rights Watch, Syria The Silenced Kurds (October 1996) <www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ SYRIA96.pdf> accessed 26 August 2013. cf. the Bidoon (Arabic for ‘without’) in the Arabian Gulf: Abass Shiblak, ‘Arabia’s Bidoon’ in Brad Blizt and Maureen Lynch (eds), Statelessness and the benefits of Citizenship: A comparative Study (Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, International Observatory on Statelessness, 2009) 85–93. Most recently, Zahra Albarazi, ‘The Stateless Syrians’ (2013) Tilburg Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract _id=2269700> accessed 12 August 2013. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 171-181