Syrian Citizenship Disappeared ian nationality to the ajanib in 2011 and the numerous attempts we have made to resolve their legal status, nothing has been done and they have not obtained the nationality yet ¹²³.” 10 The interviews conducted by STJ’s field researcher with more than 56 eyewitnesses of the Syrian Kurds stateless showed that the majority were deprived of access to senior positions in the state because they did not have any official records, plus the majority reported they were excluded from exercising this right. 16. Continuous Suffering despite the issuance of the 2011 Decree 49 16.1 Desperate Attempts to Acquire the Syrian Citizenship Our research shows that not all stateless Kurds managed to benefit from the 2011 presidential decree No.49 to acquire the Syrian nationality. The victims we interviewed explained the maze they entered when attempting to obtain the citizenship, marked by the normalisation of bribery and the ill will of the government employees. Rasheed Hasan explained for STJ that he and ten of his family members are still maktumeen: “Following the issue of Decree No.49, I submitted my papers to the Personal Status Department, and followed them up for a full year, but all to no avail. Every time I went there, the employees told me that they had received information explaining that the Syrian government would grant citizenship to maktumeen after it got done with the ajanib. I waited for more than a year, following-up the procedures. I renewed my identification certificate at the Sharia Court in Ras al-Ayn/Sari Kani on March 24, 123 STJ's field researcher conducted direct interview with her in Qamishli in June 2018. 48 2012, in order to submit it to the Personal Status Department when the decree to grant nationality to maktumeen would be issued. However, I was deeply disappointed later in mid2012, when the same employees told me that the government wouldn’t grant citizenship to maktumeen, and that decree No. 49 mentioned the ajanib only and didn’t extend to the maktumeen. Since then, I have been to the Personal Status Department several times to follow-up the matter, but with no result. However, by the beginning of 2018, some of my maktumeen relatives managed to obtain citizenship and received the family book through a lawyer who has ties with the Syrian government, after paying 2 million Syrian pounds for every family book. They told me that it was the only way to become citizens. Actually, I went to that lawyer and he told me that he could help me get nationality legally, as he would change our legal status from maktumeen to ajanib and then to citizens, according to decree No. 49 but in exchange for 2 million Syrian pounds which did not include the costs of the family book and the IDs of all the family members. But, alas we don’t have any leverage, we are poor and have nothing to count on, thus we will remain stateless for more years, waiting for something to change.” The witness Nasr al-Din Ardam confirmed to STJ that he submitted his papers to the Personal Status Department located in al-Hasakah city in 2012, hoping to resolve his legal status as maktum but all his attempts did not work: “On 4 May 2012, I submitted my papers with those of my mother and my 3 brothers to the Personal Status Department in al-Hasakah. Once again, the employees there told me that they will send them to Damascus and that I have to wait to re-