Syrian Citizenship Disappeared Subsequent to that, Prime Minister Izzat al-Nuss tendered his resignation on 22 December 1961, and Maarouf al-Dawalibi was commissioned to establish the ministry in which he appointed Jalal al-Saied as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Rashad Barmada as Minister of Defense and Education, Ahmed Qunbur as Minister of the Interior, and Mustafa alZarqa as Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs. On 28 March 1962, Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi staged another coup, assuming the presidency as a result, under a decree issued by the then Chief of the General Staff of the Army and the Armed Forces, while President Nazim al-Kudsi and other politicians were arrested. Some then military sectors headed by the Brigadier General Bader al-A’asar, the commander of the central region in Homs, opposed those actions, which led to the surrender of some officers, the escape of those who staged the coup, and the transfer of others to the courts. Nazim al-Kudsi was released on 13 April 1962, and returned to the Presidential palace to begin a second mandate. On 16 April 1962, Nazim al-Kudsi signed a decree approving the resignation of Prime Minister Maarouf al-Dawalibi and another decree in which he appointed Bashir al-Azma at the head of the new government, where Rashid Humaidan was appointed Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs, and Abdel Halim kaddour as Minister of Interior. Kaddour resigned afterwards and was replaced by Rashad Baramda. The government would soon be reshuffled and the post of Minister of the Interior given to Aziz Abdul Karim.7Along with the political storms, Syria was also hit with natural storms and hurricanes. On 18 and 19 April 1962, torrential rains coming from Turkey and some Syrian areas affected al-Qahtaniyah, formerly Qubour al-Bid town in Qamishi/Qamishlo, and left about 20 victims and 10 missing. It also washed away more than 100 houses, cracked some 50 others and displaced thousands of people, many of whom were housed in schools and tents8. The census was conducted in application of Decree No. 93 of 23 August 1962, which was actually passed by the so-called “Separatist Movement”, based on Decree No. 1 of 30 April 1962 and the ministerial decision, No. 106 of 23 August 1962.9 The now known as “Al-Hasakah 1962 Census” decree, states in its article 1: 7 Hashim Othman, The Modern History of Syria (Beirut-Lebanon: Riad El-Rayyes Books), 299 to 371. 8 Ibid., 359. 9 On 13 September 1962, Bashir al-Azma’s government issued a new constitution before it resigned four days lat- A general census is to be carried out in al-Hasakah province in one single day. The exact date will be more closely determined by an order from the Ministry of Planning, at the recommendation of the Interior Minister.10 The census resulted in disastrous consequences for people who have been stripped indefinitely of Syrian citizenship along with their descendants. The overwhelming proportion of those were Syrian Kurds, which make this issue one of the most complex issues that successive Syrian governments have failed to deal with, or to lift the injustice befallen those affected.11 In order not to lose their Syrian citizenship, Kurds had to prove residency in Syrian territory since 1945, at least. The extremely short time frame for the census - one day - set by the government wasn’t enough for people to prepare the required documents or even to understand what was going on.12 er, on 17 September 1962. Khalid al-Azm formed the new government, in which Asa’ad al-Kourani was the Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs, and Aziz Abdulkareem the Minister of the Interior. The separation was finalised with the 8 March 1963 coup, helped by the military organization established in Egypt during the United Arab Republic, composed of officers Muhammad Omran, Salah Jadid, Hafez al-Assad, Ahmed al-Meer and Abd al-Karim al-Jundi. The census was therefore conducted in the midst of political instability, and its effects are still vivid today. 10 The decree was in retaliation for the Kurds’ support of the 11 September 1961 revolution in Iraqi Kurdistan leaded by Mustafa Barzani, according to some sources; to mention only: Riyad Feili, “Decree No. 93 of 1962 in Syria and his counterpart in Iraq are two sides of the same coin”, The Civilized Dialogue, issue, 2023, 30 August 2007. (last visit: 6 August 2018). http://www.ahewar. org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=107492 11 During the work on this report, STJ field researcher was able to get two testimonies from stateless Syrian Arabs in Ras al-Ayn/Sari Kani city, who did not received citizenship despite submitting their papers as Maktumeen, which indicated that there are Arabs who are still not registered in the Syrian official records. There are also some stateless Syriac families and Bedouins who were spread away from the centers of cities, as some sources confirmed to STJ. 12 Syria: Group Denial, “Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria”, Human Rights Watch, 26 November 2009. https://www.hrw.org/re- port/2009/11/26/group-denial/repression-kurdish-political-and-cultural-rights-syria . (last visit: 7