Syrian Citizenship Disappeared Ismail recalled that the census committees were composed of only two persons, who maintained that they were carrying out a new one because the 1960 census had not achieved its objectives that was why.40 9.2. A Cigarette pack in exchange for a citizenship! A Syrian Kurd who witnessed the census in 1962, said to STJ through an online interview: “I remember well when the census committees came to our village in Amuda countryside. I was 12. They asked people many questions related to their origins, and we were shocked later to discover we had been registered as ajanib. I think that carrying out such census was a very political issue, since the Kurds were the only targeted group. Plus, later, Syrian Arabs could resolve their legal status, while the Kurds could not. The census was conducted in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner, as the makhateer41 were biased in favor of some ethnic groups and against others, while the work of the committees in charge was baseless. I can remember that some people who bribed officials managed to keep their citizenship.A person was registered as a citizen after buying the committee personnel a cigarette pack. People were registered either citizens, ajanib, maktumeen, or not registered at all. There was actually such classifications before the 1962 census, during the process of distributing agricultural land42, which was dominated by patronage, discrimination and aimed at political ends.”43 came from Turkey. There were, however, doubts that massive migration of Kurds from Turkey to Syria had already taken place. The interview was conducted by one of STJ field researchers, in Qamishli/Qamishlo on 25 July 2018. 40 According to information published by The World Bank, the Syrian population in 1960 was 4,573,512, See: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=SY (Last visit: 6 August 2018). 41 Sing. Mukhtar; the head of a neighborhood or a small town or village. 42 For further details, see: “Agrarian Reform Law No. 161 of 1958”; http://parliament.gov.sy/laws/Law/1958/ structure_12.htm (Last visit: 6 August 2018). 43 The witness asked for anonymity for security reasons, Mustafa Ouso, lawyer emphasized that the “exceptional census” was part of the policy followed by the then ruling political system, based on racist foundations and on recommendations issued by an officer of the Syrian security apparatus Mohammed Talib Hilal, in which he targeted Syrian Kurds, specifically of al-Jazira region. Ouso argues that statelessness is not only a legal, but also a political issue. Regarding the context in which the census was conducted, Ouso said: “The special census was carried out in an arbitrary manner by the committees themselves. Thousands of Kurdish families were stripped of their Syrian nationality as a result, including men who had served in the Syrian army. Plus, the census was conducted in whole al-Hasakah in one single day. Based on these facts, the Syrian Kurdish movement has been calling for a comprehensive solution of the problem, which could be a new Naturalization Act. It is important to say that there are no accurate number of maktumeen, which may have be defined few years following the census, but now, after the passage of many decades on this disaster, the numbers increased significantly given the high number of births in al-Hasakah province. However, according to unofficial statistical data the 1962 census created at least 75,000 maktumeen, out of a total of 120 to 150 thousand stateless at the time. The number of ajanib exceeded half a million as of 2011, according to sources within a Personal Status Department in the Syrian-Turkish border areas.” For Ouso, stripping Kurds from their Syrian citizenship lacked any legal basis.44 since he lives in Qamishli/Qamishlo, al-Hasakah province, where the authorities continue to systematically suppress freedom of opinion and expression just like in other Syrian regions. The interview was conducted on 6 August 2018. 44 Mustafa Ouso, a lawyer from al-Hasakah, graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Aleppo, he became a member of the Syrian Bar Association in 1992 and has volunteered for many years to defend political and conscience prisoners in Syrian prisons. In addition to his political activity in the Kurdish political movement in Syria for many years, through which he served as secre- 15