Muhamad Alh Discrimination and Arabisation policies Several governmental discriminatory strategies and forms of marginalisation affected the Kurds after the 1962 census. The denial of the rights associated with Syrian citizenship (including political rights) as well as the denial of a series of civil rights (including the rights to access property and education) followed the citizenship revocation of the Syrian Kurds. These discriminations should be seen as part of a more comprehensive policy to arabise the resource-rich north and north-eastern areas of Syria, which have the largest concentration of non-Arab groups in the country. In line with pan-Arab ideology politics and nationalisations during the 1960s-1970s, Syria’s constitutional declaration as an Arab Republic confirmed the ethnic foundations on which the country was to be established. This first assertion of Syria as an Arab state marks the starting point of tensions between the Syrian state and the Kurdish community. Over this period, after the Ba’athists took power in 1963, the Syrian government denied Kurds their civil rights, property and identity rights, by i) displacing them from their lands in the north-east to the interior; ii) denying them education and Kurdish culture, and iii) handing over ‘wanted’ Kurdish activists to Turkey. Contrary to those Kurds who kept their Syrian citizenship after the 1962 census and who were progressively integrated into Syrian society, the Kurds who lost their citizenship were dispossessed of their lands, which were given by the state to Arab and Assyrian settlers. During the 1960s, all of these coincided with the beginning of Barzani’s uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan and the discovery of oilfields in the Kurdish inhabited areas of Syria.19 As a result, in June 1963, Syria took part in the Iraqi military campaign against the Kurds by providing aircraft, armoured vehicles and a force of 6,000 soldiers. Most importantly, several media campaigns were launched against the Kurds with slogans such as “Save Arabism in Jazira” and “Fight the Kurdish Menace”.20 Since then, the Jazira’s Kurds have been plagued by persecution and marginalisation from the Syrian regime and regarded as an obstacle to the Arabisation of the region.21 Overall, these practices included: the colonisation of Kurdish lands by Arabs, the deportation of Kurds from this area, and the prohibition for the Kurds to own property, to repair a crumbling house or to build a new one. Following that, Assad’s regime denied Kurds the right to vote, elections or participation at district levels, and prohibited the teaching of the Kurdish language. All in all, these restrictions were part of a larger strategy of demographic change and systematic persecution against the Kurds in Syria.22 This strategy in the 1970s led to Arabs resettling in majority Kurdish areas, as the Syrian government decided to create an ‘Arab belt’ in the Jazira region along the Turkish border. After this, the Arabisation process and practices expanded in 1973, as almost 4,000 Arab families were settled in Kurdish regions. Their own Kurdish names were arabicised, and they have been treated in a discriminatory manner in their land of birth for decades. Consequences of statelessness and intergenerational vulnerabilities Since the census of 1962, the statelessness of Kurds of Hassaka has been a way of life for two generations of Syrian Kurds. They have been deprived of the right to register marriages and births, and with the absence of official identity documents and equal recognition as Syrian citizens, stateless Kurdish children have lived with difficulties accessing schools, universities, and vocational education, and have as a result not been able to obtain recognised qualifications. For generations, the statelessness 19 Tejel, J. (2008), Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London and New York: Routledge. 20 Ibid., 52. 21 Vanly, I. C. (1992), The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon, in Kreyenbroek, P.G. and S. Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview, 157-161. London and New York: Routledge. 22 Tejel, J. (2008), Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London and New York: Routledge. 48-55. 8 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Working Papers