Syrian Citizenship Disappeared 9. The implementation of the census: STJ gathered testimonies to understand the conditions surrounding the implementation of the 1962 census. 9.1. Carelessness and arbitrariness: In an interview conducted by STJ, an elderly Syrian Kurd recalled the mechanism of conducting the census and the work of committees in charge: “I was 15, living in Amuda, al-Hasakah after I left my hometown Mabrouka in Tel Hamees countryside, southern Qamishli, with my family seeking work. I remember how the committees were bouncing from one house to another accompanied with the mukhtar who dictated what they should write.”37 The same witness went on to tell that some registered families were later shocked to discover they had been categorized under ajanib al-Hasakah (al-Hasakah foreigners), while in other families brothers were classified differently, some being registered citizens or ajanib, and others not being registered at all. The latter would become known later as Maktoum al-Qayd38. Farhan Hasan Ismail, a witness, was in his village Sarmassakh, about 83 km southern Qamishli, al-Hasakah, with his six-member family when the census was carried out in 1962: Legislative Decree No. 49 of 2008, attached to a report entitled: “Legislative Decree No. 49 of 10/9/2008: historical and practical background, effects and objectives”; prepared by The Legal Committee of the Kurdish party of Yekîtî in Syria. Photo credit: Welatê Me website 14 “I remember when the state agents came to us and wrote our names on their record books, accompanied by the mukhtar. Sometimes, relatives of the landowners would join in order to prevent people they called “peasants” from benefiting from agricultural land.”39 37 The interview with was conducted by one of STJ field researchers, in Qamishli/Qamishlo on 25 July 2018. The witness asked for anonymity. 38 A Syrian administrative term that indicates the person is unregistered in the official records. 39 The term “peasant”, then, intended to mean that they