Syrian Citizenship Disappeared He also addressed the gaps in the ongoing process towards granting citizenship to states people: The best solution would be to conduct a clear serious census by the concerned authorities with an international party to oversee it. So far, there are still ajanib and maktumeen who have not been granted the citizenship; many were extremely affected because they either lost their lands or they could not complete their academic education.” Siyamand Wahhab Wahhab, who used to be an ajnabi, explained how he benefitted from the 2011 decree: “We have sought for several years to become Syrian citizens in the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, but to no avail. When the presidential Decree 49 of 2011 was issued to grant Syrian citizenship to the stateless, we started the legal procedures. At first, we got the family book, then every person obtained his own ID like any other citizens”. For him, obtaining a Syrian ID was a turning point in his life: “After that, we registered our house in the name of my elder brother after it had been registered for several years in the name of my father’s friend. In addition I was exempted from the obligatory military service because I was born in 1991 and had exceeded the age of mandatory military service at the time the decree issued. Previously we were denied to work in the public sector. Job opportunities in some areas in the private sector were available but with low salaries as we did not have any documents proving our personality. In addition we were not entitled to own a land, a car, or a bank account. However, things are better since we have got the nationality. At the beginning of 2012, I opened a clothes shop, and can now support my elder brother.” 52 16.4. If Time Could Just Run Backwards Syrians for Truth and Justice enquired into the type of reparations victims of this discriminatory census would see fit to address the violations they have suffered. For a substantial part of them, the granting of the citizenship is an essential prerequisite. Suhaila Mohammed Ali, who has not succeeded in obtaining the Syrian nationality so far, explains: “We have been deprived of all our rights. The solution is only to grant the Syrian citizenship to the ajanib and maktumeen. If time could just run backwards, it would have been a good compensation”. For Dlo Mohammed, in addition to the mere reinstatement of their citizenship, the stateless should benefit from financial and moral reparation. Aziz Pirro, maktum, alluded that there are some Syrian Kurds who were born and died maktumeen. Acquiring the Syrian nationality is no longer an obsession of his. His main concern now is that his own children face not the same destiny. “All I hope is that people of the region, being Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Muslims cease to be subject to racism because of their ethnic or religious affiliation. The issue of statelessness has created a great awareness on the concept of racism because of one’s ethnic root. It not our fault to be born Kurds.”