ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed Thursday that the “Kurdish issue” does not exist in his country, calling it “illusive and a lie”. He also claimed that Kurds living in northern areas are originally from Turkey.
“Regarding the so-called ‘Kurdish issue’, there is nothing called a ‘Kurdish issue’ in Syria for a simple reason: Kurds have been living in Syria throughout history but some [Kurdish] groups who live the north came [to Syria] during the last century due to Turkish [government] oppression,” Assad told Rossiya-24 in an interview aired on Thursday.
“We hosted them in Syria. Kurds, Armenians, and other different groups in Syria and there have been no problems... Why should there be an issue with Kurds?” he said.
“They took citizenship in Syria although they were originally not Syrians. Therefore, we are always positive towards the subject of Kurds. The so-called ‘Kurdish issue’ is not true but illusive and a lie,” he added.
Kurds in Syria were politically and culturally marginalized for decades. However, the eruption of civil war in 2011 gave the Kurds an opportunity to declare a self-governed autonomous region in the north and expand it eastward for the first time in Syrian history.
The Kurdish-controlled region is now called the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), traditionally known by Kurds as Rojava. It is dominated by Democratic Union Party (PYD) which was founded in 2003 in Syria.
The PYD is seen by Damascus and Ankara as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting the Turkish state for decades.
Although Assad refers to the group as “separatists”, his father Hafez used to provide the PKK with military and logistical support.
“The problem is with those groups who began pursuing separatist ambitions decades ago, especially in the early 80s,” Assad said
A 1996 report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated: “In 1962, an exceptional census stripped some 120,000 Syrian Kurds – 20 percent of the Syrian Kurdish population – of their Syrian citizenship. By many accounts, the special census was carried out in an arbitrary manner.”
“Brothers from the same family, born in the same Syrian village, were classified differently. Fathers became foreigners while their sons remained citizens. The number of stateless Kurds grew with time as descendants of those who lost citizenship in 1962 multiplied; as a result, their number is now estimated at 300,000,” it added.
In the early months of the 2011 uprising, Assad asked a committee to examine the 1962 census and granted citizenship to between 150,000 and 300,000 Kurds, mostly from Hasaka province in northeast Syria.
The NES and its armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), enjoy strong relations with the US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State group (ISIS). The SDF is dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the military arm of the PYD.
However, the NES has also maintained contact with Damascus, and Kurdish forces have largely avoided getting embroiled in the anti-regime movement.
The Kurds have held multiple meetings with Syrian government officials but have failed to reach an agreement on the political future of the Kurdish-held areas.
After Turkey invaded northeast Syria in October 2019, the Kurds struck a deal with the Assad government to allow regime forces and Russian military police to secure Syria’s northern border.
Assad has long said he intends to retake every inch of Syria from rebel forces, including Rojava.
“We are in contact with Kurdish political groups who are present in the northern areas in Syria,” Assad said in his interview with Russian state media, without specifying which groups.
“However, the problem is that some of these groups, not all of them, are controlled by the US authorities.”
“We do not mean all Kurds, because a great number of Kurds are from the tribal and national groups in Syria who support the government. These groups have no voice and a small number who allied with Americans are dominant in the area,” he said.
The regime will not strike a deal with the SDF and Kurdish authorities unless they renounce US support, oppose Turkish involvement in Syria, and pledge allegiance to the Syrian government.
“We cannot reach a conclusion in any of our talks with them, although we have held them a thousand times, unless they announce a clear national position and be against the US and invasion, and against Turkey as well because they are invaders as well,” Assad added.