Protests against Baath Party rule erupt in Syrian Kurdish regions

PanARMENIAN.Net - Protests against Baath Party rule erupted in Kurdish regions of eastern Syria on April 8, Kurdish activists said, a day after President Bashar al-Assad offered Syrian nationality to some Kurds.

The grant of citizenship on April 7 to an unspecified number of Kurds is seen as part of a government attempt to cool resentment over nearly five decades of Baath Party rule and deflect pro-democracy protests.

"The citizenship gesture only helped fuel the street (protests). The Kurdish cause is one for democracy, freedom and cultural identity," Hassan Kamel, a senior member of the Democratic Kurdish Party in Syria, told Reuters.

Activists and witnesses said thousands of mostly young Kurds marched in the northeastern city of Qamishli on Apil 8 chanting: "No Kurd, no Arab, the Syrian people are one."

The demonstrators also demanded freedom for thousands of political prisoners, many of them Kurds.

"Kurds are part of the Syrian people. They will not stop the struggle with their Arab brethren against the regime to lift emergency law for good. They will not be fooled by the so-called terrorism law in the making," said Massoud Akko, a Kurdish activist in exile in Norway.