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Article: The people with no rights: Syria's oppressed Kurds
- Article from:
- Jerusalem Post
- Article date:
- November 13, 1996
- Author:
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Steve Rodan
Jerusalem Post
11-13-1996
ON the face of it, Syria has become a leading supporter of the Kurds, the largest non-Arab minority in the Middle East. President Hafez Assad has provided the Turkish Kurdish underground, the PKK, with offices in Damascus and bases in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, despite strong protests from Ankara.
But Syria also has its own Kurdish minority. And, the irony, according to a new report by a human rights group, is that the Assad regime treats those Kurds as badly as, if not worse than, Turkey or any Arab regime treats its own Kurdish populations.
In short, the hundreds of thousands of Kurds in Syria simply have no rights. They are stateless, without passports ...