DAMASCUS, 28 June 2004 — A Syrian state security court sentenced seven people to jail terms of up to two years yesterday over a protest demanding the right to teach the Kurdish language, Kurdish parties and rights groups said.
The verdicts were the latest sign of escalating tension between the Syrian state and a large Kurdish minority which Damascus worries could draw inspiration from the broad autonomy of Kurds in neighboring Iraq and threaten its stability.
In separate statements, Syrian Kurdish parties and the Syrian Human Rights Association (HRAS) said the seven were sentenced to five years, but that three had their terms reduced to two years, while four others had theirs cut to one year. They were detained after a protest in Damascus in June 2003.
HRAS said those sentenced to two years were convicted of “belonging to a secret organization and attempting to sever Syrian territory and join it to a foreign country”, a charge nearly identical to the one faced by the other defendants.
No Syrian official comment was immediately available.
Kurds make up some two million of Syria’s 17 million population and have long demanded the right to teach their language and regain citizenship for hundreds of thousands of Kurds without identification needed for school and employment.
Those demands have alarmed Damascus, which like neighbors Turkey and Iran — which also have large Kurdish populations — fears the breakup of Iraq and the emergence of a Kurdish state sparking separatism among its own Kurds.
About 30 people were killed in clashes between security forces and Syrian Kurds in the north of the country in March, leading authorities to arrest hundreds. Kurdish groups say the detainees have been tortured.
Syria avoids any mention of its Kurds as a distinct minority and strongly emphasizes national unity in any reference to Syrian Kurds. Like Ankara, it has warned it would not sit by idly if Iraqi Kurds moved to establish a separate state.
