State-run television said Assad issued a decree granting citizenship to more than 250,000 Kurds registered as aliens in the records of the northeastern Hasaka province.
In a separate decree, Assad fired the governor of central Homs province, which has been the scene of clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces over the past three weeks.
The overtures are part of a series of concessions by the regime designed to subdue the protests that erupted in a southern city on March 18 and spread to other parts of Syria. The decrees come on the eve of more protests planned by Syrian activists, who used social networking sites to call for nationwide demonstrations Friday.
Kurds — the largest ethnic minority in Syria — make up 15 percent of the country's 23 million people and have long complained of neglect and discrimination. The more than 250,000 Kurds who have been denied citizenship were barred from voting, owning property, going to state schools or getting government jobs as a result.
The government had argued that they are not Syrians but Kurds who fled to the country from neighboring Turkey or Iraq.
Many Kurds in Syria welcomed the step. Omar Osso, head of the Kurds' National Initiative, said it will help "tighten the unity" of the Syrian people.
"This is a historic step that has humanitarian and social dimensions," Osso said.
But Khalil Hassan, a Kurdish exile living in Beirut, described it as a "comedy." "This would have been a good move had they done it years ago. Now it just shows the entire world that the regime is collapsing," he said. "What is the use of citizenship if one doesn't have dignity."
Tensions between Kurds and the authorities have exploded into violence on several occasions. In March 2004, clashes between Kurds and security forces in the northeastern city of Qamishli spread to the nearby cities of Hasaka and Aleppo, with at least 25 killed and 100 wounded.
Kurds have so far not joined anti-government protests that started last month, but authorities have been concerned they would, making Thursday's move a likely attempt to pacify the community.
Six Syrian rights groups said Wednesday that judicial authorities ordered the release of 48 Kurds detained last year in the northern city of Raqqah after throwing stones at Syrian police who ordered Kurds celebrating their new year to replace their ethnic flags with Syrian ones.
Assad on Thursday dismissed Gov. Mohammad Iyad Ghaza, answering a major demand by Homs residents after deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in the province. The Syrian leader has already fired the governor of Daraa, an impoverished southern province where the protests began nearly three weeks ago.
