All news

Syria's Assad vows to resolve status of Kurds

DAMASCUS, July 17, 2007 (AFP) - Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday announced new measures to grant citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Kurds who have hitherto been denied Syrian nationality.

"There is a consensus in Syria on the need to resolve the question of the 1962 census," Assad told parliament in a speech to mark the beginning of his second presidential mandate.

Kurdish officials have long protested that 225,000 Kurds were deprived of Syrian nationality as well as their political and civil rights by the 1962 census in which they were not registered.

Assad told parliament that new legislation was in the process of being drafted.

Syria is home to some 1.5 million Kurds, or around nine percent of the population. They have been fighting to have their language, culture and political rights recognised.

There are 11 Kurdish political parties in Syria but all are officially banned.