Gains made by Kurds raise hopes, spur riots

By Nicholas Blanford
The Christian Science Monitor

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At least 14 Kurds died in riots, which began Friday in Qamishli during a brawl between Kurdish and Arab soccer fans. The violence reportedly began when Arab fans began chanting support for Saddam Hussein. According to diplomats in Damascus, Syrian security forces fired on the crowd, killing six people. Three children were trampled to death in the ensuing panic. Rioting the next day killed five people in Hasake, a town of Arabs and Kurds 50 miles south of Qamishli.

Violent outbursts by Syria's Kurdish minority reinforces concerns that recent political gains by Kurds in Iraq will embolden Kurds in neighboring lands to seek greater recognition. Some analysts see Kurdish ambitions for independence as a regional powder keg. Kurds have been a significant minority in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran since the early 1900s, when Kurdish lands were divided as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated.

The U.S.-led war in Iraq was opposed by Syria and Iran, in part due to the potential ramifications of a resurgent Kurdish community in Iraq's north. Turkey, a regional ally of Washington, also was worried about the way the war's aftermath would impact its own Kurdish population.

Kurds in Iraq have enjoyed near autonomy for the past 12 years under a U.S. and British protective umbrella. Iraq's interim constitution, passed last week, formally recognized Kurdish control over three provinces in northern Iraq, prompting jubilant Kurds to take to the streets in Iranian cities.

The growing influence of Iraqi Kurds has apparently struck a chord with Syria's Kurdish population. Violent demonstrations such as the one over the weekend rarely happen in Syria, where the ruling Baath party maintains tight control over signs of dissent.

In the early 1970s, thousands of Arabs settled in Kurdish villages along the Turkish frontier. Kurdish place names were replaced by Arab names and the Kurdish language was banned from schools.

Restrictions on the Kurds gradually eased under Syrian President Hafez al-Assad who died in 2000.

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