Unrest in Qamishli 2004
The 2004 riots in Qamishli were clashes between mainly Kurdish demonstrators and Syrian security forces, which in March 2004 attacked other cities in Syria from Qamishli . The trigger was a soccer game in Qamishli.
Emergence
The unrest broke out during a football match between al-Futova from Deir ez-Zor and al-Jihad from Qamishli on March 12, 2004. The fans of al-Futowa, known to be violent, got into the stadium in Qamishli without the usual security checks and, unlike usual, took their seats next to the fans of the home team al-Jihad. Even before the game started, they started throwing stones and bottles at their fans. Then the rumor spread that three children had died, a radio reporter passed this on in his broadcast at the request of local residents. As a result, the area around the football stadium filled with people. Although the reports of three children killed were found to be false, the clashes escalated.
course
People inside and outside the stadium threw stones at each other, and the Syrian security forces fired their first shots. After an increasing number of stones thrown, al-Futowa fans began shouting anti -Kurdish slogans and insulting Iraqi Kurdish politicians Barzani and Talabani . The police drove al-Jihad fans out of the stadium, al-Futova fans were allowed to stay. Although the crowd outside the stadium did not use firearms, Syrian security forces shot them with live ammunition. Nine people were killed. It is not known whether the governor of al-Hasakah gave the order.
The next day, March 13, 2004, the dead were to be buried. All Kurdish parties agreed on a funeral procession in which tens of thousands of people took part. Besides Kurds, there were also Christians and Arabs among them. Government officials assured the participants of an undisturbed funeral procession if they did not riot. The train was initially peaceful. However, when some participants shouted slogans for the American President Bush and threw stones at an Assad statue, the security forces initially fired in the air. After the end of the funeral procession, gunmen in plain clothes shot massively at the participants. The demonstrators then attacked numerous government buildings. After rumors of the unrest spread, it also spread in other cities with a high Kurdish population such as Amude , al-Hasakah , al-Malikiyah (Dêrik), Ain al-Arab (Kobanî), Raʾs al-ʿAin (Serê Kaniyê) and al -Qahtaniya (Tirbesipî) on demonstrations and riots in which state buildings, offices of the Ba'ath party and statues of Hafiz al-Assad were attacked and set on fire. The demonstrators shouted pro-Kurdish slogans and carried Kurdish flags. The clashes continued on March 14th and also spread to Aleppo and Damascus , where Kurdish students expressed their solidarity with the demonstrators. On March 16, security forces opened fire on young people in Afrin who wanted to commemorate the 1988 poison gas attack on Halabja .
The PKK- affiliated television broadcaster Roj TV is said to have played an important role in the spread of the unrest, calling on the Kurds outside Qamishli to take to the streets with partly false statements. The Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is closely related to the PKK, called on its supporters to demonstrate. On March 15, talks between representatives of the Kurdish parties, Assyrians and Arabs took place in Qamishli , in which the Kurds stressed that the unrest was directed against the Ba'athist policy towards them and not against other ethnic groups. On March 16, Kurdish parties and Arab human rights organizations jointly called for an end to the violence.
The security forces used their firearms during the riots, but according to several eyewitness reports, their representatives were also involved in riots and looting. A total of at least 32 people are said to have died and 160 people were injured. The majority of the Kurdish victims were supporters of the PYD or PKK.
consequences
After the riots, an extensive wave of arrests began, which is said to have affected up to 2,000 people, including children. As usual in Syria, those arrested were tortured, but most of them were subsequently released. In 2005, 312 prisoners were given amnesty by Bashar al-Assad. Additional military was stationed in the Jazīra . Representatives of Kurdish parties met with Mahir al-Assad , a brother of the head of state, and Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas , but the meeting had no results.
The Kurdish parties decided to cancel the public celebrations for Newroz Festival on March 21st to prevent further protests. The attachment to the "martyrs" of Qamishli should be expressed with black flags and badges. Only the PYD held a public Newroz celebration in Qamishli, which was broadcast on Syrian state television.
According to statements made by many participants, the unrest was an occasion for the emergence of a new grassroots movement of young Syrian-Kurdish activists. They no longer trust the existing Kurdish parties, which are often infiltrated by the secret services, and organize protests and demonstrations independently. They are being persecuted more severely by the secret services than the representatives of the older parties; most of those who were tortured and murdered belong to the poor Kurdish youth. Students who are prohibited from any political activity are monitored particularly closely; a violation of this often leads to forced de-registration .
Refugee camps have been set up in Makoble near Dohuk and Domiz for 88 families who have fled the Kurdish regions of Syria to the autonomous region of Kurdistan .
Kurds in other countries and parts of the world showed their solidarity with the Syrian Kurds in several demonstrations in Diyarbakır, Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniya as well as in Europe.
literature
- Jordi Tejel: The Qamishli revolt, 2004: the marker of a new era for Kurds in Syria . In: Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society . Routledge, London 2009, ISBN 9780415424400 , pp. 108-132.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g The "al-Qamishli uprising" - beginning of a "new era" for the Kurds of Syria? Kurdwatch, December 2009, pp. 3-18 (PDF file; 511 kB)
- ↑ a b Ferhad Ibrahim: The Kurdish factor in the Syrian civil war. (2013). P. 26.
- ↑ a b c d Human rights issues relating to Kurds in Syria. Report on a joint fact finding mission of the Danish Immigration Service (DIS) and ACCORD / Austrian Red Cross to Damascus (Syria), Beirut (Lebanon) and Erbil and Dohuk (Kurdistan-Iraq region) May 2010, page 8, 32-34, 133 (PDF; 4.7 MB)
- ↑ Damascus: Ten years after Bashar al ‑ Assad took office, the situation of the Kurdish population remains bad, Kurdwatch, July 17, 2010
- ↑ Nikolaus Brauns, Brigitte Kiechle: PKK. Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 3-89657-564-3 , p. 187
- ^ Boston Globe, March 16, 2004