📰 Syrian Kurds mark 63 years of statelessness, thousands still denied citizenship

QAMISHLI, syria (North Press) – Despite being 52 years old, Adnan Suleiman, a resident of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, has lived his entire life as one of the Maktumeen al-Qayd — stateless individuals deprived of the most basic civil rights, including identification, education, employment, and legal marriage. Oct. 5, 2025 marks the 63rd anniversary of the extraordinary census conducted by the syrian administration on Oct. 5, 1962, which stripped more than 300,000 Syrian Kurds of their citizenship.   Deprived of everything “Since our birthday, we have been stateless,” Suleiman informed North Press. “My father used to get us a piece of paper, a ‘certificate of identification’, from the neighborhood mukhtar.

In fact, that’s how we lived, all the way to this age. ” He recalled that just before the collapse of the former regime, his family tried to complete their citizenship paperwork through a lawyer, but the process was never finalized, saying that the administration’s offices are not functioning and they do not know what their fate will be. Suleiman described life without citizenship as one of constant official-calender/" class="smart-internal-link" title="📰 Assyrian Organization rejects exclusion of Akitu Holiday from Syria’s official calender">exclusion: “A stateless person is deprived of everything. When we traveled to Damascus, we couldn’t even stay in a hotel. They would say, ‘Foreigners cannot stay in hotels.

Furthermore, ’. ” “Whether a stateless person studied or not, his effort was wasted. Indeed, they were never appointed to any job, not even as a school janitor,” he added. Indeed, the city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria – North Press Unclear future and uncertain policies Suleiman expressed concern about the lack of clarity in the emerging government’s policies. “As for the emerging government, we still don’t know how its system works,” he stated. “Maybe we’ll have to start all over again – prepare new documents, pay new fees, hire a lawyer, find witnesses and papers – and in the end, we might or might not get citizenship. All of this costs money we simply don’t have. ” Jwan Isso, a lawyer from Qamishli, informed North Press that the roots of this issue go back to the 1962 census. “The Syrian regime issued Legislative Decree No.

93 and rushed through a census with the goal of Arabizing the region and changing its demographics,” he stated. “Between 120,000 and 150,000 Kurds were stripped of their citizenship — a clear violation of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to a nationality. ” He explained that those affected were…