Yezidi, Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, Kurd, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother- HUMAN

photos and article by Pruittiporn Kerdchoochuen

The demonstration held on July 15, 2009 by the Council of Yezidis in Germany and co-sponsored by my employer, the Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker), outside of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, was part of a last minute effort to rally support for a Yezidi family threatened with deportation, as well as to raise awareness on the issue in general. Yezidi is a Kurdish religion of Indo-European roots, and most of its followers are Kurdish- speaking originally from northern Iraq. The family of 4 had moved to Germany over ten years ago to escape the oppression and lack of opportunities they face as an ethnic and religious minority in Syria. The 2 children, the oldest having been 3 when the family left Syria and the younger having been born in Germany, speak German, attend German schools and call Germany their homeland. Now that their 10 year visa is up, they are faced with deportation back to Syria, and thus to routine discrimination by a state notorious for its use of torture and mistreatment of minorities.






The demonstration brought together the Yezidi community, their friends and supporters, and human rights activists in the area. Little children, teenagers, parents and grandparents were all present, clad in everything ranging from traditional headscarves to Chucks and low riding jeans. For me, the rally emphasized the "human" in human rights. It served as a reminder that, in the end, we are not merely fighting for some intangible ideals, but for real people: for our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers...

To see more of Pruittiporn's photos of the protest, check out the album by clicking here!

The Young and the Stateless: the Kurds in Syria

-- Pruittiporn Kerdchoochuen

Today at work, we sent out a bunch of letters urging various governments to protest against yet another example of Syria's systematic and continuous oppression of its Kurdish minority. 180 Kurdish students at the University of Aleppo in Syria were charged with "causing a disturbance," and were told by the University to present themselves to a so-called "disciplinary committee" which could recommend their expulsion from the institute, right before the commencement of their final examinations. We fear that these students were targeted and are being barred from taking their final examinations, and thus from graduating, on the sole account of their being members of the Kurdish ethnic minority.

The estimated 2 million Kurds living in Syria today, though making up around 12% of the entire population and the majority in three regions on the Syrian-Turkish border, are denied basic minority rights and are routinely subjected to discrimination. They are often denied the rights to practice higher paying professions, to receive higher education, and to exercise political rights. Kurdish language and culture are banned from public life and from schools. Following a program of Arabization in the early sixties, 120, 000 Kurds were stripped of their Syrian nationality. Because of the hereditary nature of this status, today the number of stateless Kurds in Syria is estimated to be around 300,000.

Deprived of citizenship, these 300,000 people cannot obtain passports and visas to travel in or out of the country, receive public aid, own homes, land or cars, and are often denied employment. Politically, they are all but powerless: they are denied the right to vote and unable to hold office.

It's hard to wrap one's head around the idea that so many people are denied the rights that are, to us, so fundamental that we never really even think about them.