DAMASCUS - The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) and the new government in Damascus have yet to reach a final agreement to improve the situation in Afrin, a predominantly Kurdish city in northwest Syria where Kurds continue to be deprived of cultural rights.
Kurdish used to be the official language of education in Syria’s northwestern city of Afrin. However, after the Kurdish city came under the control of Turkey-backed forces in 2018, Kurdish-language education was reduced to just one hour per week. The interim government, which took power in December after ousting Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has now completely removed Kurdish from the curriculum in Afrin.
“Kurdish language was taught for an hour. Kurdish rights do not depend on this hour. But removing that hour carries a message. Also, excluding Newroz in national holidays carries a message. There have been no developments in Afrin dossier,” Fawzi Shingali, a member of Rojava’s ruling Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), told Rudaw.
Newroz, Kurdish new year, was recently excluded from Syria's national holidays. The move has taken the ire of Kurds, who make up over ten percent of the country’s population.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), military wing of the SDC, and the interim government have reached a number of agreements, but none has improved the situation in Afrin.
Sheikh Said Zade, a Kurd, was recently elected as a member of Syria’s interim parliament in an indirect election.
“After the liberation of Syria [from Assad], the education system became unified throughout Syria. The [new] curriculum from Damascus has been implemented even in what we used to call ‘liberated areas.’ Kurdish language does not exist in the state curriculum. We emphasized on this [inclusion of Kurdish], but time is needed for it to be added to the state curriculum,” he added.
Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson of the secretary-general of the United Nations, said on Tuesday that they are aware of media reports about the removal of Kurdish language from school curriculum in Syria’s Afrin city.
"[T]he Secretary General strongly believes in the right of people everywhere in the world to speak the languages that they choose to speak and to learn all the different languages of those areas. So we want to make sure that the basic language rights of people are protected," he added.