ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian government’s insistence on excluding Kurdish from the signboard of the Justice Palace in the Kurdish-majority city of Hasaka has sparked days of protests, leaving the building without a signboard amid tensions over language rights and the integration process between Damascus and the Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria (Rojava).
Kurds have gathered outside the Justice Palace for several consecutive days, demanding that Kurdish be included alongside Arabic on the building’s signboard. Protesters waved Kurdistan flags, chanted Kurdish slogans and accused Damascus of ignoring commitments made under recent agreements with the Kurdish-led administration.
“We want the Kurdish language [on the signboard]. Kurdish is our language and we will not accept any other language,” protester Suhayla Khisho told Rudaw on Monday.
The controversy began after Syrian authorities removed a bilingual Kurdish-Arabic signboard from the Justice Palace and replaced it with one written in Arabic and English. The new signboard was later torn down by angry protesters. Damascus then installed another signboard written only in Arabic, which was also removed, leaving the building without any signboard.
The dispute comes as the Kurdish authorities in Rojava move to integrate their civilian and military institutions into Syrian state structures under a landmark January 29 agreement reached between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus following weeks of clashes. The agreement includes provisions related to Kurdish language rights and broader Kurdish participation in state institutions.
“If the integration proceeds well, we will support it. We will live with the tribes of the region as brothers, provided that our rights are guaranteed. The January 29 agreement between [SDF chief] Mazloum Abdi and [Syrian president] Ahmed al-Sharaa stipulates that Kurdish is the second language in Syria as a whole,” protester Idris Mohammed told Rudaw.
Mazloum Abdi said on Monday that the Kurdish authorities had temporarily accepted the Arabic-only signboard to avoid harming the broader integration process with Damascus, adding that the issue would be addressed later. “We have accepted it for a while until it is addressed in the future,” Abdi told the pro-SDF Hawar News Agency.
The Democratic Union Party (PYD), the ruling party in Rojava, has argued that including Kurdish on official signboards would strengthen rather than weaken Syria’s unity.
The tensions also come despite a Syrian presidential decree issued in January recognizing Kurdish as a “national language” and allowing its teaching in Kurdish-populated areas, though Damascus maintains that Arabic remains the country’s only official language.
Viviyan Fetah contributed to this article.