Protests in Syria - Discussion Thread

[kurdman]

Do the Armenian communities in Syria back the government or the opposition?

Armenians I assume would back Asad since the Armenians have warm ties with Iran, and mistrust anything that Turkey is involved with. Assyrians/chaldeans on the other hand are joining the Kurds under the KRGs influence (through pro-Kurdish Assyrians in Iraqi Kurdistan).

Iraqs Maliki is really nervous with the whole situation.

[Laworkerbee]

Iraqs Maliki is really nervous with the whole situation.

Can't say I can blame him for being so...

[kurdman]

Can't say I can blame him for being so...

He is slowly becoming the new dictator.

[Laworkerbee]

He is slowly becoming the new dictator.

Let's hope it's just a case of one step back, two steps forward. The man and his government have their hands full in trying to keep the place together.

[kurdman]

Let's hope it's just a case of two steps back, one step forward. The man and his government have their hands full in trying to keep the place together.

Maliki is moving towards centralism, and ignoring the Sunni Arabs. He has ignored all the deals that were agreed on in Erbil before the government was made, and has moved to arrest most of his opposition (mainly Sunnis). Anyway that's off topic.

[Laworkerbee]

Maliki is moving towards centralism, and ignoring the Sunni Arabs. He has ignored all the deals that were agreed on in Erbil before the government was made, and has moved to arrest most of his opposition (mainly Sunnis). Anyway that's off topic.

True, funny how we don't have any current Iraq threads worth mentioning.

[shermbodius]

True, funny how we don't have any current Iraq threads worth mentioning.

That was soo 4 years ago!

[IconOfEvi]

He is slowly becoming the new dictator.

Hopefully something can stop his wild ambitions. Still trying to find an article that was posted here a while ago about how Maliki is doing precisely that.

[Flamming_Python]

Kurds already rose against Asad in 2004. There are Unfortunately two Kurdish regions in Syria, problem is, they don't share a border. The region that shares a border with Iraqi Kurdistan is highly under KRG influence and they have rose againts Asad and are in the process of negotiating with the opposition, the other region however is under the PKKs influence and they have chosen to take the regimes side due to Turkish meddling in the whole situation.

Are Kurds oppressed in Syria, or what? Interesting why Kurds will rise against Assad; is it more to do with domestic issues with Syria, influence of American-sponsored Iraqi Kurds, or what?

[Camera]

Rebels destroy SA-3 battery:

[kurdman]

Are Kurds oppressed in Syria, or what? Interesting why Kurds will rise against Assad; is it more to do with domestic issues with Syria, influence of American-sponsored Iraqi Kurds, or what?

I find it strange that you don't know about it to be honest, just to show how the media is silent when it comes to Kurds. Yes, they are oppressed, Kurdish is banned, the names are banned, there are 100,000's of Kurds without citizenship and basically Kurds are third class citizens. Kurds also had an uprising in 2004 which was brutally put down by the Syrian army.

[kalerab]

Kurds already rose against Asad in 2004. There are Unfortunately two Kurdish regions in Syria, problem is, they don't share a border. The region that shares a border with Iraqi Kurdistan is highly under KRG influence and they have rose againts Asad and are in the process of negotiating with the opposition, the other region however is under the PKKs influence and they have chosen to take the regimes side due to Turkish meddling in the whole situation.

To which region than Qamishli belongs? There were a lot of demonstrations against Assad, although as far as I am aware it is in area of some PKK influence.

[memoli]

I find it strange that you don't know about it to be honest, just to show how the media is silent when it comes to Kurds. Yes, they are oppressed, Kurdish is banned, the names are banned, there are 100,000's of Kurds without citizenship and basically Kurds are third class citizens. Kurds also had an uprising in 2004 which was brutally put down by the Syrian army.

i also read that they aren't recognized as Kurds... is it true?

[Flamming_Python]

I find it strange that you don't know about it to be honest, just to show how the media is silent when it comes to Kurds. Yes, they are oppressed, Kurdish is banned, the names are banned, there are 100,000's of Kurds without citizenship and basically Kurds are third class citizens. Kurds also had an uprising in 2004 which was brutally put down by the Syrian army.

Honestly have no idea. Pretty strange that Kurds get screwed wherever they are; Iraq, Syria, Turkey, etc...
Syria is generally quite tolerant of Christian, Druze, etc... minorities; because a minority itself (Alawites) has a lot of the power in the country. So no idea why they would be intolerant towards Kurds.

I know there are quite a lot of Russian-speaking Kurds; they live in parts of Armenia, although nowadays you can find them in Russia and among ex-Soviet communities in other countries too. There are even Russian-language Kurd internet forums, portals, news websites and so on. I think a lot of them are Ezidis (sp?), rather than Muslims as such. Anyway, they don't seem to have any problems in Armenia.

[Laworkerbee]

Anyway, they don't seem to have any problems in Armenia.

I find that odd.