Kurdish political parties were not founded in 1957 simply for a female Kurdish MP to wear traditional Kurdish attire under the dome of the People’s Council, or to deliver a brief speech of thanks in the Kurdish language to council members, only for this to be marketed as a political achievement or a historic victory for the Kurdish people. Major national causes are not measured by symbolic displays, nor are they reduced to protocol-driven images, regardless of their moral significance.
As for the applause the MP received from some members of the People’s Council, it represents neither a recognition of the national rights of the Kurdish people nor a genuine shift in the policies that have governed this issue for decades. Rights are not seized through applause, nor are they restored through political pleasantries; rather, they are translated into constitutional provisions, fair legislation, and a political will that recognizes the Kurdish people as an authentic partner in the nation.
If the demands of the Kurdish people were limited to wearing national Kurdish dress or speaking their language inside parliament, they would not have required decades of struggle and sacrifice. Thousands of Kurdish politicians, activists, and citizens would not have faced prosecution and arrest, prisons would not have been filled with detainees, and dozens would not have fallen victim to the defunct Syrian regime through decades of repression and marginalization.
The Kurdish people in Syria are not an expatriate community, nor did they arrive from Cyprus, Turkey, or France, as certain political narratives have tried to suggest. They are a people living on their historical land, in the part of Kurdistan that was attached to the Syrian state under international agreements that drew the region’s borders without regard for the will of its peoples. Therefore, the Kurds constitute an authentic national component whose existence has been tied to this land for centuries—a reality that can neither be denied nor ignored.
Despite this, successive Syrian governments—particularly the Assad regime—pursued systematic policies targeting Kurdish identity and national existence. These ranged from policies of discrimination and exclusion, to the extraordinary census, the Arab Belt project, and ongoing security persecution, arrests, and restrictions on political and cultural activity, in a continuous effort to weaken the Kurdish presence and erase its national features.
Had the Kurdish people been willing to abandon their legitimate national rights in exchange for mere superficial displays—such as wearing Kurdish dress or speaking the Kurdish language in parliament—there would have been no justification for all these sacrifices, nor for this long history of struggle, nor for the emergence of dozens of political parties and organizations formed specifically to defend a just cause and firm rights.
The national rights of the Kurdish people are not a gift from any authority, nor are they a privilege voluntarily granted and then voluntarily revoked by a government. Rather, they are inherent rights grounded in the general principles of international law, the right of peoples to self-determination, and international covenants asserting the right of indigenous peoples to preserve their identity, language, culture, and full political participation.
Thus, the Kurdish cause belongs to no single political party, and no entity, movement, or faction has the right to compromise it, diminish its significance, or confine it within the boundaries of immediate interests. It is the cause of the entire Kurdish people—a matter of historic and national rights that cannot be tampered with or negotiated outside the will of those who hold them.
The cause of a population exceeding four million people, living on their historical land for thousands of years, cannot be reduced to a mere photograph of an MP wearing Kurdish attire, delivering a speech in parliament, or fleeting applause beneath the dome of the People’s Council. Symbols have their value, but they are no substitute for rights, nor do they compensate for the absence of justice or end the suffering of a people still demanding constitutional, political, and legal recognition of their legitimate rights.
The true measure of success is not ceremonial displays, but the extent to which fundamental demands are met. This includes constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people, guaranteeing their national, political, and cultural rights, and establishing a state of citizenship and the rule of law based on solidarity, justice, and equality for all its components—without marginalization, exclusion, or discrimination.
July 31, 2026
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version… Read the Arabic version:Click here
