Syria’s Kurds call for a democratic state that protects their ethnic rights

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QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — Representatives of Kurdish groups in Syria called Saturday for a democratic state that gives the country’s Kurds their ethnic rights after the fall of Bashar Assad.

Some 400 people representing Syria’s main Kurdish groups met in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli to unify their positions a month after Syria’s new rulers signed a breakthrough deal with Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast.

Kurds in Syria were marginalized during the 54-year Assad family rule, with many denied citizenship and wrongly described as Arabs. Since the fall of Bashar Assad in early December, Syria’s Kurds have been trying to keep the cultural gains they made in the northeast enclave they carved out during the country’s civil war.

A statement issued at the end of the one-day meeting that was attended by groups including the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, and the Kurdish National Council called for a “fair and comprehensive” solution for the Kurdish cause in a “democratic and decentralized country.”

They said that the country’s constitution should “guarantee the national rights of the Kurdish people and abide by international laws for human rights and women’s rights.” The statement said women should actively participate in state institutions in Syria.

The groups also called for post-Assad Syria to give equal rights to all its citizens “without marginalizing anyone.”

The meeting was attended by representatives of Kurdish groups from Turkey and Iraq.

Kurds made up 10% of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish officials have been saying that they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament; they want decentralization and room to run their day-to-day affairs.