Kurdish used to be the official language of education in Syria’s northwestern city of Afrin. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
after the Kurdish city came under the control of
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...-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 Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
’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
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
, 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.
Damascus reopens road to Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhood
[Rudaw] The Syrian interim government on Wednesday reopened the main road linking Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhood of Ashrafieh to the rest of the city following the visit of a delegation from Damascus.
The Kurdish Internal Security Forces (Asayish), which controls the neighborhood, said on Wednesday that the reopening of the road, which was closed recently following renewed skirmishes between Asayish and state-affiliated forces, is “part of implementing the provisions of the signed agreements.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes Asayish, has signed two agreements with the transitional government in March and April regarding the status of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsood, another Kurdish neighborhood in the city.
A delegation from Damascus visited the two neighborhoods on Tuesday.
“The visit aimed to follow up on the implementation of the agreement's terms and to strengthen cooperation and joint coordination,” said Asayish, referring to the April agreement, which focuses exclusively on the two neighborhoods.
As part of the agreement, Asayish and Damascus swapped hundreds of prisoners.