The History of Kurdistan and Kurdish people in Syria:
 

by: Moraru, Burian, Spataru and Miro

efrin.net 05.04.06

Kurdistan is unquestionably on the richest countries in the world in terms of vestiges of the past.This land, pregnant with history and civilization, a pivotal point between the East and the West, a link between tow continents, a communication route and the cradle of the oldest civilzation, has always intrigued archaeologists and scholars.

And as welknown Prof.Yoteshilani discovered that Mitanians Kurds had lived near of Khabour and their Kingdom named Shenak (under King Mitani).
But the other archaeologists confirmed ,that Kurds(Hurians and Mitanians) reunited their Kingdom :under Kingdom Hurian-Mitanian and the Centre entitled Ashe-Kani in near of Khabour (tel Al-Feghriya, Sixteenth Millenary).
The Royal Palace of Orkish,(related to King Orkish and Newar)about 2500-2300 b.c discovered in 1955 by Prof.Georgi Yoteshilani, University of California), is undoubtedly the most noteworthy in the near East ,a jewel of archaic oriental architecture.It is 200 meters long and 120 meters wide, and have about 300 rooms, corridors and courtyards. Its construction was an undertaking for which several generations of Kings and princes were responsible.The palace was the centre of the official life of a vast Kingdom; an administrative headquarters where hundeds of functionaries worked and where the king held audience.
One wing contained the private apartments of royal family,another was set aside for government staff,another houses schools,and yet another armouries.The palace was protected by thick walls. The presence of ceramic bathtubs testifies to the luxurious style of living in the royal residence-not to mention the mural paintings in some of the rooms, notable for their colours, the variety of their subject matter, and the beauty of their composition.No ancient palace was as large as Mari, nor so well organized and so skilfully decorated .Orkish and Gere-Muza privilrgrd between the Mediterranean on the one hand and Mesopotamia and Anatolia on the other hand. It was very important coomercial centre , and understandably it was coveted by other kingdoms, who tried in vain to gaincontrol of caravan trade routes linking different countries of the ancient world.The Amorite people also Mitanians,Hurians and Later Medians who inhabited the kingdom of Orkish,Gere -Muza and also later Shenak managed to preserve their independence for a long time and to take their township the uncontested capital of the region of the Middle Euphrates ,Constantly fortifying it and extending its territory.They produce of the fertile soil of this area.All these factors helped to create on ethe most flourishing and brilliant civilzations of third and second millenia BC.As wll known, the British archaeological Commission by leadership of Mr.Maksoul Mawlawan( the book Ibala-page 31) and had discovered(in western Kurdsiatn) the following ancient ruins:Tel-Shaghour Bazar: it was confirmed ,that the town Tel-Shaghour was created by Mitanians and their King and also the German archaeological Commission between 1955-1956 had discovered and achieved the flourishing Truth: They found the town Tel-Fahriya, located in northern of Khabour, it was dating to Twelfth Millenary) and its centre (capital city)
entitled "Washokany" So it was that during the second millennium Mesopotamia (especially Kurdistan)and Syria became a politically and culturally active centre, and the stake in large-scale international conflicts.Gere-Muza,Tel -Fahria and Telshaher Bazr,TelBarak, Mirga,Hemo ker,(= found by France Archaeologists)Babylon, Aleppo, Ugarit and Mari were at th ehub of events during this period.But the invasion of the "people from the sea" about the year 1200bc reduced most of Mesopotamia´s Kurdistan and Syria´s towns to ruins and ashes.
(We are still thinking that the villages of Ger zerin,near the town Derek-Almalekia and the Area ,which located between Village of Gere vera and Gerke selma have a secret ancient ruins of the Hurians; Metanians and Medians). It is all this period that archaeologists date the world´s earliest alphabet, discovered at Ugarit (Ras -Al-Shamra) on the Syrian coast.
It is a cuneiform alphabet comprising 30 signs, and was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans.

The Mitaneans(Kurds)and later Aramians came to inside Syria in the first millenniums and established several kingdoms there, the most powerful of them being Damascus(by Arameans).

At that time Mesopotamia and Syria had to cope with several invasions by the New-Assyrians, The Neo-Babylonians(Keldo=Celdan)and the Persian.
When Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia,had destroyed the Persian (332-333 bc) and the rest Independence of Median (Kurds)Kurdistan(Mesopotamia,Babylon)fell into his hands.(see the Alexander the Great,page 341--354 ,357-358-359-360-361,362-363 by Robin Lane Fox), (see mtv.Aktuell ;Licht im Tal des Königes,Page 42 by Kunstman,Athen).

The only resistance he encountered was at Tyre, which he took by storm and whose defenders he executed. After his premature death in Babylon in 323 B.C, his general quarrelled over his inheritance.At the beginning of the reign of Seleucus I, Syria comprised an extensive territory stretching from the Median Territory (Deshta zer) on one side to the black Sea and the Bosphorus on the other.As such, Kurdistan played an important civilising role, namely the implantation of Greek culture in Asia.On the other hand, I would like to refer that the Antioch, which almost from the outset was the capital of this kingdom, rapidly became , like Alexendria,a flourishing centre of Hellenics, a luxury city, where people from all parts of the ancient world flocked to seek pleasure.The towns in the interior, Damascus and Palmyra,were similarly transformed.The most illustrious of the Seleucide I (312-280), who organised the kingdom and created numerous towns:
Apamia, Antioch, Seleucia, Laodicia, Cyrrhus.His successors, who were named Seleucus, Demetrius,Poliorcete,could not prevent the break-away resulting from provincial uprising or foreign attacks which continually reduced the area of their States.At the end of the second century, they possessed scarcely more than Syria proper, and this was finally shared between two Seleucids.When the Roman arrived, they occupied the country without difficulty.Conquered in 64 by Pompey, Syria and later western Kurdistan and the rest Kurdistan became a Roman province.
Like the rest of the Empire, the country enjoyed peace for many years.Agriculture and trade were revived.The Parthians crossed the frontiers in the East from time to time, but they were regularly, repulsed, and the Emperors Trajan and Septum´s Severus won victories over them.Local dynasties subsisted for quite a long time in Damascus and Palmyra,Mount Lebanon and Homs;but one after another they died out .At the end of third century , the Empire,Diolcetian divided Syria into 6 provinces (including western
Kurdistan) all of them under the sway of Rome.

But soon the foundation of the second Sassanide Empire on the ruins the Parthians Empire was to cause trouble for Syria and Mesopotamia=Kurdistan .Odeinat,King of Palmyra,husband of the Illustrious Zenobia,forced the Kurds to cross the Euphrates, but failed to stop them.The Emperors Aurelian and Diocletian were once again obliged to repulse their invasions.The situation did not improve after 396, when the Roman Empire crumbled, or rather spilt into new Empires, one of which the Westrn Empire -was to be ephemeral, and the other the Eastern Empire-more durable (395-1453).Also Syria,Mesopotamia =Kurdistan and especially westrn Kurdistan naturally formed part of the latter, but was not so well administreted from Byzantium as form Rome.
Except for Justinian in the 6th century and Heracliuc in the 7th century, the Byzantine Emperors were weaker and less combative, and have not to forget that the earliest vidence thus far of a unified and distinct shared by the people of the"Halaf Cultuer"which emerged about 8000 years ago.Named for the ancient moud of Tel Halaf in what is now Syrian Kurdistan (west of the town Qamishlo), this culture is best known for its easily recognizeable style of pottery which , fortunately, was produced in abundance.Exquisitely painted, delicately,designed Halaf potterry is easily distinguishable from earlier and later productios. Judging from pottery.In fact,taking Halaf pottery as a prime example,many arcaeologists now point out that shared pottery style is a simple but crucial tool in helping to classify prehistoric cultures in the Middle East.Yet, while shared pottery can imply shared culture,it can no more imply shared ethnicity than identical rug design today.For example, the Turkic Qahqai,luric Mamasani and Arab Basrei tribes of the southern Zagros Mountains all share similar rug.Ethno-Linguistically,however, these three peoples share virtually nothing else.

This fact serves as aclear warning to those who would use shared artistic styles as an indication of shared ethnicity.More prudently, pottery must be taken in tandem with other evidence in order to make a case for shared culture and ethnicity. Wide-spread Halafian excavation sites have much more in common than styles of pottery.
Solid evidence has now emerged indicating striking similarities in food, technology,architecture,ritual and ornaments,all of which suggest something more substantive. Archaelogist Julian Reade,now a curator at the British Museum´s Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities has this to say" While we really know little about how the inhabitants of ahalaf village thought ,let a lone what languages they used for thinking, and implicit values and that even that even those who did not travel may met from time to time in religious or administrative centres"(Reade 1991).With the aid of these archaeological criteria, Reade as well as Michael Roaf (archaeologist and former director now at the University of California, Berkeley) have determined the boundaries of Halaf Culture.
The coincide almost exactly with the area ethnic Kurds still call home: from Kirmanshah to Adyaman, and from Efrin near the Mediterranean Sea to northern areas of Lake van.The distribution of Halaf pottery and the distribution of ethnic Kurds today are a near -perfect match.The single exception is the Mosul-Tikrit region of the Mesopotamia lowlands which also yields Halaf pottery.
James Melaart, better known for his exception of Catal Huyuk, found many of the motifs and composite designs present on Halaf pottery and figurines still exact in the textile and decorative designs of the modern Kurds who now inhabit the same excavated Halafian siotes. It is highly unlikely that the Halafian people constituted an immigrant population.According to several demographic studies (e.g.P.Smith and T.Cuyler Young 1982) the Zagros mountains were the site of perennial population surplus and pressure from 12000 to 5000 years ago, which must have resulted in mumerous episodes of emigration.
Halafian figures of dogs (ca.6000BC) with up curled tails unlike that of any specie of wolf were unearthed in Jarmo in central Kurdistan.
The cultural period ends with the arrival, circa 5300BC.Of a new culture, and quite likely a new people: the Ubaidians."Ubaid Culture"expanded from the plains of Mezopotamia into the mountains.
Ubaidians, or proto Euphratians, as they are sometime called, caused a hybrid culture to emerge in the mountains, comprised of their own cultural heritage and that of the earlier Halaf.It predominated in not most of Kurdistan and Mezopotamia,as well as the names of almost all of the cities we now recognize as Sumerian.

The Hurrians a spoken language or languages of the western-eastren group of the European-Indian -Caucasian family of Languages, distantly related to modern lezgian and by extension to Georgian and Laz. But the Mitaneans and Medians spoken Language related togather to Indo-European-Germanic.The direction of their expansion is not yet understood and by no means should be taken as having been north-south, in other worde, as an expansion out of the Caucususes.(it may well be not exactly that it was the Hurrians who introduced Caucasian but European´s but he nearst fact that the Hurrians was introduced as European´s tribes....)And the German (the modern Germans) were mixed in 1949 b.c with Kurdish people and Mezopotamia.

The avalanche of Indo-European-Germanic tribes, however,was to come about 1200 raining havoc on the economy and settled culture in the mountains and lowlands alike.

The north was settled by the Haiks, known to us as the Armenian,while the rest of the mountains became targets of settlement for various Iranic peoples,such as the Medes,Persians,Scythians,Sar-mathians and Sagarthians(whose name survives in the name of the Zagros Mountains).

By 850 BC, the last Hurrian states had been extinguished by the invading Aryans, whose sheer numbers of immigrants must have been considerable.The succeeded over time in changing the Hurrian languages of the people in Kurdistan,as well as their genetic make-up.By the 3rd century BC, the Aryanzation of the mountain was virtually complete.

In the Brisitun inscription Darius I also makes note of this battle tactic used by the Kurdish mounatin against his forces.He called the guerrillas the kara( a cognate of guerrila).800 years later,king,Ardashir, founder of the Persian Sasanian dynasty,faced the same defensive spar which has meaning almost identical with the modern term,peshmerga:while many hypotheses have advanced to connect the ethnic name "Kurd"to that of the ancient Hurrian Qutils or the Khardukhoi(Cawkel,1979), none have much merit.Whatever the roots, there is evidence to push the origin of the word "Kurd" back at least to the early 4th millennium BC, if not earlier.- I would like to come back into the Kurdish History A.C. to confirm that in the Middle Ages Kurdistan was composed of a large number of Independent Kurdish principalities of a feudal structure, as were the majority of European nations at that tiem.The father of Kurdish historicans, Prince Cheref Khan of Bitlis,wrote in 1596 the first work, in tow volumes on Kurdish history,entitled Cheref Namah, or annals of the Kurdish Nation (published for the first time in Str.Petersburg, 1860 in the original version,by Zernof,then translated and published in French ,also in 1875 with notes).Another basic text for the study of ancient Kurdistan is entitled Evliya Tchelebi Syahet namesi,written by Turkish traveller geographer of the 17th century,Evliya Tchelebi,published in Constantinople insix volumes.

As welknown the Treaty of Severs (it is the first time that the rights of the Kurdish people to autonomy and independence were recognized internationally), was never applied ,nor even ratified.The coming power of Mustefa Kamal left everything in doubt.
On the other hand the arrival of the France troops occupied Syria and Western Kurdistan and British troops occupied Iraq in 1917 and especialy southern Kurdistan in 1918.

In that half of the 20th century , when colonized and oppressed peoples are acceding to complete national independence ,the desire of the Kurdish people in Syria to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination following a policy of coexistence with the Arabs in the same State, on the basis of autonomy,constitute a very moderate and reasonable demanded which is in the common interests of both Arabs and Kurds.

Since Baathists coup d´etat of March 8th as a bloody regime in Syria , the all Kurdish natonal rights even cultural rights has been forbidden and schools banned.

On September 30,1963 a project of Syro-Iraqi Federation was announced in Damascus :" Apopular ,socialist, and democratic State, including Iraq and Syria, will be the historic turning point of the Arab struggle for unity and socialism,"proclaimed an official declaration published in Damascus.And a military unity has been established on October 8, between Syria and Iraq against the Kurdish liberation movemnet.

We know that a complete Syrian division of 17,000 men was transferred to "Iraqi Kurdistan" Because of a blow to prestige; the officers of the iraqi Army were not satisfied with the presence of Syrian support.

This support proves enough should new proofs be still necessary, that the Iraqi Army had completely failed in its campaign of the Kurdistan Revolutionary Army,the Syrian troops had even less success.

Here it is very important to remember , that the France detached western Kurdistan from the central Kurdistan.And France divided Syria into five States : the State of Alaouites, the State of Allepo, the State Damascus, The State of Jebel Druz and the State of Qamishlo.(western Kurdistan).
The Constitutionn of 1930 endwed the country with republican institutions, and the Treaty of Paris recognized the Independence of Syria, Lebanon and Autonomy of western Kurdistan (more over according to the treaty of Paris the Syrian military is not allowed to cross the boundary of Homes especialy into western Kurdistan). In 1941, British and free france troops entered Syria and Lebanon after having chased out the Vichy French forces.General Charles de Gaulle then proclaimed the independence of Syria,and Lebanon in 1942, and announced that the French troops would be withdrawing as soon as the war ended. Sorrow, the French government has ignored his treaties,promises in 1928,1936,which has granted the Kurdish peopel the real Autonomy and it was the historical crime against the Kurdish people in Syria.

The arrival of French reinforcement caused an Uprising in western Kurdistan and later in Damascus.The reason of Kurdish uprising was that the French had ignored his Treaty of Paris 1936,which granted to set up the Autonomy in western Kurdistan.
But the Arab delegation and French administartion made secretly series of Agreements,and both of them were ignored the Treaty of Paris and already the treaty of Severs to set up an independence Kurdish Republic.

Arab national Party and Government .who has ignored the Kurdish Entity absolutly, and his all national and human rights systematicaly between 1963-2003, including "assimilation" of Kurds, terrorism,prisons,decrimination,masceres ..etc....and such kind of coloniaL-crizy policy,aggression and tyrany reinforcement Qamishlo´s Uprising on 12th March 2003 in town Qamishlo against the Baathist-bloody and barbarist-regime..

Only for the history, in 1949 the Kurds had an important rule in Syria, the first Presidnet of Syria was Kurdish, I mean Huzni Zaim,who had took the govenment in his hand .And the official Minister of defence was also Kurdish Mr.Nizamedin Taufik .As well known the first Minsiter of Defence of Syria was kurdish ; Mr.Yusef Alazama, who clashed with french troops in Battle;Maiselun1919.The most Syrian Revolution´s leaders were Kurds,e.g Ibrahim Hanano, Ahmed Barave and Jemal Kur...etc..................

2- The national economy of Syria depends basicaly on western Kurdistan-revenues(Syrian Kurdistan):
The Baath Arab Socialist Party had overthrown the power on 8 March 1963 and announced that it intended to revolutionize the country .A programme of nationalization and Arabinalization reform (without Kurdish people) was introduced.

The formation of the Progressive National Front,(also without Kurdish Co-Operation and Existence) grouping all nationalist and working under the aegis of the Baath Arab Socialist Party, the Kurdish democratic organisations and Movements in spite of Albaath ignorance, whose task is to establish the democratic country in Syria and a permanent constituation , which was promulgated and supported by Kurdish People in western Kurdistan in Syria.Of course, the Baath government did not accept absolutely such kind of Kurdish reality and Existence.There are tow kinds of the law in Syria:
- The promulgating of the law on local administration, with the setting up of a whole system of regionalisation guaranteeing democracy and control by the people themselves (according to Albaath constitution and Policy).

The preservation of the liberty and dignity of citizens by the adoption of a number of measure proving that the Government intends to institute a climate of total confidence and collaboration between State institutionand the mass of the people.But such kind of law is not permitted in western Kurdistan or (province Alhasake),.There are the special Laws and constitutions, which are
comparable to the colonial System.The Military Authorities, national Intelligence, Military Security and forces have the complete rights to control the social, economical,cultural, political cases in western Kurdistan. The fourth Five year Plan covering the years 1976-1980 was adopted by the Albaath´s Institutions on March 1977 and promulgated on 6 April 1977 nearly a year and a half behind schedule, largely owing to the political and finanicial problems which arose at that time.

The plan provided for the investment of 54,166 million Syrian pounds from 1976 to 1980 on the basis of minimum estimate. Anumber of industrial projects were inaugurated; the necessarily limited space here available does not make it possible to give details, and we shall confine ourselves to mentioning the Homs nitrogenous fertiliser factory, the Hama metal bar works, the fina thread factory also at Hama.

The tractor and agriculture machinery plant at Allepo and many others plans-not forgetting petroleum, phosphates and rock salt, which Syria has begun to produce in sufficient quantities.Syrian petroleum production increased from a million tons 1 in 1968 to 5.5 million tons in 1973, 9.1 million tons in 1977 and 9.9 million tons.

All Syrian petroleum is exported in 1977 is constituted the leading export product. Syria has a surplus trading balance in petroleum.

Thanks to achievement in the field of irrigation, there has been an increase in the area.
Thus, the area devoted to cereals increased from 1,744,000 hectars in 1971 to 2,602,000 hectars and that of fruit trees from 293,000 hectars in 1970 to 276,000 in 1977.

One of the aim of the 1976-1980 five years plan to liberate an exportable agriculture surplus of about 1,400 million Syrian pounds by increasing production of cereals to 3.4 million tons, that of feculants to 435,000 and that of industrial crops to 2.4 million tons. An interesting question as we know, the 50%from the Syrian national-economical product depends and comes fron western Kurditan(Beshar Asad,who visted Qamishlo in 2000 ,has confirmed, that the 50% from syrian-economical product comes from syrian Kurdistan...ect...),(See Albaath Newspaper 2000; about Assad´s visiting in Hassake) or at Province of Hassake agricultural Production, and (oil-gas) and Petroleum and from all others economical Productions. As already referred to, in spite of that ,the Government did not give the same support and the same right to Rebuilding of industrial-economical projects in western Kurdistan (Alhassake)in comparable to the other Arab provinces.If we speak about the heavy industry has a monopoly of industry and controls 80% of the industrial sector as a whole. Thus, in the oil-refining industry, the Supreme Planning Council has just approved the setting side of 254 million Syrian pounds for the modernisation and extension of the Homs refinery, the present capacoty of which is 5.5 million tons per annum.

The production work consists of building new plant for the production of hig-octane petrol, kerosene,feul oil and diesel and for the processing of naphtha.

A second refinery, at Banias, should be coming into service shortly.When it attains its full capacity of 6 million tons per annum, Syrias´s total capacity will be 11.5 million tons per annum.

Since 1973 there has been a sharp increase in the trading balance coefficient, which had been comparatively stable until 1975-indicating that exports had undergone a rate of growth more or less equal to that of imports-increased to 2.22 in 1976 and to 2.5 in 1977 as against1.81 in 1975,showing that there is a tendency for the gap between imports and exports to widen.Syrian exports increased 3.13 times between 1973-1977.This increase was chiefly caused by petroleum exports of which increased 23.8 times by value as a result of successive increased in quantity and uses in price.In 1977 petroleum was the chief item of Syrian exportes at 2,543 million Syrian pounds,or 60.56% of the total.

Next time cotton which, at 836, 1million Syrian pounds, accounted for nearly 20%of total exports in 1977.During the same period (1973to 1977), a profound modification in the make-up previously occupied.

There was a fall off, in imports of food and alive of oils. Pride of place is at present occupied by machinery and transport equipment (3,506 million Syrian pounds in 1977, or 33,4%of the total), fuels and intermediate products. The vas majority of Syrian imports go to the Military Sector and to the Syrian Presindency and Authorities and Security,which accounted for 80% the raw materilas, 73% of the manufactured products and 60% of the intermediate products imported in 1977.

EEC countries provided 34% of Syrian imports and absorb 42% respectively in the case of the eastern block countries and 15 and 13 respectively in that of the Arab countries.9% of Syrian imports come from other European countries Syrian imports from Frnace increased from 167.4% million Syrian pounds in 1973 to 815 million in 1977,making an increase of 387%. Over the same period, Syrian exports to France increased from 54.5 million to 301 million Syrian pounds,making on increase of 452%.It is not possible, if the majority of Syrian imports go to Military and Authorities, and now how could we estimate the following statistic. During 1977,Syria imported 72.6 million Syrian pounds worth of flour, 21 million of cheese, 17 million of fodder and 80 million SYrian pounds of capital goods and transport equipment.In 1973-1993 permits for industrial projects(but not in western Kurdistan), were granted to private individuals or companiesas compared with 770 in 1972.

The value of industrial machinery and equipment imported in 179 by the private sector amounted to 96 million Syrian pounds,as compared with 70 million in 1972, the capital invested in these projects were implemented by the private sector, as compared with 52.9% in 1972.

As already announced that public companies prevail undertak in respect of their size,their volume of the production, and their volume of business.

In 1973 the public produced 3,890 tons of canned food, as compared with 814 tons produced by the private sector, 2,857 tons of vegetable oil as against 67 tons of biscuit compared with 332 tons;4,401,000 liters of beer compared with 394,141,000 seqaure meters of woolen carperts as compared with only 10,000 in the private sector .Nevertheless, the production of firms in the private sector does exceed that of those in the public sector , where certain categories of product 894 tons of chocolate compared with only 161 tons by the public sector; 898,000 knitted garments compared with 60,000; 418,000 gallons of paint as compared with 327 gallons in 6,059,etc...Furthermore, companies and individuals in the private sector have created an extensive range of new industries,mostly in the field of light industry and the processing industries: chocolate and biscuit factories,canning factories, the food and beverage industries in general, refrigerated warehouses, beauty products and umberellas, bronze article and light fittings (especially at Allepo), furniture,stoves,hardware, atc.....(It has involved chiefly in the Arab towns;provinces, which is not comparable or compared with the Kurdish province Alhasake absolutely).

The land like Kurdistan of years old, with a charm all its own,a country has succeeded it preserving its identity and authenticity in a profoundly changing world, Kurdistan,Syria,Turkey,Iraq, Iran and the modern world possesses all the assets a smooth and harmonies advance along the road of freedom,democracy and progress.

The Institute of Euro-Asian IEAI (for strategic studies) in Middle East; Kurdish Question and Berzanis

Prof.Dr.Moraru
Prof.Dr.Burian
Prof.Dr.Spataru
Prof.Dr.Ass Miro