Amman: Syria's minority Kurds support the uprising against President Bashar Al Assad because it could usher in democracy but long-standing grievances have to be addressed in any post-Al Assad order, Kurdish activists said.
In a declaration issued on Monday at the conclusion of a conference in Stockholm to unify Kurdish efforts against Al Assad, the activists said they will strengthen backing for Kurdish protests against Al Assad, led by a younger generation of street leaders critical or elders in established Kurdish parties.
"The Kurdish people, as a part of Syria's diverse mosaic, are a main component of the revolt against the regime and it is in their full interest for the regime to fall," the statement said.
With Syria's one million Kurds concentrated in the oil-producing northeast, the Kurdish issue would loom large if Al Assad, who is struggling to contain a five-month uprising against his rule, was removed, with regional implications for Turkey, which also has a large Kurdish minorities, and Iraq, where Kurds have a large degree of autonomy.
Syria's overall population is around 20 million.
Pro-democracy protests have spread to Kurdish areas in Syria, but the authorities, mindful of a 2004 Kurdish uprising crushed by force, have not used the same level of deadly violence employed to crush protests elsewhere.
The two-day conference at the Swedish Parliament building, which drew 50 participants, was the first to bring a broad group of Kurdish activists since the uprising. Among the participants were Kurdish writer Masoud Akko, who fled Syria several years ago and now resides in Norway, and dissent Mohammad Sida, who lives in Sweden. The statement said the removal of Al Assad and his ruling Baath Party could allow for a new political system that divulges power to the provinces and "free of racist and extremist ideology.. a nation where tolerance would prevail".
