KHRP is pleased to announce the publication of Chief Executive Kerim Yıldiz’s ‘The Kurds in Syria: the Forgotten People’ in Kurmanji language edition.

Despite being Syria’s largest minority, the Kurds of Syria had never been the exclusive subject of a book until the 2005 publication of the English language edition of ‘The Kurds in Syria: the Forgotten People’.

Following two other works, – ‘The Kurds in Iraq’ and ‘The Kurds in Turkey’ – this book aims to provide an exhaustive account of the treatment of Kurds in the Syrian state and to evaluate their human rights situation against international law benchmarks, marked as it is by the persistence of abuses and discrimination.

By first providing exhaustive information about the Kurds, their language and customs, the book moves then to contextualise current concerns in their historical, political and sociological dimensions.

Considering the period up to the ‘War on Terror’, Yıldiz argues that Syria’s treatment of minorities is engendered primarily by the persistence of a feeling of insecurity within the Syrian state. Thus, he explores the situation of Syria’s Kurds within the context of Syrian history and of broader regional and international developments. The ‘War on Terror’ accordingly reinforced the perception that external threats to Syria are imminent, and provided the context for persistent human rights abuses of the Kurdish minority.

‘I am very proud of the forthcoming Kurdish translation of this book’ revealed Kerim Yıldiz. ‘ I believe its diffusion in the Kurdish regions will not only provide information on the plight of Syria’s Kurds to Kurds living in other countries, but it will also show them that the international community cares for their plight.’

The book was published this week by the Avesta publishing house in Istanbul. 

The original English-language version can be purchased for £25.00 + P&P through our online shop.

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