12 March 2004 Qamishli Uprising (2 reports of events)

[Anthea]

The 2004 Qamishli uprising refers to the uprising by Syrian Kurds in the northeastern city of Qamishli in March 2004.

phpBB [video]

The riots started during a chaotic football match, when some fans of the guest team (Arabs) started raising pictures of Saddam Hussein, an action that angered the fans of the host team (the Kurds).

Both groups began throwing stones at each other, which soon developed to a political conflict as the Arab group raised pictures of Saddam Hussein while the Kurdish group raised the Flag of Kurdistan.

The Ba'ath Party local office was burned down by Kurdish demonstrators, leading to the security forces reacting. The Syrian army responded quickly, deploying troops backed by tanks and helicopters, and launching a crack-down.

Events climaxed when Kurds in Qamishli toppled a statue of Hafez al-Assad. At least 100 Kurds were killed as the security services re-took the city. As a result of the crackdown, thousands of Syrian Kurds fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Link to Full Wikipedia Site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Al-Qamishli_riots

phpBB [video]

[Anthea]

The Al-Qamishli Uprising

The beginning of a new era for Syrian Kurds?

In March 2004 violent mass demonstrations and anti-Syrian rallies took place in the Kurdish regions of Jazirah, ʿAfrin (Jabal al-Akrad) and ʿAyn al-ʿArab (Kobanî), as well as in Aleppo and Damascus. Demonstrations of this magnitude had never before occurred in the history of the Kurds in Syria.

The sheer number of demonstrators and the fact that the unrest encompassed all of Syrian Kurdistan was new. The reaction of the Syrian state was accordingly harsh — the number of those killed or arrested was unparalleled in comparison with earlier events. Yet another new phenomenon was the coverage in the international media, where Kurdish Internet sites played a significant role in spreading the news, with the help of photographs and films.

Additionally, Syrian Kurds experienced a previously unknown degree of solidarity in the Iraqi-Kurdish and Turkish-Kurdish populations.

Traditionally, the Syrian Kurds were those engaged in the national movements of their Kurdish neighbors. They held demonstrations to mark
the poison gas attack on Iraqi-Kurdish Halabja and to support the release of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Turkish-Kurdish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and in some cases joined armed movements in Turkey and Iraq.

This time, however, countless Iraqi and Turkish Kurds in the European diaspora, as well as in Diyarbakır (Turkey), Erbil, Dohuk, and Sulaymaniyah (Iraq) took part in demonstrations supporting the Syrian Kurds.

PLEASE follow link to EXTREMELY INTERESTING Kurdwatch report:

http://www.kurdwatch.org/pdf/kurdwatch_qamischli_en.pdf