Men on motorcycles celebrate, carrying a Syrian flag, the entry of government forces into the Kurdish stronghold of Qamichli, on Feb. 3, 2026. (Credit: Bakr Alkasem/AFP)
Avin* wasn’t quite sure what documents to bring when she went to the stadium in Qamishli a few months ago, on the outskirts of what was until recently the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES), now officially under Damascus’ control. Her anxiety lasted only a few minutes. “Any document proving your identity was accepted — a residence certificate, a certificate from the mokhtar, an old school transcript… She finally found an old birth certificate,” the Kurdish woman’s cousin told L’Orient-Le Jour. At nearly 40 years old, she is about to obtain Syrian citizenship for the first time in her life. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a decree last January allowing thousands of Kurds to obtain citizenship, which they had been denied since the 1962 census. Designed to enforce a policy of Arabization, that census had stripped...
Avin* wasn’t quite sure what documents to bring when she went to the stadium in Qamishli a few months ago, on the outskirts of what was until recently the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES), now officially under Damascus’ control. Her anxiety lasted only a few minutes. “Any document proving your identity was accepted — a residence certificate, a certificate from the mokhtar, an old school transcript… She finally found an old birth certificate,” the Kurdish woman’s cousin told L’Orient-Le Jour. At nearly 40 years old, she is about to obtain Syrian citizenship for the first time in her life. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a decree last January allowing thousands of Kurds to obtain citizenship, which they had been denied since the 1962 census. Designed to enforce a policy of Arabization, that...
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