ASIA/SYRIA - Complaint of Christians: Kurd Party imposes a census to manipulate the demographic balance in the Syrian area of Hassakè

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Qamishli (Agenzia Fides) - The apparatus and officials of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its military wing YPG (People's Protection Unit), rooted in the north-eastern regions of Syria, with a Kurdish majority, are carrying out a census on the population in the Syrian province of Hassakè, with the intent to also use this data collection for their strategy to change to their advantage the demographic balance among the different ethnic and religious components of the region.

The complaint comes from organizations involved in defending the rights of local minorities, beginning with the Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights. The reports sent to Agenzia Fides highlight that the census, which began last week, has provoked an outcry from the local population, and in some situations, such as the city of Qamishli, a Kurdish-led local administration has imposed even a curfew in some hours of the day to carry out the collection of demographic data from house to house.

Concerns about the decision to carry out a census that appears devoid of any legal legitimacy, are expressed by representatives of the Christian communities - especially Syrians, Assyrians and Chaldeans - and Muslims, who emphasize among other things how the demographic balance of the region have been radically altered by the mass emigration of refugees and the displacement caused by five years of Syrian conflict.

The Kurdish political-military forces - refer local sources - act as the political leadership of the state-independent entity, disregarding the fact of membership of the region of Hassakè to the Syrian State. According to the same sources, even the majority of the Kurdish people do not recognize the political line of the Party, aimed at forcing its hand also on the data of the demographic composition of the area to achieve, in terms of accomplished facts, their nationalist demands. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 11/11/2016)



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