Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara on Friday issued a decree affirming the rights of Kurdish Syrians, formally recognising their language and restoring citizenship to the country's largest minority community.
"I have the honour to issue a decree especially for our Kurdish people, which guarantees their rights and some of their privileges in accordance with the law," he said in a speech, in which he also referred to the Kurds as "the grandchildren of Salahuddin".
The decree also declares Nowruz, the spring and new year festival, a paid national holiday, state news agency Sana reported.
It bans ethnic or linguistic discrimination, requires state institutions to adopt inclusive national messaging and sets penalties for incitement to ethnic strife.
The decree also grants, for the first time, Kurdish Syrians rights, including recognition of Kurdish identity as part of Syria's national fabric. It designates Kurdish as a national language alongside Arabic and enables schools to teach it.
It also abolishes measures dating to a 1962 census in Hasakah province, which stripped many Kurds of Syrian nationality, and grants citizenship to all affected residents, including those previously registered as stateless.
Mr Al Shara's move comes after fierce clashes that broke out last week between the army and the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the northern city of Aleppo.
The violence left at least 23 people dead, according to Syria's Health Ministry, and forced more than 150,000 to flee the two Kurdish-run pockets of the city. The clashes ended after Kurdish fighters withdrew.
Mohammed Salih, a researcher on Kurdish Affairs, described the decision as "remarkable" due to its departure from Syria's state policy since 1946. "It is also important that this not be a tactical or insincere move by the government aimed at distracting from the military campaign it has launched since January 6 against the SDF and Kurdish areas," he said.
The Syrian government and the SDF, which controls the country's north-east, engaged in months of talks last year to integrate Kurdish-run militia and civilian bodies into Syrian state institutions by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
Mr Al Shara had vowed to unify the country since his takeover after the fall of Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
