MSDMarch 12th in this year marks the nineteenth anniversary of the uprising of the Kurdish people against the authorities of tyranny and authoritarianism in Syria, which started in the city of Al-Qamishli, in the far northeastern the country, after the Syrian security forces targeted football club fans with live bullets, to be spread later in most regions to the capital, Damascus. The uprising was peacefully calling for change, democracy and the legitimate rights of an authentic component of the Syrian people.
The Syrian authorities confronted the peaceful masses by violence and killing, and their practices left dozens of martyrs and wounded, and thousands of detainees, to confirm the authority’s adoption of the security and military option in dealing with national issues and peaceful and urgent popular demands.
The March 12th uprising was a turning point and a serious and new start for the peaceful struggle of the Kurds and the general Syrian people in the face of killing and oppression that have ruled Syria for decades, and this uprising has demanded for peaceful change, democracy, equality, and the rejection of exclusion, exclusivity, and domination.
The March uprising defeated fear built by the one-party regime that rules and owns the country, according to its claim, so the peaceful demonstrators were faced by the bullets of its forces, which did not hesitate to implement the orders of the masters, under the illusion that bullets kill the struggle, so the uprising was erupted after its aftermath.
The uprising of March 12th in 2004 resulted by the emergence of the unity of the Kurdish position in Syria and forced the authorities to back down, contrary to what authorities had planned by undermining the components, especially the Kurdish component, taking advantage of the national dimension of its cause, which coincided with the change in the regional environment at the time.
As we recall this occasion, which marked the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria against oppression, authoritarianism, and suppression of rights, we sympathize for all the martyrs who died in March 2004 and all the martyrs of the Syrian revolution that began in 2011, when the March 12th uprising was a catalyst and a starting point for it.
On this occasion, we affirm that the process of peaceful struggle and popular solidarity eliminated bets of the authority on March 12th, 2004. Therefore, we call on all Syrians, individuals and movements, to unite, reject differences, unify their positions, and proceed towards consolidating the principles of peaceful coexistence, tolerance, peace, humanity, and achieving the aspirations of the Syrian people for a decent life and democratic change.
We consider the intra-Syrian dialogue a clear approach to achieve the demands for change and face the upcoming challenges and entitlements in light of a highly polarized regional and international environment. The Syrian tragedy and the suffering of its people have become at the last of its priorities and linked to its interests that may not coincide with the aspirations of the Syrian people who have been suffering for more than a decade.
On March 12th, 2023
The Syrian Democratic Council
