DAMASCUS, Apr 16 (AFP): Syria said on Thursday that it had taken control of a military base in Hasakeh province in the northeast after forces from the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State group withdrew.
Syrian army forces "took over the Qasrak air base... after the withdrawal of international coalition forces", said a defence ministry statement carried by state news agency SANA.
Syria's Kurds register for citizenship after decades of marginalisation
In a packed hall in Qamishli's sports stadium in northeast Syria, Firas Ahmad is one of dozens of Kurds waiting to apply for citizenship after many in the minority were barred from doing so for decades.
Since last week, "unregistered" Kurds, who have been stateless since a controversial 1962 census, have been flocking to registration centres across Syria to apply for citizenship, based on the interior ministry's instructions.
"A person without citizenship is considered as good as dead," Ahmad, 49, told AFP.
"Imagine not being able to register my children or our homes in our names," he said, adding that "my grandfather never had citizenship, and we have been living without official documents ever since".
On the tables facing long queues of people, registration forms were scattered along with personal photos and old documents, while government employees were recording the data.
The new measure follows Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's January decree granting citizenship to Kurds residing in the country, including those who have been unregistered for decades.
It also enshrines the Kurds' cultural and language rights, and recognises Kurdish as a national language.
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