According to KurdPress, the case of the "Dirki" family, one of the old Kurdish families living in the Rukn al-Din neighborhood of Damascus, has been rejected in the process of receiving Syrian citizenship due to failure to provide the necessary documents. The family members insist that they are Syrian Kurds and have demanded a re-examination of the case and recognition of their citizenship rights.Members of the Diraki family told Rudaw that the lack of Syrian identity and citizenship documents has created numerous problems for their children. The children of this family are unable to continue their education after finishing the sixth grade and are prevented from continuing their education.

The family is also unable to register property, houses, cars or telephone lines in the names of its members and in many cases is forced to register these assets and services in the names of other people.

Ali Diraki, a Kurd living in Damascus and a member of the Diraki family, said about the situation of his family that they were considered “Turkish Kurds” in the process of reviewing the case.

He emphasized: “We are Syrian Kurds and we are from the Diraki family in the Rukn al-Din neighborhood.”

Diraki added that his family’s maternal relatives are from Daraa province and his mother is also from the same province.He asked the Syrian Interior Minister to seriously examine the family's case, saying: "We ask the Syrian Interior Minister to seriously examine our case."

Ali Diraki also emphasized that the family members do not want to spend their entire lives without identity and official documents, saying: "We are Syrians."

"Amjad Diraki" and his two brothers also live in Daraa province, and their case was also rejected for the same reason, namely the lack of documents required to prove Syrian citizenship.

Amjad Diraki said about the problems caused by this situation: "When we buy a car, a telephone line, or a piece of land, we have to register it in the names of other people."

Referring to the continuation of these conditions, he asked: "How long will this situation continue? We have been Kurds since our fathers and ancestors."

To investigate the reason for the rejection of the Diraki family's case, Rudaw Network approached the Civil Affairs Department in Damascus.Takhrid Hariri, a member of the registration committee in Damascus, said that families who did not provide the necessary documents to prove their Syrian identity were facing difficulties in obtaining citizenship.

He said: “We rejected the applications of nearly nine families because they did not have documents to prove that they were Syrian Kurds.”

Hariri also said that four other families had their applications rejected because they had Turkish citizenship.

Judge Saad Sheikh, director of the legislative department of the Syrian Ministry of Justice, said in a statement that the families whose applications were rejected had the right to appeal and could prove their claims by presenting the available documents.

He stressed that the rejection of the application in the first stage did not mean that individuals were completely deprived of the right to obtain citizenship, saying: “Citizenship is a legitimate right for the people of this country.»

About 300,000 Kurds Without Identity Cards in Syria

Five centers have been established throughout Syria to accept and review the cases of Kurds without identity cards and identity documents, known as "Maktoum".

According to current estimates, about 300,000 Kurds in Syria lack official identity cards and identity documents.

In the second phase of the Damascus center's activities, the files of 176 families and 17 individuals have been reviewed. At this stage, the applications of 9 families have been rejected due to the lack of necessary documents.