March 12: massacre that turned into a mass uprising and led to strife

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Qamishlo massacre, which was committed by the Damascus government (Baath regime) on March 12, 2004 in the city’s stadium (Municipal Stadium), which was later named “March 12 Martyrs Stadium” after its martyrs.

As a result of the massacre committed by the security services of the Baath regime, 38 civilians were martyred, dozens were injured, and nearly 5,000 people were later arrested.

The massacre turned into a massive uprising against the Baathist regime, as a result of the painful events that citizens experienced during a match between the al-Jihad Club and al-Fatwa Club teams, which were planned in advance, in order to ignite strife between the people of the Kurdish and Arab components in the region, and sought to inflame the situation further.

The awareness and solidarity of the components of the region at that time contributed to eliminating strife, but the regimes hostile to the will and project of the democratic nation have not stopped their attempts to this day, and perhaps the attempts to create strife in Deir ez-Zor in August 2023 are an example of that.

The head of the Taiy Arab Tribe Council, and a member of the Notable of the North and East Syria Region, Hassan Al-Farhan Al-Taiy, explained that “the components of the region have always lived within the values of brotherhood and preserved the Syrian fabric, but the Syrian regime’s forces and through its media outlets played a major role in spreading strife.”

Hassan Al-Farhan Al-Taiy stressed: “The March 12 uprising represented a turning point and a serious and new beginning for the peaceful struggle of the Kurdish component and became a beacon for the entire Syrian people in the face of the machine of killing and oppression that has ruled for decades.”

Al-Taiy stated that: “The policies and plans are still continuing to this day, and the events of Deir ez-Zor and the special war policies that are managed by several parties, whether the government of Damascus and several external parties such as Turkey, to destabilize the security and stability of the region and spread chaos to fight the democratic project in which all components participate, represented by Autonomous Administration is irrefutable evidence of that.”

Hassan Al-Farhan Al-Taiy stressed their adherence, as Arab tribes, to unity and solidarity, as they have always been throughout the Syrian crisis, to deter all projects of sedition and preserve the gains achieved during the revolution in North and East Syria.

T/ Satt.

ANHA