Witness: "Uprising strengthened unity, just as Sheikh Maqsoud resistance did"

On March 12th, 2004, the Ba'athist regime security forces used live ammunition against the Kurdish people following riots that erupted before a football match between Al-Jihad Club from Qamishlo and Al-Futuwa Club from Deir ez-Zor. The riots were instigated by the Ba'ath Party infiltrators among Al-Futuwa fans who had traveled from Deir ez-Zor. The events escalated into an uprising that spread throughout the cities of Rojava and the Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo and Damascus.

Sharif Khalili, an eyewitness to the March 12th, 2004 uprising in Qamishlo and currently the co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Qamishlo, recounted the events, the people's stance, and the ongoing struggle in an interview with ANHA agency.

Sharif Khalili had actively participated in the uprising. Because of his participation in the protests and his defense of the Kurdish people's existence, he was arrested by the Ba'athist regime in 1999, 2000, 2005, and most recently in 2008. Each time he was arrested, he spent periods ranging from days to months behind bars.

Sharif Khalili says that in the aftermath of the Iraq War and the fall of the Iraqi Ba'athist regime, the Syrian Ba'athist regime also sought to commit massacres against the Kurdish people in the name of "Arab tribes." He points out that recently, factions of the Syrian Interim Government have also committed similar incidents against Alawites, Druze, and Kurds.

Khalili notes that in 2004, the Ba'athist regime attempted to incite strife between Kurds and Arabs under the pretext of riots at a football match. Khalili adds, "There is no problem between the different groups; it is the authoritarian regimes that try to incite strife and sow discord among the peoples."

Khalili was at home watching the events unfold on television when the incident occurred. Upon realizing there were martyrs and wounded, he and his companions headed towards the Qamishlo Stadium, later renamed "March 12th Martyrs Stadium" during the revolution. He added, "There, because they were preventing people from leaving, the army entered the stadium. The governor and the district director had given orders to kill, so the residents who had gathered outside tried to open the gates to rescue those trapped inside."

Khalili notes that the Kurdish people, from the village of Ain Diwar near Derik to Damascus, joined the uprising. He described its impact on strengthening Kurdish unity, comparing it to the Sheikh Maqsoud resistance (2016), which brought the Kurdish people to the streets in Kurdistan and beyond.

Sharif Khalili explained that many said the revolution in Syria began in 2011, but they, as Kurds, insisted that the "revolution of dignity" for them began in 2004. He stressed at the end of his speech the need to protect the unity that had strengthened among the Kurdish people in Rojava as a result of those many events.

ANHA