VİYAN AMED

Qamishlo- On 12 March 2004, 32 Kurds were killed in clashes organized by the Syrian Ba'ath regime after a football match between a Kurdish team and Arab team in Qamishlo. The attacks on Kurdish fans sparked protests in many Kurdish cities, northeastern Syria. The killing of Kurdish fans is called the “March 12 Massacre” by the Kurdish people. After the revolution in Rojava, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria changed the name of the stadium where the massacre took place to “The Stadium of 12 March Martyrs”. On the 19th anniversary of the massacre, Yusra Derwîş, Co-chair of Qamishlo Canton, spoke to NuJINHA.

 

‘Kurdish language and culture were ignored’

“Before the revolution in Rojava, North and East Syria was ruled by the Syrian Ba’ath regime,” Yusra Derwîş said, “The Syrian regime was a nationalist state. It took Rojava under its sovereignty with the slogan, ‘One language, one flag and one state’. During its rule, the Kurdish language and culture were ignored and Kurdish children were forced to learn Arabic at schools. It sought a pretext to attack the Kurds and during a football match between a Kurdish team and Arab team, it attacked the Kurds.”

 

‘Their aim was to cause clashes between Kurds and Arabs’

Yusra Derwîş expressed that the 12 March Massacre was a planned massacre, adding, “On March 12, 2004, a football match was played between the Jihad team of Qamishlo and the Fatwa team of Deir ez-Zor. The Syrian regime turned the football field into a battlefield. The racist fans of the Fatwa team attacked the fans and players of the Jihad team. The aim of the Syrian regime was to cause clashes between Kurds and Arabs. In the attacks, many people were killed and injured.”

 

‘People rose up against the oppression’

Due to the obstacles of the Ba’ath regime, the injured people could not be taken to the hospital in Qamishlo. “Because the hospital was under the control of the Ba’ath regime. The Kurds united and took the injured people to houses. Kurdish people across Rojava Kurdistan flocked to Qamishlo when they heard the attack. However, the Ba’ath regime blocked all the roads to the city in order to prevent people from entering the city. The Kurdish people rose up against the oppression of the Ba’ath regime and entered the city. The uprising lasted for months and thousands of people attended the funeral ceremony organized for the killed people.”

 

The same mentality

Condemning the racist attack on the players of Amedspor by the Bursaspor fans, Yusra Derwîş said, “The mentality organizing the attack on Kurdish fans in Qamishlo 19 years ago is the same mentality that organized the racist attacks on Amedspor. The fans of Bursaspor unfurled the photos of Mahmut Yıldırım, better known as Yeşil, who killed many Kurdish people in the 1990s, and white Toros, which was used by JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism) to kidnap and kill Kurdish people in the 1990s. The genocidal policies against the Kurds in four parts of Kurdistan continue. But we resisted and will resist fascism in the spirit of March 12. Kurdish people should unite against all kinds of attacks.”