Our good hopes and heart beats
Surround the flag that unites the Nation
Does it not have the black color of every eye?
And the red color of every martyr's blood?
From the Syrian National Anthem
(Lyrics by Khalil Mardam Bey, Music by Flayfel Brothers)
24 comments:
The Kurds say that the anthem is racist because it speaks of the Arab nation thus excluding them.
Hey, do you know where I can get the full english translation of that?
The kurds can go shove it for all I care. Its sick how everybody looks at everyone else in a differet limelight and hence they need special attention or consideration. Stop whining, your Syrian and it doesnt matter what the anthem really says, its what you believe inside you thats important.
The only mention of Arabs in the Anthem is in the part that says: "the lion's den of Arabism [Syria] is a sacred place".
I can see no reason why Kurds would not agree to these words. Syria is an Arab country and more than 90% of its total population is Arab. That does not mean that Arabs should discriminate against other ethnicities or that they should not recognize their existence, their cultural difference and their rights to promote their culture and language.
Damascus is a major center of Arab culture, Arab language, so that it has always been known in the Arab World as "the beating heart of Arabism." For centuries (not years) Syria has had an Arab cultural identity, to which Kurds themselves have largely contributed. The fact that there are ethnic minorities within the Syrian society does not/cannot change this fact.
Arabism is not racism. Kurds (plus Assyrians, Armenians and others) should have the right to openly express their cultural identity, use and teach their languages, etc. I agree that Kurds are currently suffering from injustice and some degree of discrimination, and there is a lot to be done regarding the Kurdish issue. However, I can only understand the call to change the Syrian National Anthem, to deny the dominance of Arab culture, as a call to create divisions among the Syrian people.
Haidar, I translated this part myself. I don't think there is an official translation of the Anthem and I couldn't find any translation online.
Well, i don't think that Saladdin (who was a kurd) thought in this way!
many Syrian people have Kurdish blood,even if they are Arabs, i am for example about 20% Kurd.
they were and are always respected from Arabs..
there is no place for rasist people is Syrian's blogs.
long life Syria
i meant to say, there no place for rasist people in Syrian blogs..
Amr,
First of all, the comment anon 4:03 wrote was not racist in any way, even if you think it was wrong. Second of all, your agressive reply do not reflect well on the country you wish to protect. Some of the readers of this blog, me included, are not from Syria. Your kind of reply does not reflect well on your country. You should take an example from Ayman's thoughtful reply.
Ayman,
Could you write something, even in the reply section, how people are actually celebrating Independence Day in Damascus, these days. Are there parades? Picnics? Fire works?
hey guys
i got really pissed off at what you said. I am Syrian and my ethnicity is 100% arab, BUT i am strongly against your chauvinistic attitudes of Arabism. As far as i'm concerned, if there is a single non-arab Syrian, then it is wrong to call Syria an Arab country. I think we should consider to be a multiethnic, multi-religious country. I remember how I used to be sort of racist against the kurds....and when about 1 year ago i read an article by some kurdish guy in a newspaper where he asked to change the part of the national anthem which mentions arabism, i remember swearing at the kurds....also i remember when the kurdish uprising happened in qamishli region how i didn't stop talking about how they were traitors, especially when they started going to the syrian embassies around the world and stated taking off the syrian flag and putting instead of it the kurdish flag. But then slowly slowly, i started to realize that i was being racist, and i started trying to understand all the injustices done to the kurds in syria (even though its less than injustice done to kurds in iran and iraq and turkey). Think about it....for so many years we have been saying "syrian arab republic", "syria is the beating heart of arab nationalism", "arab syria", even the passport identifies the citizens as "Syrian arab citizen", the national anthem has this reference to syria being protector of arabs, well is it a surprise that after all these years of saying these slogans, that now kurds are starting to say "kurdistan souria"?
If we identify Syria as an "Arab" country, then that means automatically that the kurds and the armenians and the assyrians and the charkas are all gonna feel non-syrian. If we say on the passport "mouwaten Arabi Souri", then the non-arab is not gonna feel syrian, because syria is being define as Arab.
And for the idiots who are saying that the kurds should shove it if they don't like syria being an arab state, i'll answer him by saying this is exactly the kind of attitude which will break up our country. For example, if we follow the same logic that you guys are following, then we should say syria is a muslim country...and we should call syria "the islamic republic of syria", and put on the passport "mouwaten mislem souri", because muslims are the majority in this country. While i myself am a muslim, i refuse this logic, because i know there are minorities in this ocuntry, and if i am gonna identify syria as a muslim country, then the minorities will not feel that syria is their country. You can't distinguish between naming the country on ethnicity (arabism) from naming it on religion (islam). So if it were up to me, i would change that sentence in the national anthem mentioning arabism, and would say "the republic of Syria" instead of "Syrian Arab Republic". Ofocurse it would be very difficult for totalitarian idiots to understand that there are non-arabs living in this country, because they don't tolerate other people, just like they probably don't tolerate opinions which are contrary to theirs. This is one of the sicknesses of we syrians in my opinion, we are a very stalinist people, VERY intolerant, it runs in our families, in our schools, in our politics, in all aspects of syrian life.
And i wanna make one final point. All the stuff about syria having a great "national unity" is a great lie in my opinion. I personally think that Syria is the single most divided country in the middle east, divided along sectarian, ethnic, nationalist, and tribal lines. I think we are much more divided ethnically and religiously than even the lebanese who had a 15 year civil war, and we are a more tribal society than iraqis,saudis, jordanians, egyptians, khalijis, and all other countries. The reason why you guys don't notice it is that our country is held together with a iron fist "eed min hadeed"...so don't be fooled about our national unity, because the fact is that our lack of tolerance for one another is greater than perhaps any other country in the world...i really mean it and am not exagerrating in any way.
akhhhh.....it hurts so much that we syrians can't accept that the beauty of our country is that it is multhiethnic and multi-religious, and that this is a positive and not a negative, and that if our country had one colour (was made of only one religion or one ethnicity), it would be the most boring place, and certainly not one that i would appreciate.
Laa3ma you racist guys got me angry.
God bless Syria
(and not Arab Syria!!!!!)
hey guys
i got really pissed off at what you said. I am Syrian and my ethnicity is 100% arab, BUT i am strongly against your chauvinistic attitudes of Arabism. As far as i'm concerned, if there is a single non-arab Syrian, then it is wrong to call Syria an Arab country. I think we should consider to be a multiethnic, multi-religious country. I remember how I used to be sort of racist against the kurds....and when about 1 year ago i read an article by some kurdish guy in a newspaper where he asked to change the part of the national anthem which mentions arabism, i remember swearing at the kurds....also i remember when the kurdish uprising happened in qamishli region how i didn't stop talking about how they were traitors, especially when they started going to the syrian embassies around the world and stated taking off the syrian flag and putting instead of it the kurdish flag. But then slowly slowly, i started to realize that i was being racist, and i started trying to understand all the injustices done to the kurds in syria (even though its less than injustice done to kurds in iran and iraq and turkey). Think about it....for so many years we have been saying "syrian arab republic", "syria is the beating heart of arab nationalism", "arab syria", even the passport identifies the citizens as "Syrian arab citizen", the national anthem has this reference to syria being protector of arabs, well is it a surprise that after all these years of saying these slogans, that now kurds are starting to say "kurdistan souria"?
If we identify Syria as an "Arab" country, then that means automatically that the kurds and the armenians and the assyrians and the charkas are all gonna feel non-syrian. If we say on the passport "mouwaten Arabi Souri", then the non-arab is not gonna feel syrian, because syria is being define as Arab.
And for the idiots who are saying that the kurds should shove it if they don't like syria being an arab state, i'll answer him by saying this is exactly the kind of attitude which will break up our country. For example, if we follow the same logic that you guys are following, then we should say syria is a muslim country...and we should call syria "the islamic republic of syria", and put on the passport "mouwaten mislem souri", because muslims are the majority in this country. While i myself am a muslim, i refuse this logic, because i know there are minorities in this ocuntry, and if i am gonna identify syria as a muslim country, then the minorities will not feel that syria is their country. You can't distinguish between naming the country on ethnicity (arabism) from naming it on religion (islam). So if it were up to me, i would change that sentence in the national anthem mentioning arabism, and would say "the republic of Syria" instead of "Syrian Arab Republic". Ofocurse it would be very difficult for totalitarian idiots to understand that there are non-arabs living in this country, because they don't tolerate other people, just like they probably don't tolerate opinions which are contrary to theirs. This is one of the sicknesses of we syrians in my opinion, we are a very stalinist people, VERY intolerant, it runs in our families, in our schools, in our politics, in all aspects of syrian life.
And i wanna make one final point. All the stuff about syria having a great "national unity" is a great lie in my opinion. I personally think that Syria is the single most divided country in the middle east, divided along sectarian, ethnic, nationalist, and tribal lines. I think we are much more divided ethnically and religiously than even the lebanese who had a 15 year civil war, and we are a more tribal society than iraqis,saudis, jordanians, egyptians, khalijis, and all other countries. The reason why you guys don't notice it is that our country is held together with a iron fist "eed min hadeed"...so don't be fooled about our national unity, because the fact is that our lack of tolerance for one another is greater than perhaps any other country in the world...i really mean it and am not exagerrating in any way.
akhhhh.....it hurts so much that we syrians can't accept that the beauty of our country is that it is multhiethnic and multi-religious, and that this is a positive and not a negative, and that if our country had one colour (was made of only one religion or one ethnicity), it would be the most boring place, and certainly not one that i would appreciate.
Laa3ma you racist guys got me angry.
God bless Syria
(and not Arab Syria!!!!!)
Syrian in Canada
Admittedly the Kurds have been very badly treated in countries like Turkey and Iraq where thousands and thousands have been killed in the name of preserving cohesion and unity of these countries and crushing separatist tenedencies. This is also true of Iran but not to the same extent as Turkey and Iraq.
Unfortunately the Kurds have also been used by pawns by others and are foolish enough to be manipulated into doing this every time.
A good example is the disastrous Iran-Iraq war when Iraq supported Iranian Kurds in their aim of getting 'independence' (while crushing Iraqi Kurds) and Iran supported Iraqi Kurds in their aim of attaining 'independence' (while crushing Iranian Kurds). This is absurd but completely true, not only that but the Iranian and Iraqi Kurds were even fighting each other on behalf of their patrons.
This is one example but one can go on and on if you look into how the Kurds have been repeatedly manipulated by various powers including the US, UK, France, Israelis and the now defunct USSR to create instability and make sure that the Middle East 'remains on the boil'!
Most recently the US (and also covertly the Israelis) have again 'promised independence' to the Kurds in return for them being their 'eyes and ears' in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey i.e. carrying out espionage on behalf of these 'bastions of democracy' in Muslim countries. The Kurds have unfortunately been deluded again inimical forces who wish to practise the classical divide and rule policy.
Finally to compare the Kurdish situation in Syria to ones in Turkey, Iran and Iraq is completely nonsensical and ludicrious. Some prominent Syrian people have been of Kurdish origin and descent which is not really the case in Turkey, Iran and Iraq! There is a really good article about this on the following link for those who want the details:
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GD09Ak01.html
You may not agree with this insightful article totally but it's definitely worth reading! Note that I am NOT Arab, Kurdish or Syrian.
In my opinion, the only possible definition of an Arab in our time is the following: Any person who knows Arabic can consider himself/herself an Arab. So, if a Kurd understands this anthem, then this anthem definitely represents him. Case Closed!
(BTW I am Armenian and very proud Syrian ARAB).
Dear Anonymous @ 2:50,
I wonder why critics of Arabism always considered it as a form of racism. You can believe in Arabism and yet believe that Kurds should have the same rights as Arabs in a stable and democratic Syrian society.
Again, I say that Kurds have been victims of injustice and discrimination at the hands consequent Syrian governments. This is an urgent matter that requires urgent attention from the regime, if it's really willing to start serious reform. After the riots in Qamishli last year, I was angry that some Kurds lowered the Syrian flag to raise a Kurdish flag instead, and was angry about the violence, and about some people calling Al-Jazeera region as "Western Kurdistan". However, the riots reminded me of the plight of the Kurds, or the Kurdish cause, which I greatly sympathize with. I do believe that Kurds should be able to teach their language at schools and should have the right to have their own Kurdish-speaking radio and TV. The Kurdish language should become an official language in the north and northeast, where Kurds make a significant percentage of the population.
Kurds, at the same time, should not demand that Arabs should abandon the ideology of Arabism, as long as this ideology respects them and does not involve Arabization, i.e does not try to melt them into the Arab cultural pot.
Some defense of Arabism (the real version, not any of past or present "chauvinistic" versions): Arabism, in my opinion, simply means belonging to an Arab culture that unites you with people in other Arab countries. I hope I won't sound like repeating hollow rhetoric that we are all sick of, but I do believe that Arabism will always be alive because it's the link that bring us closer to our neighbors in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere in the Arab World. Less than 90 years ago, Beirut was considered much closer to Damascus than Homs, Hama or any other city in present-day Syria. Merchants of Damascus maybe had more trading links with Haifa than with Aleppo. What makes an Aleppan my fellow citizen and a Beiruti an alien from another country is a stupid line drawn by French and British generals. I share the same language, culture, traditions and history with the people of Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. All differences that are present nowadays where created by a reality of division and separation imposed upon us by foreign powers. And these differences are still short of being able to create distinct local cultural entities. I mean I don't think there exists a distinct "Syrian culture" with distinct cultural characteristics, but there exists an Arab culture which dominates and unites all Arab countries.
Thus, while loyalty to Syria as an independent entity should come in the first place, the idea of Arabism cannot be abandoned, even after regimes have distorted it, promoted it in a very bad way, and made it grow less and less popular.
Finally, I agree with you that the mosaic of ethnicities and religions is what makes Syria a unique place. We should promote tolerance and mutual respect and remove injustices to heal old wounds. After all, in an imaginary perfect Syrian society where everybody's rights are respected, I can see no reason why Kurds should be hypersensitive to a tiny reference to Arabism in the National Anthem :)
Peace.
well i agree with it being a good thing to feel a sense of solidarity with people in other arab countries like jordan palestine lebanon etc.....my only problem with that is that it is based on arabism for you, and on islam for other syrians....thus leaving out a significant portion of non-arab and non-muslim syrians from identifying with those other arab countries as much....to all those who who love arabism....why not try to find a new concept that can merge arab culture with kurdish and armenian culture? Like why not try to find a new identity which all arabs and kurds and armenians and assyrians can feel encompasses them? The Syrian identity does just that, and if you feel that the syrian identity would tear you away from other arab cities like lebanon iraq and jordan, well how about come up with a new identity like "easterners", so that this way u can include both jordanians and lebanese, but also include kurds and armenians...yaani ayman i sympathise with you seeing borders as no more than lines drawn by outsiders, but at the same time, don't u think that it is more important for us to feel just as close if not closer to our kurdish brothers in qamishli and our armenian sisters in azizieh area in Aleppo? Inno if we r gonna adapt arabism to feel close to other arab countries, well we are doing that at the expense of our common identity with other people living within our country. Thats why i argue that for those who want a identity broader than the syrian one, why not think of new ones than can include the different ethnicities of the middle east...and not just base it on one race...
As for simon who said he is armenian and doesn't care if the country is considered arab, well i think u have the wrong attitude....yaani me as a syrian arab muslim, i consider it an honor to have armenians in our country and hope to have one day an armenian president...and it would be terrible if armenians lost their culture as its very beautiful part of mozaic of our country.....and honestly i feel that armenians tend to be less defensive of their culture than kurds and more accepting of syria being considered Arab, i think the reason is that they feel they owe a debt for arabs and for syria for welcoming them from their escape from the turkish massacres...and i want to say that this is illegitimate, yaani the armenians don't owe us the arabs anything and they shouldn't feel that they are guests in our country and they shouldn't feel that they shouldn't interfere with its identity, because it is the country of the armenians every bit as much as that of the arabs....armenians are just as much syrian as any other syrian...u all must rmemeber that all of us syrians have come from one place or another...yaani muslim arabs (of which i'm one) probably came 700 years ago from the saudi or gulf areas, yaani we should consider syria as a country which has people which have come to settle in it to run away from atrocities everywhere, or have come to settle in it because they saw it as a beautiful land that they wanted to conquer....either way we r all equally belonging to this country and we should consider it multiethnic and multireligious!
There was no such level of ta3ifiyeh before assad regime .
For example , 3 syrian presidents were of kurdish origin ,3 or 4 prime ministers ,2 chief of staff and heroes like salahadine al ayyoubi,sulayman al halabi,brahim hanano ,youssef al azmeh ....the syrian kurds deserve our respect..
But it's true that because of persecution and foreigner influence ,some kurds developped a racist and chauvinistic attitude toward the arabs.
To Anonymus 5:07
As an Armenian I have never felt but equally belonging to this country and part of its fabric, and I am not saying this because I feel we owe the “arabs” any debt (although we will forever be thankful for them), but because we (Armenians), unlike the kurds, have considered this land HOME since the moment we arrived. We worked hard to assimilate ourselves in the Syrian society, while preserving our own culture (which is not by any means dying). We respected the laws and borders of this land, learned the language and history of its people, and lived like true Syrians. I believe that racism is a two way stream, and many minorities (like Kurds) become racists themselves while fighting racism, and forget that they also share part of the blame, and should work hard on themselves.
Simon makes a good point! Anybody who can read, write and speak Arabic can be considered an Arab regardless of their original ethnic origin/ancestry whether they are Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Circassian or whatever other ethnic group God has created. In fact this point is reflected in the authentic narration of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)that whoever speaks Arabic is an Arab!
Ayman also makes a relevant point that Arabism/Arab nationalism has unfortunately been HIJACKED by various personalities, parties and groups to fool the ordinary Arab people and maintain a strict and authoritarian control over them (i.e. ruling with an iron fist), thus denying them any democratic, civic or human rights! This is justified to the Arab people as necessary because of the 'steadfast struggle against zionism and other foreign imperialism'. Thus the picture of Arabism that emerges TODAY is a distorted and malignant one and this is the responsiblity of the various leaders and their corrupt parties who hijacked Arabism to pay lip service to the Arab and Palestinian cause!
Salaams, yaa Ayman! As usual I see that your blog is stimulating interesting debate! I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and all Syrians a happy yaum al-istiqlal! Keep up the good work!
If the Arabs condemn Zionism as racism and try to equate it with racism at the UN and other international bodies then they are being hypocritical!
Arabism must also be equated with racism by the same logic.
After all Saddam Hussein and the (right-wing faction of the) Baath party have ethnically cleansed and killed thousands and thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in the name of Arabism and Baathism.
Similarly there is a long running civil war where the Sudanese Arab regime was involved in perpetrating genocide and massacres of black Africans who were mainly non-Muslim or even Muslim. This is by an 'Arab' and 'Islamic' regime.
More recently the same Sudanese regime has been responsible for genocide and massacres by the Janjaweed 'militia' of black Africans who this time happen to be Muslim!
So much for the Arabs trying to paint Zionists as racists - they should look a hard and critical look at Arabism and all the evil things that have been done for the sake of Arabism before pointing fingers at others!
Lets be frank Arabism, Arab nationalism and Baathism are all completely failed and bankrupt ideologies that only offer the usual empty rhetoric and slogans! They have neither offered the Arab world any kind of unity or cohesion that they promised nor have they succeeded in 'defeating Zionism and freeing Palestine from Zionist occupation'.
Ironically there was more cohesion and unity of the Arab world under foreign Ottoman Turkish rule then there is now under the 22 or so Arab countries. They are all authoritarian and despotic countries that love repressing their populations with their secret polices and intelligence services! Shows you what depth the Arabs have sunk to!
i can't understand why you called me racist, i didn't say anything wrong!
and if "Anonymous" concider me a racist for saying that all arabs respect Kurdish people, then there must be something wrong with him.
"Anonymous", you are talking like you have never lived in Syria!
and like you don't really belong to our comunity, be cause if you were living in Syria (and in Damascus especially);you would know how Arabs and Kurds are tolerant toward each other.
and if you were sort of racist against Kurds, then it's your problem, and it's you parents fault to not teach you how to be tolerant toward other races..
but look at our city's demography, it has always been a shelter and a good host for all races during history:
Sherkas refugees, Armenian refugees, chechnian refugees, even Jewish refugees...
and i have an advice for you, you have to know more about history:
(Mr. ex-racist against kurds)(and now Mr.Racist against his nation):
Saladdin was a kurd, he brings thousands of his army soldiers to Damascus, and many Damascene families are proud of their Kurdish roots.
and during all the 900 after that, we had Kurdish ministers and leaders and Mufties. and yearly thier are hundreds of marriage between Arabs and Kurds...
so tell me where is the Kurdish problem between us.
now about these days: i am like most of Syrian yought; we respect Kurdish demands, and we understand their problems, but are against vilence..
Kurds problem in Syria is totally diffrent of it in Tyrkye and Iraq, and i don't understant whay some people insist to exagerate.
Not only the syrian kurds are persecuted but the majority of the syrians are constantly humiliated by the tyrannic regime.
First of all thanks very much Aymand for this blog and hosting this debate,
Now to the hot topic of arabism/ethnicity in syria.
It seems that most participants in this debate think that arabism is a ideology/a political movement. Well this political arabism only appeared 100 years ago. For centuries and millia before that arabism was a culture, a tradition, a language.
Well before Islam, Arab tribes migrated from the Arabian Peninsula to Bilad Alsham, Bilad Alrafedaen, Eygpt and the Maghreb. (for David and other non-arab speakers: these areas are the "Middle East" and Northern Africa). Each tribe settled in a different place, and developed their own unique traditions/identity (eg the Kurds). Some tribes grew and went on to form empires : the Assyrians, Bablyons, Phenocians,...., then the people of the region came under Persian, Greek and Roman rule. Then various Islamic/Arabic empires and states ruled the Arab world. The reason for the Islamic/Arab naming is because Arabic was the only language that united all these people living across this vast area. Islam was the religion of most of the people. No group was forced to abandom their language and unique set of traditions. Thus the Kurds, Assyrians, Armeians, were very happy to be part of this Arab/Islamic state. They continued to live in their traditional homeland and enjoyed their culture/language. Personally I don't know of any indicent in the Pre-Ottoman era where the Kurds, Armenians, ... tried to do a coup de feat and gain independence from the Arab/Islamic state.
Sorry for talking too much history but I feel that most participants in this debate choice to focus of the 20th century political Arabism slogans and almost ignored the cultural arabism is far more important and rooted in our history and will last longer than any political ideology or border lines drawn by foreigners.
I usually don't like to write history online unless its well referenced. My main source was the Atlas of the Arab Islamic History by Dr. Abo Khalil and years of reading historical books. Please reply to my comment and correct me if u find any facts wrong.
Comparing Zionism to Arabism is stupid. All Arabism talks about is a common language and culture, yes, that means there are Arab Jews, Arab Christians, and Arab Muslims as well. There can also be Arab Kurds and Arab Armenians. We are not asking the Kurds or Armenians to give up their religion or culture! There are huge differences between culture of the Arabs of Syria; there are southern Syrians (hauranis) that have a very different culture than let's say Aleppans for example. All that unites them is a common language, and even their accents are different. 90% of Syrians consider themselves Arab, the 10% who don't either want independence (Kurdistan) or don't want their identities to be dissolved. But in reality, their identities won't be dissolved.
Fellow syrians, you can say whatever you want on this issue, but please, be objective and don't let your emotions drive your thoughts. I am a proud syrian, but that doesn't give me the right to ignore the existence of mistakes in our society and history.
We cannot forget the way Kurds were and still are treated, we cannot forget the way Palestinians are and still are treated (those who have been living in Syria for more than two generations now), and we cannot forget the way Syrian Jews were treated, before they leave the country. Whether it be from the government or from syrians themselves.
Syrians, no matter how friendly, generous and united they are, remain, for a big majority under-educated and we cannot blame them for that. For example, they look at Sudanese people, who are arabs and belong to the long dreamed about Arab Nation, that was only a utopic dream, as inferiors (because of their colour) and I am urging you to go ask your grand-parents or even for some of you, your parents about a black person, they would call him "3abd", and "3abd" is the arabic word for slave.
Needless to remind you, that the official name of Syria was "The Republic of Syria", and it is only about a couple of decades ago that it became "The Syrian Arab Republic".
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not, "Arabism" is ONLY a matter of common language. Yes, the arabs were the smartest because they "Arabicized" this area. Had the Tadmuriyins, Mongols, Ottomans, Assyrians, Greeks or others imposed their language on us, things would have turned out in a completely different way.
God Bless Syria.
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