ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A sharp increase in fuel prices has triggered protests across Syria, including Kurdish-majority areas in Qamishli in northeastern Syria (Rojava), with residents saying the rising cost of basic goods places further strain and makes it increasingly difficult to make a living.
Price hikes have led residents in Kurdish-majority Qamishli to protest and block roads for the second day in a row on Monday.
Samir Dawud, a minibus owner, griped that his vehicle now requires $4.10 a week for gasoline, whereas he only makes $16 a month.
“Because of the rise in the price of gasoline, diesel, water, electricity, bread, basically everything has become expensive, we can no longer manage,” Samir Dawod told Rudaw’s Vivian Fatah on Monday.
Protests ensued following the Syrian government’s decision on Sunday to raise the price of gasoline by around 26 to 28 percent, with 95-octane gasoline increasing from 152 ($1.24) to 195 Syrian pounds ($1.59) per liter and 90-octane gasoline from 147 ($1.20) to 185 pounds ($1.51), according to state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). Diesel prices jumped 40 percent, from 125 ($1.02) to 175 Syrian pounds ($1.43) per liter, while household cooking gas prices rose by nearly nine percent.
Protestors said the demonstrations have spread to around 80 towns.
Those in Kurdish-majority areas say economic grievances have become intertwined with long-standing demands over Kurdish rights and education.
“They told us the Kurdish people should be patient, and we were patient with the Syrian government,” protester Ibrahim Younis said. “But diesel, gasoline, bread and gas became expensive for us.”
Younis said protesters had also been told that Kurdish rights would be addressed, while the use of Kurdish in schools has recently been reduced to three class periods a week under a Syrian Education Ministry decree.
“One day we lose a martyr, one day one of us is kidnapped, one day one of us is treacherously killed,” he said. “We no longer know which cause to focus our protest on - the fuel, our language, or our rights.”
The protests have also affected roads and fuel distribution. Egid Kavra, another protestor, said demonstrators would continue blocking the road until demands were met.
“We will not open the road until the materials are delivered,” Kavra said.
The price increase has sharply reduced demand at gas stations, said Fahed Darwish, a gas station worker, whose station previously serviced up to 200 vehicles a day.
“Today only two cars have come,” Darwish said. “Those who do fill up take very little just to get themselves home: 10 liters, 5 liters, or some even just 3 liters.”
The price increase comes despite continued shipments of petroleum from the Rmeilan oil fields to refineries in Homs and Baniyas following an agreement between Kurdish authorities and Damascus.
Prior to the agreement, diesel in the region cost about 55 Syrian pounds ($0.45) per liter at its lowest, according to the figures cited by protesters. The current cost of 175 pounds ($1.43) puts further pressure on residents already struggling with rising prices.
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